Five-Mile Creek Greenways Project is Turning Idle

Brownfields into Recreational Resources

brownfieldsat-a-glance

SLOSS PROPERTY

Black Warrior - Cahaba Rivers Land Trust, AL

Assessment Grant

EPA-560-F-06-239

August 2006

 For additional data and

geographic information for this and other

Brownfields Grants, please visit EPA’s:

Envirofacts - www.epa.gov/enviro/html/

bms/bms_query.html

Enviromapper - www.epa.gov/enviro/bf

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Visit the EPA Brownfields Web site at http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/ or call EPA Region 4 at (404) 562-9900

ADDRESS: 3531 Railroad Street, Fultondale, AL 35068

PROPERTY SIZE: 300 acres

FORMER USES: Coal mining, coking, and strip mining operations

CURRENT USES: Dormant, wooded area

EPA GRANT RECIPIENT: PROJECT PARTNERS:

The Black Warrior-Cahaba

Rivers Land Trust received a

$200,000 EPA Brownfields

Assessment Grant.

Alabama Cities of Birmingham, Brookside, Center Point,

Coalburg, Graysville, and Fultondale; Jefferson County, AL;

Greater Birmingham Regional Planning Commission; local

nonprofits; and private organizations.

PROJECT BACKGROUND:

As far back as the late 1800s, Jefferson County, Alabama became a hub of coal mining, coking (processing coal to form a

condensed, nearly smoke-free fuel), and other industry to support the City of Birmingham’s burgeoning steel industry.

However, in the decades after World War II, technological advances and a general decline in U.S. steel production led to

decreased demand for these industries, and many of Jefferson County’s coal-producing and other industrial properties were

abandoned. Recognizing that these idle properties—many of which were located along scenic Five-Mile Creek—could

provide significant recreational value if restored, a partnership emerged in 2002 to transform this former industrial region

into a 27-mile greenway with parks and paths. The partnership is led by the Black Warrior – Cahaba Rivers Land Trust, an

Alabama conservation organization focused on land along rivers and streams. At the time of this writing, assessments funded

by EPA grants have been conducted on nine properties within the project area. These include the Sloss property, a 300-acre

property used heavily for coal mining and coking, and later, for strip mining. Though the site was reforested in the 1980s,

approximately 20 of its original, turn-of-the-century coke ovens remain on the property in good condition.

KEY GREENWAY PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

• Assessments discovered lead and other heavy metals contaminating the soil.

• Leveraged more than $54,000 in additional assessment funds from local,

private, and other federal entities.

• Spent $3 million for land acquisition totaling more than 350 acres, and $4.2

million for recreational park development, water quality studies, and

remediation of the Creek.

• Conducted community “stream cleanup” events, drawing hundreds of people,

and involved local schools in water monitoring and other scientific activities

related to the Creek Greenways Project.

OUTCOME:

Cleanup is ongoing at the 300-acre Sloss property, which will eventually be part of the Five-Mile Creek Greenway Project’s

27-mile network of parks, open space, and trails. The partnership plans to preserve the property’s remaining coke ovens as

reminders of the area’s industrial history. While it could take as long as 20 years for the entire Greenway Project’s

completion, many of the Project’s targeted, former industrial areas have already been cleaned up and made available to

appreciative local communities as natural and recreational land.

A long-dormant coke oven on the

Sloss property.