Hydrolic Hose Protection

Tampa Bay area gets money to clean up polluted sites

Scattered across the Tampa Bay region, dozens of old commercial or industrial sites bear a legacy of pollution that has left them in economic limbo.

In an effort to make those properties useful again, the Environmental Protection Agency this month bankrolled nearly $3 million in projects to find, sort and clean up damaged properties across the region.

The grants address brownfields, properties with low levels of pollution, usually from leaking fuel tanks, railroad tracks or dry cleaning chemicals. In some rural areas, old cattle dipping sites – tainted with arsenic used to kill pests – also qualify as brownfields.

Abandoned gas stations are the stereotypical brownfields project, said Helen Sears, the brownfields project manager for the Central Florida Regional Planning Council.

"If you take an inventory of potential brownfield sites, they're everywhere," she said.

The EPA's brownfields program provided Plant City with $600,000 to clean up three polluted properties downtown. Pasco County got $1 million to locate sites that need help and plan for their cleanup. The Central Florida Regional Planning Council in Bartow also got $1 million to make loans for cleanups. Much of that money is likely going to projects in Mulberry and Fort Meade, Sears said.

The latest grants bring to $7.5 million the federal investment in cleaning up polluted sites around the Tampa Bay region. That's about a quarter of more than $29 million the EPA has pumped into Florida since its brownfields program started in 2002.

In years past, the EPA has financed cleanups in Tampa, Clearwater, Hillsborough County and Pinellas County. All told, Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties have 46 areas designated as brownfields.

Brownfields are less polluted than properties in the EPA's Superfund program. But a legacy of pollution still makes brownfields thickets of potential legal risk for anyone who might want to redevelop them.

As older cities such as Tampa try to lure jobs and young people, brownfields have become part of their redevelopment plans.

The properties already come with utilities and roads, saving on two of the biggest costs related to developing virgin land. They can encourage workers to live nearby, reducing commutes at a time when the worldwide demand for gas is rising, said Joe Ullo, president of the Florida Brownfields Association.

The state encourages brownfield redevelopment through tax credits for clean up and job creation, along with other subsidies.

Hydraulic Hose Protection - Page 2 - TractorByNet.com

I had concerns about my grapple hydraulic hoses. During the first few hours of operation of my positrac I crushed them between the mounting plate and the body of the machine. Since then I have run most of my hydraulic lines through fire hose. It provides enough stiffness to keep the hose from falling into pinch points and keeps brush from seperating the hoses. I also use just the outside covering of the hose to serve as an abrasion protection on other lines. So far so good and haven't crushed another hose. I got mine from one of the local fire departments that were replacing several hoses.

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