By Monica Windholtz
City of Cincinnati
Mayor Aftab Pureval, Councilmember Meeka D. Owens, the City Administration, The Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority (The Port) and community leaders announced plans for brownfield remediation in the Beekman Corridor and Spring Grove Corridor. The City’s Office of Environment & Sustainability received $500,000 from the U.S. EPA Brownfield Assessment Grant Program, and the Port received $800,000 from the U.S. EPA Brownfield Multi-Purpose Grant Program.
In addition to conducting nearly 40 environmental site assessments and selected site cleanups, the City and The Port will focus efforts on community outreach and creating community involvement plans, a brownfield inventory, cleanup and reuse planning, and other programmatic requirements. The objective is to align community priorities with the City and The Port’s planning to identify, assess and plan for the beneficial reuse of several industrial sites in the project area.
“This is important work for the sake of environmental justice – for cleaning up and bringing life to areas that have been concentrated for too long with industrial pollution,” said Mayor Aftab Pureval. “But equally important are the profound economic benefits for the Mill Creek Corridor communities. This is the first step towards new community investment, new jobs and housing, and more cohesive, vibrant and healthy neighborhoods.”
The recent adoption of the 2023 Green Cincinnati Plan calls for targeted cleanup of legacy brownfield sites, a prominent theme from community engagement during plan development. This award demonstrates the City’s commitment to respond directly to community concerns and early progress toward climate equity goals.
“The 2023 Green Cincinnati Plan calls for cleanup of legacy industrial sites in priority communities, which are those most in need of seeing these improvements and brownfield remediation,” said Councilmember Meeka D. Owens, chair of Council’s Climate, Environment and Infrastructure Committee.
“This Council and Mayor Aftab are keeping our promises to the residents of Cincinnati that everyone will be able to live in a community that has a healthy environment and good quality of life.”
The Port will also be cleaning up the former Reliable Castings site at 3530 Spring Grove Road. “This area will benefit from the tools The Port has to offer to repurpose land to its highest and best use,” said Todd Castellini, Senior Vice President of Public Finance and Industrial Revitalization at The Port.
“Plenty of underutilized property needs to be remediated and/or demolished in the Beekman Corridor for redevelopment to occur. This work is consistent with our industrial strategy to get sites pad-ready for future development,” he added.
Brownfield revitalization brings significant beneficial outcomes to communities, including investment and economic impact, job creation and training, energy efficient and climate resilient infrastructure, and greenspace and healthier populations.
“Environmental racism, pollution and blight in the form of brownfields are everywhere in my neighborhood. But there is a future where local green workforce employees, like me, have the tools to transform these areas into community assets. Working with Groundwork Ohio River Valley and the City has given me the tools and certifications I need to be part of the solution in my community,” said Anthony Smith, a resident of Millvale, one of the neighborhoods that will be directly impacted by the projects.
“We are in the golden age of brownfield revitalization,” said Howard Miller from the Cincinnati Office of Environment and Sustainability. “The brownfield assessment grant positions us to make equitable and transformable change to benefit our communities that have been historically burdened by legacy industrial sites. This work reflects our commitment to accomplish the sustainability goals adopted in the Green Cincinnati Plan.
“In addition to these two EPA grants, another $16 million has been secured in state cleanup grants – and just last year, our City invested $7 million with the Port to revitalize industrial sites just like these. The commitment is there, the investment is there, and we’re ready to get to work.”
The work kicked off recently with the mechanical demolition of the Beekman Silos and will continue across the next four years.