OSU-Cascades is one of seven recipients of an Environmental Protection Agency grant to expedite restoration of “brownfield sites,” which are properties that are underutilized due to pollution. The university bought the former Bend Demolition Landfill from Deschutes County in 2018 for $1. Though it mostly contained wood waste from Bend’s mills when bought, it’s slated to be an “innovation district,” a 24-acre development with research, technology and commercial district that utilizes private-public partnerships.
The EPA is giving $2 million to OSU-Cascades to expedite its efforts, as well as $6.2 million for six other projects. The money is sourced from grants in President Joe Biden’s $1.5 billion Infrastructure and Jobs Act.
“This federal brownfields investment in Oregon will breathe new life into what have been lost opportunities in communities throughout our state,” said Sen. Ron Wyden. “I proudly supported the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that’s generating today’s good news and look forward to the jobs and neighborhood benefits that will ripple out as a result statewide.”
Last year, the Oregon legislature approved $10 million to mitigate construction costs on the landfill. The county sold the property to the university under a beneficial use determination from Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality. Though much of the landfill consisted of relatively safe wood debris, the deeper parts were a chief environmental concern among the DEQ.
“Future plans will include removal of the deeper waste on the east side of the landfill, which has been a concern because it generates a lot of heat as it decomposes,” said Bob Schwarz, a DEQ cleanup project manager, in a 2020 press release. “That phase of the development will address the primary environmental issue at the landfill.”
This article appears in Source Weekly June 1, 2023.
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