The Project
The Baltimore County East Side Revitalization Community-Wide Assessment Grant (the project) is intended to spur remediation, reuse, and redevelopment in Baltimore County’s East Side communities, including Sparrows Point, Bowleys Quarters, Lower Back River Neck Peninsula, North Point/Edgemere, Essex, Middle River, Perry Hall/White Marsh, and Dundalk. Many of these communities have experienced disinvestment, population decline, and increased concentration of poverty due to the end of the steel manufacturing era in 2012 and restructuring of the economic base of the community and region.
This project will support the possibility of remediation, reuse, and redevelopment by identifying environmental impacts that may have occurred at particular brownfield sites in these communities.
The project will inform targeted property owners of potential brownfield pollution that may exist on theeir property and will begin to outline approaches that property owners can take to contain or remediate this pollution through a $300,000 EPA community-wide assessment grant for Phase I and Phase II Environmental Site Assessments (ESAs), Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) Voluntary Cleanup Program (VCP) participation, and MDE Technical Review Services (TRS). The results of the Phase I and Phase II ESAs, as well as participation in the VCP and TRS, will equip property owners with an understanding of the environmental status of their brownfield properties and recommend next steps to prepare their sites for cleanup and/or reuse/redevelopment.
What is the purpose and value of these free grant services?
A Phase I ESA identifies Recognized Environmental Conditions (RECs) at the site based on reviews of historical documents, environmental databases, public records from state and local governments, insurance maps, aerial photographs, and topographic maps. This also includes a site inspection and recommendations for next steps, which can include environmental sampling.
A Phase II ESA includes environmental sampling of potentially impacted media, (soil, groundwater, and surface water), and provides the results of the laboratory analyses of the environmental samples with recommendations for next steps to address any detected contamination.
Completion of Phase I and Phase II ESAs, respectively, help property owners understand if potential environmental impacts exist on their sites and provide guidance to mitigate any contamination. Therefore, Phase I and Phase II ESAs can facilitate cleanup (if needed) and reuse; however, cleanup and reuse are not within the scope of this project. Those next steps will be determined by the property owners in consultation with the environmental consultant, legal guidance, and business risk factors.
Participation in the Maryland Department of the Environment’s (MDE) Voluntary Cleanup Program (VCP) and Technical Review Service (TRS) programs help property owners to reach the finish line for readying their properties for redevelopment by providing state authorization of environmental site conclusions and remedies.
The VCP was enacted in February 1997 as emergency legislation for the express purpose of encouraging the investigation, cleanup, and redevelopment of eligible properties with known or perceived controlled hazardous substance contamination. Effective October 1, 2004, eligible properties also contaminated by oil or petroleum are eligible to participate in the program. By participating in the VCP, property owners can help MDE to protect public health and the environment, accelerate cleanup of properties, and provide liability releases and finality to site cleanup.
MDE’s TRS accepts requests to review and comment on site-related environmental documents for an interested party, including property owners, developers, and prospective purchasers. The site-related documents can cover a variety of activities, including Phase I and Phase II ESAs. At completion, the LRP’s review process provides the interested party with a written summary of possible project outcomes, ranging from the issuance of a No Further Action determination (if appropriate) to the execution of one or more land use controls. It can also include a request for additional investigation and/or information or the development and implementation of a remedial action.
Several objectives are integral toward achieving the overall project purpose:
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Community engagement with the assessment process in the East Side to identify additional brownfield sites not necessarily known to MDE and to answer questions and provide an overview of the brownfield redevelopment process;
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Improvement of health, satisfaction, and economic vitality for East Side residents. While not guaranteed through
the project activities, completion of Phase I and Phase II ESAs, as described above, could help move sites toward environmental cleanup and redevelopment, which would achieve this objective;
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Increased historical knowledge and environmental sampling data for identified priority brownfield sites to help property owners understand impacts to the environment and determine next steps to consider remediation and environmental restoration.
Project implementation basics and anticipated timeline
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The RFP was posted on the e-Maryland Marketplace Advantage (eMMA) on December 20, 2022. Responses to the RFP were received in mid-February 2023.
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Qualified environmental consultants to conduct the Phase I and Phase II ESAs will be selected by spring 2023.
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Advisory Committees to help inform the property owner outreach and community engagement components of
the project were formed during January 2023 and began meeting and communicating in February 2023.
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The property owner outreach process, as informed by the Advisory Committee, will confirm which brownfield sites will participate in the Phase I ESAs. The anticipated start date for the Phase I ESAs is spring/summer 2023.
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The community engagement process, as informed by the Advisory Committee, will provide information about
the project to interested community members and will provide opportunities for community members to provide potential brownfield site details to the Maryland Department of Planning. The anticipated start date for community engagement is summer 2023.
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Identifying which sites will participate in the Phase II ESAs depends on the results of the Phase I ESAs. The anticipated start date for this phase of
the project is summer/fall 2023.
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Participation in the VCP and TRS is anticipated to occur soon after the start of the Phase I and Phase II ESAs, beginning approximately summer 2023.
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Project completion is anticipated by September 2024; however, there may be an opportunity to extend
the project beyond that date if funds remain. Project outcomes will be publicized via
the project webpage and community outreach through the duration of
the project.
EPA Link
The project is funded by a grant from the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Brownfields Program. To learn more about the program and its community-wide assessment grants, visit
epa.gov/brownfields/about.
Baltimore County’s planning vision/goals for the area and how they align with
the project
To facilitate redevelopment within the East Side, Baltimore County has completed two redevelopment studies and a community design workshop to support implementation of a Master Plan 2020 strategy for redevelopment of the plan-designated Pulaski Highway Redevelopment Area (see Master Plan 2020 pages 75-76), and has established four
Commercial Revitalization Districts (Dundalk, Essex, Merritt-Sollers, and North Point; see Master Plan 2020 pages 137-138), where property owners and business associations are eligible for grants, loans, and county-funded architectural services. Master Plan 2020’s Proposed Land Use map (see Master Plan 2020 pages 28 and 180) identifies the majority of the East Side as General Urban and Urban Center—ideal land uses for redevelopment. General Urban “is characterized by mixed-use” and Urban Center “includes higher density mixed-use buildings that accommodate retail, offices, townhouses, and apartments” (Baltimore County’s Master Plan 2020, page 29).
The county is interested in exploring the potential for solar on landfills (one type of brownfield). Current drivers in Maryland and Baltimore County for renewable energy projects include the Clean Energy Jobs Act of 2019 and Master Plan 2020. Master Plan 2020 asserts the county’s commitment to environmental sustainability, a priority for the county since at least 1967, when it established an urban growth boundary to preserve rural resources and focus development in urban/developed areas. Energy conservation, energy savings, energy efficiency, environmental protection, and environmental sustainability are discussed throughout Master Plan 2020. In addition, the county offers several programs to residents/developers to promote and support renewable energy projects, including the 2016 enactment of a Renewable Energy Policy wherein the county enrolled as a Maryland Smart Energy Community and committed to “decrease its dependence on fossil fuels…incorporate renewable energy technology…[and increase] its own renewable energy production.”
These county goals align with
the project since a brownfield that has been assessed is primed for redevelopment and the environmental assessment can help determine what next steps need to happen to prepare the property for specific types of reuse (residential, commercial, recreational). In addition, brownfields are a priority for renewable energy project siting in Maryland. Phase I and Phase II ESAs can help move vacant and/or underutilized properties toward a beneficial reuse, such as community solar.
