News Releases from Region 04
EPA Presents 2020 National Federal Facility Excellence in Site Reuse Awards to Federal and Local Agencies for Former Naval Training Center Orlando, Florida
Agencies receive National Excellence in Site Reuse Awards
ORLANDO, Fla. (November 12, 2020) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) presented 2020 national Federal Facility Excellence in Site Reuse Awards to the U.S. Navy, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, City of Orlando, and Baldwin Park Development Company for the innovative reuse of the Former Naval Training Center in Orlando.
“For the past three years, we have recognized the important work our federal and state agency partners have contributed to cleanup and reuse at Superfund sites located at federal facilities,” said EPA Assistant Administrator Peter Wright. “I’m proud of the work conducted at the former Naval Training Center site. Their efforts created new economic assets for the City of Orlando by developing the former military site into mixed-use, industrial and recreational spaces.”
“EPA is honored to present the National Federal Facility Excellence in Site Reuse Award to the Former Naval Training Center Orlando,” said EPA Region 4 Administrator Mary S. Walker. “This project is a successful demonstration of how public-private partnerships can restore properties in a manner that protects public health and serves as a catalyst for economic development and investment and creates jobs in these communities.”
The City of Orlando successfully partnered with federal, state and local stakeholders at the former Naval Training Center Orlando. Having served as an Army and Navy air training facility since the 1940’s, this 2,000-acre site closed in 1999 under the BRAC program. The team’s efforts in promoting public and private investments resulted in a renewed area consisting of a mixed-use, master-planned community, industrial facility and recreational spaces. Due to the collaborative efforts, the former Naval Training Center Orlando site has become an economic asset to the City of Orlando.
EPA has ongoing cleanup and property transfer responsibilities at 174 federal facility National Priorities List sites across the country, which are some of the largest and most complex sites within the Superfund program. The Trump Administration has made the Superfund program a top priority to advance the agency’s core mission of protecting human health and the environment. EPA’s Superfund Task Force is working to promote redevelopment and reuse of sites by encouraging investment in reuse outcomes. The federal facility sites receiving reuse awards serve as examples of the types of site investment that can occur at sites once owned by federal agencies.
EPA established the awards to recognize the teams who have supported the reuse and restoration of federal facility sites through outstanding efforts to ensure that sites are remediated to promote continued property use or support a site reuse, as well as provide educational opportunities about how the awardees’ sites were remediated and reused to serve as examples to other site remediators.
The awards are divided into four categories: National Priorities List (NPL) Sites, Non-NPL Cleanup, NPL Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC), and Non-NPL BRAC.
For more information about the award, please visit: www.epa.gov/fedfac/2020-national-federal-facility-excellence-site-reuse-awards.
For more information about cleanups at federal facilities, please visit: www.epa.gov/fedfac.