You've Got a Friend in TAB: KSU Program Offers Free Expertise to Help Gary Tackle Brownfields

On October 17, Gary Townmakers hosted a dynamic workshop, "Brownfields 101," featuring guest speaker Beth Grigsby, the Assistant Regional Director for Kansas State University's Technical Assistance to Brownfields (KSU TAB) program. The session offered a comprehensive look at how Gary can identify, assess, and redevelop brownfield sites, and underscored a powerful resource available to the city: KSU TAB's services are completely free.

For a city like Gary, with a rich industrial history, this is a game-changer. Here’s a look at the key points from the presentation and what KSU TAB can do for our community.

The Origin of Brownfields: Love Canal and Superfund

To understand what a brownfield is, Beth's presentation took us back to the 1970s and the environmental disaster that started it all: Love Canal.

From 1942 to 1953, a chemical company dumped an estimated 21,000 tons of hazardous waste in the Niagara Falls, NY, area. Years later, contaminated groundwater began seeping into basements and properties, leading to reports of severe health issues and community complaints.

The Love Canal disaster, a powerful reminder of the consequences of industrial pollution, highlighted a critical gap in the law. As Beth noted, until 1980, the EPA lacked the legal authority to clean up hazardous waste sites like Love Canal.

In response, Congress enacted the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), also known as Superfund. This law was created “in response to the serious environmental and health risks posed by industrial pollution”. (You can learn more about this history by viewing "Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal" on YouTube.)

However, CERCLA had an unintended consequence. The law’s strict liability rules made developers and lenders afraid to touch any property with potential contamination, fearing they would be held responsible for the cleanup. This led to a pattern of avoiding older industrial sites, which were left to deteriorate, while new development moved to pristine, untouched "greenfields".

This is how the concept of "brownfields" was born.

So, What Is a Brownfield?

Brownfields are properties where the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.

Beth highlighted common contaminants found at these sites, which can stem from a wide range of past property uses:

• Past Uses: Gas stations, auto repair shops, dry cleaners, manufacturing plants, railroad facilities, and even old residential areas (due to lead paint and asbestos).

• Contaminants: Lead (Pb), petroleum, asbestos, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are among the most common.

The presentation showed many local examples of vacant buildings, former gas stations, and lots that could qualify as brownfields, underscoring that these sites are all around us.

🤝 How Can KSU TAB Help Gary? 

The central message of Beth's presentation was "You’ve Got a Friend in TAB". KSU TAB is a national program funded by the U.S. EPA to act as an independent, non-profit resource for communities. Because Gary is in EPA Region 5, we are eligible for KSU TAB's full range of free services.

Here are the key services KSU TAB offers that could directly benefit Gary's revitalization efforts:

• Identifying and Inventorying Sites: KSU TAB is currently working with Gary Townmakers to help identify our brownfields using their free Brownfield Inventory Tool (BiT), a web-based system to manage and track property information, from site details and assessment activities to funding sources.

• Strategic Planning and Visioning: They will assist with strategic planning and community-led reuse visioning to help decide what's next for a property.

• Finding the Money: KSU TAB can help identify funding sources for assessment, cleanup, and redevelopment.

• Winning EPA Grants: This is one of their most valuable services. KSU TAB provides strategy development and application reviews for EPA Brownfields Grants. This expert review can significantly increase the chances of securing federal funding.

• Economic and Market Analysis: They can help determine the economic feasibility of a project, which is crucial for attracting developers and investment.

• Community Outreach: KSU TAB provides support for engaging the community, ensuring residents have a voice in the redevelopment process.

• Education: They host educational workshops (like this one!) to build local capacity and empower community leaders.

KSU TAB exists to fill gaps and empower communities. Their goal is to provide the technical expertise that communities, nonprofits, and local governments need to navigate the complex brownfield redevelopment process and turn these liabilities into assets.

The workshop concluded with a "homework" assignment: for attendees to use a simple "Brownfield ID Form" to identify potential sites in their own neighborhoods and bring them to the next workshop for discussion: November 14, 2025. Click here for more information and to register.

This presentation was a call to action, reminding us that Gary doesn't have to tackle its brownfields alone. With expert partners like KSU TAB, we can begin the work of safely cleaning up our legacy sites and transforming them for a new generation.

To learn more about KSU TAB and their services, visit www.ksutab.org.

To access workshop handouts, view Brownfields Fact Sheets here.

To download presentation slides, click here.

NOTE: A video of this training will be uploaded soon!