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The City of Anderson Petroleum Brownfields Assessment Project

City of Anderson, Anderson County, South Carolina

What Are Brownfields?

Brownfields are sites where expansion, redevelopment, or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. Brownfields can be as large as a closed textile mill or as small as the vacant service station on the corner. The stigma of a brownfields site can extend beyond its boundaries and impact the stability of adjacent properties or even entire neighborhoods. Brownfields threaten public health and drinking water supplies, attract graffiti, weeds, or even neighborhood crime, thwart economic renewal, and create eyesores.

Petroleum brownfields are sites where the primary contaminant of concern is petroleum. The majority of petroleum brownfields are former gas stations. The United States Environmental Protection Agency has recognized that petroleum brownfields face unique redevelopment challenges. There are many of them, the sites are normally small, and liability concerns about environmental conditions and the unknown status of underground storage tanks can present significant barriers to redevelopment.

Cleaning up and reinvesting in brownfields increases local tax bases, facilitates job growth, utilizes existing infrastructure, takes development pressures off of undeveloped, open land, and both improves and protects the environment.

Petroleum Brownfields in Anderson

In April 2008, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded the S. C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) a $200,000 Petroleum Brownfields Assessment Grant for the City of Anderson. The funds will be used to inventory and assess former petroleum storage sites in the city. The project will emphasize the former mill villages.

DHEC's Bureau of Land and Waste Management is administering the project and the grant. The City of Anderson is a partner. The project’s goal is to identify, assess, and address potential petroleum contamination so that it does not interfere with redevelopment of the properties in question. The grant period is 36 months.

• EPA Brownfields 2008 Grant Fact Sheet
• The City of Anderson Petroleum Brownfields Assessment Project Information Sheet

DHEC has developed this Web site to provide the public with quick access to project information. This site will continue to grow as more information is gathered for this project.

Latest Updates

Check here for information about upcoming meetings, public notices, draft documents, reports, and assessment activities.

• A DHEC representative updated the Anderson City Council on the project at the December 8, 2008 meeting at City Hall.
• The Public Involvement Plan was finalized January 5, 2009

Information and Documents File

This site will serve as a central information repository for the project in an effort to better inform the public of potential issues and concerns. It will be updated regularly and will include correspondence, reports and other documents. The same information can also be found at the reference desk of the Anderson County Public Library at 300 North McDuffie Street in Anderson.

• Index of Documents
  

Project Contact

The DHEC project manager is Mark Berenbrok. You may contact him at 803-896-6848 or via e-mail at berenbmk@dhec.sc.gov.