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EPA Gives $200,000 Brownfields Job Training Grant to Middlesex Community College

Release Date: 05/18/2000
Contact Information: Peyton Fleming, EPA Press Office (617-918-1008)

BOSTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced that Middlesex Community College in Middletown, Conn. has been chosen to receive $200,000 of Brownfields assistance to start a Brownfields job training program.

The community college is among 15 recipients in New England and 102 nationally that have been chosen to receive a total of over $35 million nationally in Brownfields grants. The funds are being used across the country for site assessments, revolving loan cleanup programs and Brownfields job training programs.

Middlesex Community College will use the funds to launch a Brownfields Job Training and Development Demonstration project that will be done in partnership with the City of Middletown and the Town of Haddam. The job training pilot, which will focus on Middletown's state Enterprise Zone and the Connecticut River Valley between Haddam and Middletown, will involve training local residents as environmental technicians who can work on site assessments, cleanups and other Brownfield activities. The 30 to 40 students who will be trained will come from Middletown and Haddam.

"This job training grant will open the door for more Haddam and Middletown residents to take advantage of jobs created by assessments and cleanups of Brownfields sites," said Mindy S. Lubber, regional administrator of EPA's New England Office. "This grant will help ensure that Brownfield projects in this area have the trained personnel they need and that local residents have an opportunity to compete for these jobs."

"Remediating Brownfields boosts economic development and protects the environment. However, the work must be done by skilled employees who understand how to handle potentially hazardous material and can operate sophisticated cleanup technologies," said U.S. Congressman Sam Gejdenson. "This grant will allow Middlesex Community College to provide this training to citizens across our region. This program will ensure that our area has a pool of highly skilled workers to restore Brownfields."

A total of $5.4 million in Brownfield grants were awarded today to 15 New England recipients. Other grants went to Brockton, New Bedford, North Adams and Gloucester in Massachusetts; Providence and two Rhode Island state agencies; Westbrook and Lewiston in Maine; the Windham Regional Commission in Vermont; and New London, Berlin, Danbury and Naugatuck Valley in Connecticut.