All News Releases By Date

EPA Awards $200,000 To Johnstown, New York For National Brownfields Pilot Project, Targets Karg Bros. Tannery Restoration

Release Date: 03/09/1999
Contact Information: Rich Cahill (212) 637-3666 / cahill.richard@epa.gov

(#99035B) NEW YORK, N.Y. -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today awarded $200,000 to the city of Johnstown, New York to begin a Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot. The city will use the money to assess widespread industrial contamination at the former Karg Brothers Tannery property and study cleanup options. The city lost 25% of its jobs when the business closed down operations in 1993. It was the largest of the 110 tanneries that proliferated in Johnstown in the 1960s, a century after the city first became known as the leather capital of the world. Planners view the Karg Brothers property as the cornerstone of the future revitalization of the city.

This grant is part of a national Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative administrated by EPA, to renew industrial and commercial properties where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination.

"EPA extends it congratulations to the city for its success against stiff competition from other municipalities across the country that applied for this award," said Jeanne M. Fox, EPA Region 2 Administrator. "It is one of 23 communities selected from a group of 36 that applied in this round of awards Johnstown submitted a strong proposal distinguished by a well-organized approach for dealing with the significant issues associated with the Karg Brothers site," added Ms. Fox.

For more than a century, a large number of tanneries in Johnstown discharged their wastewater into the Cayadutta Creek, once considered one of the most polluted streams in New York State.

Tannery operations included processes that required the use of solvents, acids, lime, chromium compounds, and dyes and pigments that contaminated soil, sediments, groundwater and surface water on and nearby the facilities. Most of these manufacturing sites are now abandoned.

In 1998, the city acquired the 10-acre Karg Brothers Tannery property due to tax foreclosure.

Johnstown has committed funds for redevelopment of the site. Several parties have expressed interest in reusing the property and have offered plans for redevelopment of 6.5 acres of the site. These plans include removing the deteriorated buildings, which will pave the way for eliminating any safety and environmental threats that exist on the property, and ultimately revitalizing a portion of this neighborhood.

The city will use a community-focused approach to assess actual environmental conditions at the site and evaluate appropriate cleanup options so that redevelopment of this Brownfields can proceed.

Since 1995, EPA has granted 227 pilots, allowing communities to begin the process of redeveloping brownfields. This year alone, EPA will expand the program nationally by 80 new Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilots. Several hundred municipalities applied for brownfields grants in 1996, 1997 and 1998. There are 12 cities or counties in New York that have been awarded brownfields grants. Johnstown is the most recent addition to the list. In past years, Niagara Falls, Buffalo, New York City, Rome, Rochester, Elmira, Glen Cove, Niagara County, Ulster County, Utica, Ogdensburg and Yonkers have also received brownfields grants.

For more information contact:
Richard Cahill, Press Office
EPA Region 2
290 Broadway
NY, NY 10007-1866
Voice: 212-637-3666 FAX: 212-637-5046 E-Mail: cahill.richard@epamail.epa.gov