The county director of redevelopment has set into action a plan to identify the county's “brownfields,” or areas that may be contaminated and impossible to develop.

Mark Gordon told the county commissioners at their Wednesday meeting that he has formed a coalition with Petrolia, Community Development Corporation of Butler County and his department to work with program manager DJS Ventures in an effort to identify properties throughout the county that require remediation of contamination.

The focus is to render formerly contaminated properties — both private and public — eligible for sale to bring development dollars into the county, Gordon said.

Now that the commissioners are on board with the project, Gordon and his coalition partners will hold public outreach meetings in various areas of Butler County to ask elected officials, community leaders and residents to point out properties they think may be in need of remediation.

“It's an opportunity through public outreach to have people in the county participate,” Gordon said.

The project was made possible by a $650,000 brownfield assessment grant Gordon received in May from the Environmental Protection Agency.

He said suspect sites exist on the former Pullman property, in Butler city, on the east side of Butler along the railroad tracks, and in Slippery Rock.

The well-known brownfields in Bruin and at Indspec in Petrolia are not eligible for study under the grant, Gordon said, as they have already been identified as contaminated through various testing.

Once a list of properties has been compiled, Gordon said, the coalition will begin phase II of the plan, which is core borings and other tests to determine if remediation is necessary.

He said some properties could require work as simple as pouring concrete in a wellhead and capping it, while remediation for other properties could cost millions.

Gordon said various options exist to pay for remediation, including funding from the property owner who could not formerly sell the land because of contamination, payment by a developer looking to locate a business or industry there, or various state Department of Environmental Protection grant programs that exist for brownfield remediation.

Regarding the latter, funds from the current brownfield assessment grant could be used as matching funds.

Gordon has selected five companies in the region from 13 who submitted bids to help assess the properties when they are identified.

An engineering firm, an environmental remediation and recovery company, a civil environmental consulting firm and others will work on the project with Gordon's coalition.

Three of the companies have worked in Butler County, two of them extensively.

“I think we have assembled a very, very good core group of participants,” Gordon said.

He said according to the brownfield assessment grant requirements, all properties identified as contaminated must have a remediation plan.

Once the plan is complete, work can begin to mitigate issues on the property.

The first public outreach meeting, Gordon said, should be held in January.