FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nov. 6, 2003
Port
of Bellingham
(360) 676-2500
PORT CHOSEN FOR NEW FEDERAL WATERFRONT
REVITALIZATION PROGRAM
Bellingham Only West Coast Port Selected
[Bellingham, Wash.]Just a few days after being selected as the only West
Coast port for an innovative new federal redevelopment program, the Port of Bellingham began getting calls from federal officials ready to
start work on Bellingham projects.
Last
week the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that
the Port of Bellingham has been selected as the best candidate on the West Coast to
demonstrate NOAA’s new model for revitalizing
waterfront communities.
“The Portfields
Initiative represents a multi-agency Federal effort to partner with local
communities to help revitalize their ports
and improve our nation’s marine transportation
system while restoring and protecting our coastal resources,” said retired Navy
Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr., Undersecretary
of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA
Administrator.
Portfields
is an innovative federal interagency project that will focus on the
redevelopment and reuse of waterfronts with an emphasis on restoring important
marine habitat. Bellingham’s selection was announced before an audience of about
4,000 attendees at the Brownfields 2003 conference “Growing
a Greener America” in Portland.
“We
are very pleased to be selected and the timing couldn’t be better,” said Jim Darling, executive director for the
Port of Bellingham. “Our work with the Bellingham Bay Pilot Project and the Waterfront
Futures Group, has earned us a reputation for our commitment to environmental
stewardship in our waterfront revitalization projects. Portfields
gives us an opportunity to move our community’s vision forward with the support
of new federal partners.”
The Port of Bellingham is one of three ports in the country chosen to
participate in Portfields. The ports were selected
for their demonstrated commitment to waterfront revitalization, innovative
approaches to facility planning and habitat restoration, and overall value in
partnering with the federal agencies.
The Port of Bellingham has proposed pursuing several redevelopment
initiatives including restoration of the Squalicum
Waterway, redevelopment of the Central Waterfront and pursuit of innovative
ideas generated through the Waterfront Futures Group process.
Under
Portfields, the participating agencies will provide targeted resources to help ports meet both community economic interests
and environmental recovery goals within the working waterfront. While federal
agencies currently participate on the Bellingham Bay work group, recognition under the Portfields program
is expected to bring a new level of national interest to the project.
[Port
of Bellingham/Waterfront Revitalization]
2-2-2-2-2
“The Puget Sound Action Team offers its
congratulations to the Port of Bellingham for being selected as a NOAA Portfields pilot site,”
said Brad Ack, chair of the PSAT and a member of the Bellingham Bay work group.
“The Bellingham Bay project is an excellent model, and the Port’s
contributions to these efforts have been outstanding.”
The Portfields initiative is an outgrowth of the federal
“Brownfields” program that was created in 1996.
Under Brownfields, more than 20
federal agencies participate in the cleanup and redevelopment of contaminated
industrial property. Under Portfields,
NOAA and seven other federal agencies will focus on revitalizing port
communities. The other agencies include the Environmental Protection Agency, Economic Development Administration, Maritime
Administration,
Department of Labor, Army Corps of Engineers, Department of Interior, and
Department of Housing and Urban Development. The other ports selected to launch
this national program are
the Port of Tampa Bay,
Florida, and New
Bedford, Massachusetts.
Each
of the Portfields agencies will bring its own specialized expertise to the table in Bellingham. Over the next
several months the agencies will visit Bellingham and develop a specific scope of work for their
partnership with the Port.
