Improving Public 

Health in Brownfields 

Communities 

Public Health Brownfields and public health are linked in many respects. 

Communities may be concerned about public health including threats 

from potential environmental contamination, crime in or near abandoned 

or vacant property, and safety hazards on dilapidated properties—all 

issues that relate to brownfield sites. But in some cases, public health can 

be improved not only through assessment and cleanup of a brownfield, 

but through its redevelopment. Redevelopment including recreational or 

green space creation to encourage physical activity; community gardens 

and public spaces that encourage interaction, reduce the effects of heat 

islands, and improve storm water management; and accessible and 

affordable pharmacies and grocery stores—all ways to improve public 

health. Public health also can be enhanced when brownfields are reused 

by the health care sector. In communities where this type of brownfields 

redevelopment has occurred, the benefits are obvious: in addition to the 

restoration of blighted, idle land and the removal of contamination, 

residents now have improved access to health care, new jobs, and local 

economic engines that leverage additional improvements and enhance 

quality of life. 

The Brownfields Law also provides local government brownfield 

communities with an opportunity to link brownfields and public health – 

through the provision that allows a local government to spend up to 10% 

of their grant to conduct monitoring the health of populations near 

brownfields sites that may be exposed to hazardous substances. This 

provision provides new opportunities for partnerships with local, state, 

tribal and federal health agencies and community and private sector 

efforts to assess, clean and revitalize brownfields, while also advancing 

efforts to improve public health at the community level. 

Health Monitoring 

In their application for an EPA Brownfields Assessment grant, the City 

of Portland, Maine proposed using 10 percent of the grant for health 

monitoring activities. After the grant was awarded in 2005, the city’s 

continued • 

The completed Portland-Providence Health

Services Facility in Portland, Oregon.

JUST THE FACTS: • In their application, the City of 

Portland, Maine proposed using 10 

percent of their EPA Brownfields 

Assessment grant for health 

monitoring activities. The grant 

was awarded in 2005. 

• The designated portion of Portland’s 

EPA grant funded lead screenings for 

180 children (with the results easing 

community concerns about lead paint 

exposure), as well as an asthma 

surveillance study to identify areas of 

the city with higher incidence rates. 

• The cities of St. Petersburg, Florida; 

Clearwater, Florida; Portland, Oregon; 

and Long Beach, California have all 

seen once-idle brownfields reused as 

health care centers that serve critical 

community needs. 

In communities where 

brownfields are reused for public 

health facilities, the benefits are obvious: 

in addition to the restoration of blighted, 

idle land and the removal of 

contamination, residents enjoy improved 

access to health care, new jobs, and local 

economic engines that leverage additional 

improvements and enhance the local 

quality of life. 
A map of the Portland, Maine 

Brownfields Asthma Surveillance Study. 

planning office worked with city health officials to see how this funding could enhance their collaboration 

and examined the extent of community health issues in brownfield site areas. The city already had 

programs in place to study the impact of lead paint in older construction, as well as community asthma 

levels, and decided to extend both of these projects in the brownfields areas using funds from the 

designated portion of the Brownfields grant. 

The city’s Brownfields grant-funded health monitoring activities included lead screenings for children at 

more than 30 local childcare facilities. This project was initiated by mailing informational packets to area 

daycare providers and inviting them to participate. Over the course of the study, 180 children were 

screened, revealing only a small percentage of elevated samples—none at levels that warranted further 

investigation. The project provided peace of mind to Portland’s residents by offering a more accurate 

picture of the risks of lead poisoning within the community. 

The grant was also used to fund a detailed asthma surveillance study, in 

which six school-based health centers tracked students with asthma and 

mapped their residences to determine if any geographic areas contributed to 

elevated asthma reports. The study identified more than 170 children with 

asthma, and plotted logistical information on a GIS map to provide the most 

accurate results. 

In addition to designated Brownfields grant funds, support for Portland’s 

health monitoring initiative came in the form of donated time from city 

employees including administrative, health, and cartographic professionals. 

Lisa Belanger, Program Manager for the city’s Health & Human Services 

Department, indicated that the health-related portion of EPA Brownfields 

grant “furthered our knowledge of the health of the community.” For 

communities considering similar uses of EPA Brownfields Assessment grants, Lisa recommends sharing 

their Request for Proposals with public health officials to make them aware of the grant and potential

 partnership opportunities. 

The experience of Portland, Maine serves as a useful example for other communities seeking a new vision 

as part of their brownfield redevelopment. One such community is the City of Guin. Guin is a community 

of approximately 2,400 residents located in Marion County in Northwest Alabama. In 1974, a level 5 

tornado destroyed a significant portion of the city and some businesses did not reopen, leaving close to 

75% of the population unemployed. While 3M remains a major employer in town, the redevelopment of an 

old garment manufacturing plant site—the focus of a current brownfield assessment grant—will help 

create a new downtown for Guin. 

Revitalizing this site is part of Mayor Seagraves’ vision to create a downtown magnet for residents and 

visitors alike, connecting destination sites such as an existing water park, schools and neighborhoods, 

through a series of walking trails along a stream named Purgatory Creek and its tributaries. This vision 

resulted from Mayor Segraves and City Engineer Burt Hankins, asking a question that has guided the 

continued • 

Brownfields Success Story Solid Waste EPA-560-F-07-253 

Improving Public Health and Emergency January 2008 

In Brownfields Communities Response (5105T) www.epa.gov/brownfields/ 
health assessment planning: Of various mixed-use alternatives, what is the optimal use of the 

brownfields site to maximize the health of the community? To help make this vision a reality, the 

city has enlisted the help of Dr. Patrick McNees, faculty with the University of Alabama 

Birmingham, to define the connection between community health and redevelopment. This 

connection suggests that public health can be improved even as economic development takes 

place, all through the cleanup and reuse of brownfields. 

Brownfields Reused as Public Health Facilities 

In 2000, the City of Portland, Oregon entered into an agreement with the Tri-County Metropolitan 

Transportation District (TriMet) to use EPA Brownfields Assessment grant funds to conduct assessments 

and develop a brownfields inventory in preparation for a new light rail route along North Interstate 

Avenue. Through this agreement, the city managed the work under TriMet’s EPA grant to provide 

assessments and technical assistance on properties within a quarter-mile radius of the proposed light rail 

stations. The survey identified a vacant, former service station along the new alignment route, a site that 

had been idle for years due to contamination concerns. 

The site’s owner, who had received the property through inheritance, expressed willingness to work with 

the city in assessing and marketing the property for reuse. TriMet’s EPA Brownfields grant was used to 

conduct Phase I and II assessments of the site, which were completed in 2002 and surprisingly, indicated 

that no cleanup was necessary—allowing the owner to put the property up for sale. 

The neighborhood surrounding the property had long been recognized by Providence Health & Services 

(a multi-state network of hospitals and health-care facilities) as underserved for health 

care, and the site’s location along the proposed light rail route made it especially 

attractive for the location of a new health care facility. The company purchased 

the property in January 2006 and finished development of their new, 19,000-

square-foot health facility in March 2007. The community has expressed 

gratitude and appreciation to staff of the new facility, which provides general 

health care to a steady stream of patients. 

Construction of the relocated Johnnie Ruth Clarke Health Center facility began 

in 2003, funded with a $3.75 million U.S. Department of Health and Human 

Services grant and $463,000 in U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) 

Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds. Development included 

preservation of the original 1923 historic building, and a new museum of the history 

of African-American medicine in Pinellas County. Opening its doors in 2004, the 

facility is a state-of-the art, federally-qualified health care center that created more than 100 jobs and 

serves up to 300 patients a day. Florida A&M University offers a pharmacy program and training center 

at the facility, and the University of Florida offers a Dentistry program onsite. In addition to providing 

affordable and accessible health care and health-related education, the facility has catalyzed additional 

The completed Johnnie Ruth Clarke 

Health Center in St. Petersburg, Florida. 

continued • 

Brownfields Success Story Solid Waste EPA-560-F-07-253 

Improving Public Health and Emergency January 2008 

In Brownfields Communities Response (5105T) www.epa.gov/brownfields/ 
The Willa Carson Health Resource 

Center in Clearwater, Florida. 

economic development in the area—including a Boys & Girls Club Performing Art Center at the historic 

Royal Theatre; restoration of the historic Manhattan Casino; and the new Tangerine Plaza, which offers 

retail and grocery shopping. In addition, the city is working with a developer on an affordable housing project 

that will likely be located on a vacant property in the vicinity of the Community Health 

Center. 

Less than 20 miles northwest, in the City of Clearwater, the site of an abandoned 

gas station became a free health clinic for residents of the city’s North CONTACTS: Greenwood community. The property was deemed as the perfect place to 

relocate the Greenwood Community Health Resource Center due to its For more information contact 

U.S. EPA REGION 1: (617) 918-1221 central community location. The city purchased and had earlier performed U.S. EPA REGION 4: (800) 241-1754 environmental assessments and cleanup on the site, which was located U.S. EPA REGION 9: (866) 372-9378 within the City of Clearwater’s EPA Brownfields Pilot target area, using U.S. EPA REGION 10: (800) 424-4372 

EPA and state Brownfields Program funds. As part of cleanup, four Visit the EPA Brownfields Web site at: 

underground storage tanks and 450 tons of contaminated soil were removed http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/ 

from the property. Representatives of North EPA Key Partner:

Agency for Toxic Substances Greenwood voted unanimously for the city to and Disease Registry (ATSDR)

lease the property to the nonprofit clinic— http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/ 

which founder Willa Carson had been 

operating out of two refurbished apartments—for 30 

years at $1 a year. Opened in January 2001, the 3,200-square-foot Willa 

Carson Health Resource Center provides free health care, mostly to 

residents of surrounding communities, and is operated solely on 

donations and grant funding with the help of a volunteer workforce. The 

clinic has four examination rooms, a reception area, and a community 

room for educational sessions about lead screening, breast cancer 

detection, nutrition and managing diabetes, and other health-related topics. 

Given the nature of brownfields, and the economic status of the communities that typically surround them, 

reuse of these sites for health care facilities often fulfills critical needs and offers greatly improved medical 

access for local residents. The examples described above suggest an emerging trend in brownfields 

redevelopment, one being applied in other cities nationwide. In Long Beach, California, the Miller Children’s 

Hospital received $600,000 in EPA Brownfields Cleanup grants to remove petroleum and other 

contaminants from adjacent property formerly used as a dumping ground. This cleanup is allowing the 

hospital to create a new, four-story wing on the former brownfield that will include a pediatric imaging 

center, a neonatal intensive care unit, pediatric beds, and operating rooms—serving a predominantly 

Hispanic/African-American community in which roughly a third of the children live in poverty. Cleanup and 

health-industry reuse of brownfields in communities such as these protects residents from the blighted sites 

themselves, and provides new health-care options for those who might previously have had few available. 

Brownfields Success Story Solid Waste EPA-560-F-07-253

Improving Public Health and Emergency January 2008 

In Brownfields Communities Response (5105T) www.epa.gov/brownfields/