8 minute read
Blight To Beautiful: Brownfield Projects Bring New Life
Jonna Mayberry
Jonna Mayberry is a public information officer in the DNR’s Office of Communications.
Most of us have seen home makeover shows where entire projects seem to unfold in one dramatic episode. While not as quick, brownfield redevelopment can be an equally satisfying transformation.
A brownfield is a property whose reuse or redevelopment may be complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination. Brownfields can include defunct gas stations, old factories with broken windows and chipped paint, and areas such as former manufacturing, milling, salvage and lumber properties — with knee-high vegetation creeping through cracks in concrete.
Sometimes, abandoned properties are just unsightly and pose no danger. On occasion, however, old chemicals are left behind in drums, or the soil or groundwater is contaminated. When this occurs, the property itself can be a danger to public and environmental health and even threaten nearby properties.
If you have seen a once-abandoned structure razed and subsequently cleaned up, you’ve witnessed brownfield remediation. The next phase might include redevelopment, which can be a park, a new building or another final use for the former blighted property.
The 'RR' Process
The process of remediation and redevelopment of brownfields depends on the property.
“The initiative is often taken by the city, village or county,” said Jodie Thistle, DNR brownfields outreach and policy section manager. “Sometimes, there’s not a property owner or the property owner isn’t active in doing any of the cleanup on the property.”
That’s when the DNR might get involved. When an interested party is ready to move forward, a good first step is contacting the DNR’s brownfields team, which will likely recommend a Green Team meeting.
These meetings are encouraged because the interested party will learn about their liability, better understand the overall remediation and redevelopment process and walk away with a roadmap to the next steps.
“Green Team meetings bring essential parties in the cleanup and redevelopment process together to discuss issues, answer key questions and give everyone a better understanding of the project,” Thistle said.
“They can also discuss options for controlling their liability if they were to acquire the property, what funding sources are available and the general steps of cleanup.”
Getting Started
When communities have a brownfield problem, the DNR can help solve it.
“Environmental cleanup work can be intimidating,” Thistle said. “When people hear that a site is contaminated, there can be an immediate fear of it, because of the potential for unknown costs and liability.
“But we’re able to bring together the right team and resources and carve out a path where they can be successful. That’s my favorite part.”
Communities can get the help they need to get started — and get results — Thistle added.
“We can help with problems they perceive as unsolvable,” Thistle said, “because we have the resources, staff and technical expertise to help them reach an end point they might not have been able to realize on their own.”
The first step is easy, Thistle said.
“Just pick up the phone and call us. If you have something in your community and you are not quite sure how to deal with it, we are here to help.”
Brownfield Success Story: Brillion Iron Works
One of the largest brownfields in the city of Brillion, the former Brillion Iron Works property is being transformed through strong local vision and partnerships, aided by state and federal brownfield program funding and technical assistance. The ongoing redevelopment and reuse of the 145-acre property benefits the local economy, community and surrounding environment.
The property was used as a foundry and blacksmith shop and to manufacture farm implements. Once a major employer in the city, Brillion Iron Works became a large brownfield when the manufacturer closed its doors in 2016.
For over a century, BIW had provided jobs and fueled the local economy. Still, it also led to contamination from heavy metals and volatile organic compounds, along with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and polychlorinated biphenyls (known as PAHs and PCBs).
After acquiring the property in 2018, city officials began looking for ways to reuse it. Knowing it was likely contaminated, they sought grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to assist with cleanup efforts. The city partnered with the Brillion-based Ariens family, a former operator on the property, to transition the land to city ownership.
“AriensCo and the Ariens family have worked and lived in Brillion for over a century, and they identified the redevelopment of the BIW property as something
needed for the future of Brillion,” explained Kevin McKnight, a project leader and part of the DNR’s Remediation and Redevelopment team.
Destination Transformation
Through Brillion Works LLC, the Ariens family worked with the city of Brillion, Calumet County, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., the EPA and the DNR to facilitate the purchase of the property, McKnight added.
“Brillion Works LLC manages the site’s redevelopment under a lease agreement with the city,” he said. “Since then, this collaboration has allowed the project to receive multiple state and federal grants.”
Completed portions of the project include a childcare facility and a health clinic, while a third project to build workforce housing is pending, McKnight noted.
“The former BIW offices were renovated into office space for Ariens Corp. and Ariens Hospitality Group,” he added. “Brillion Works LLC is looking for partners to propose additional residential, commercial or industrial projects.”
Cleanup and redevelopment are ongoing processes, but much has been done already on the Brillion Iron Works site.
“AriensCo has been expanding wildlife habitat, investing in an Olympic biathlon training facility and sees the future of Brillion as a destination, not a dot on the map,” McKnight said.
Brownfield Success Story: Pickle Pond
Brownfield redevelopment is a unique process tailored to the property’s location and the community’s specific needs. While the end product of some projects may result in new commercial or residential buildings, in Superior, a different approach to brownfield redevelopment led to improvements in surface water quality, fish and wildlife habitat and the restoration of recreational opportunities.
Pickle Pond is situated next to Barker’s Island, a popular lakeshore area that serves as a focal point for both the local community and tourism. It’s also near the Richard I. Bong WWII Veterans Historical Center, another notable success story in brownfield redevelopment.
A 9-acre urban waterbody, Pickle Pond was created when a railroad embankment was built along the St. Louis River waterfront in the late 19th century, but over time it experienced pollution and neglect. Raw sewage, stormwater runoff, polluted sediments, invasive species and limited water connections to the St. Louis River degraded the habitat.
In 2013, stakeholders in the federally designated St. Louis River Area of Concern identified this project as a priority for achieving the cleanup and restoration goals of the St. Louis River under the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
The DNR’s Office of Great Waters applied for, received and managed federal funds from the Environmental Protection Agency for a partnership approach to determine and implement actions to address the impairments contributing to poor-quality habitat.
Habitat Improvements
Due to the contamination at the site, the DNR’s Remediation and Redevelopment team stepped up to assist. They reached agreements with the city of Superior and other landowners for the work and managed the construction efforts.
Restoration focused on cleaning up contaminated sediment and improving fish and wildlife habitat, especially musky and northern pike spawning habitat.
Larger openings created in the pond embankment to improve water quality for fish habitat also provided ancillary benefits. The new openings restored access to public waters, which had been cut off for over 135 years, offering recreational benefits to the community.
The project restored 19 acres of fish and wildlife habitat, including removing and disposing of 16,771 cubic yards of sediment contaminated with mercury, lead and organic pollutants. To protect this investment, the city of Superior completed a correlated project to reduce the amount of sand and floatable trash entering the waterway from stormwater.
Partners Make It Possible
Thanks to strong partnerships between the DNR and others, the Pickle Pond wetland has become an essential and unique sheltered shallow water habitat along an otherwise highly developed shoreline.
“The success of Pickle Pond is really a story of outcomes made possible under the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative through collaboration between many partners,” said Joe Graham, a project manager and member of the DNR’s Remediation and Redevelopment team.
That includes the city of Superior, the DNR’s Office of Great Waters, engineering consultant EA Engineering, construction contractor White Lake Dock & Dredge, the Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve, the EPA and others.
“The project transformed a once polluted and inaccessible body of water into a cleaner, safer and more welcoming area,” said Ida Sampson from the city of Superior’s Environmental Services Division. “Cleaning up the pollution and reconnecting the pond to the river supports long-term community health and civic pride.
“The partnership at Pickle Pond exemplifies how environmental remediation and restoration can directly improve the quality of life for local communities.”
Learn More
Every brownfield remediation and redevelopment project is different, and the breadth of projects is extensive. The DNR’s interactive map of Wisconsin Brownfield Success Stories shows the locations of many successful brownfield redevelopment sites across the state.
You can click on a location for more information on each site, often including before-and-after images. View the map.
