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EPA Gives Mass. Towns $2 Million in Brownfields Grants To Develop Properties

Release Date: 04/20/2001
Contact Information: Amy Miller, EPA Press Office (617-918-1042)

BOSTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today it will spend $7.5 million to help assess, clean and redevelop abandoned, contaminated sites throughout New England, including $2 million for dozens of communities in Massachusetts.

EPA New England announced that $1 million will be spent to assess contamination at sites in six Massachusetts communities. Of that, $400,000 will be for new assessments in West Springfield and Fitchburg. The remaining $600,000 will go to the cities of Brockton, Boston, Lawrence and Great Barrington to supplement existing funds to continue and initiate new assessments within their communities.

In addition, another $1 million will go to establish revolving loan funds for clean ups in Taunton and for the Montachusetts Regional Planning Commission, which represents 22 central Massachusetts communities.

"These grants will bring additional momentum to community Brownfields programs all across Massachusetts," said Ira Leighton, acting regional administrator for EPA New England. "Dozens of contaminated sites across New England have already been restored through this successful program. Today's announcement ensures more successes down the road."

Under the agency's Brownfields Assessment Program, communities receive funding to assess contamination at abandoned and vacant sites, and to estimate the costs of cleaning up the site for redevelopment. Communities also receive funding to establish revolving loan programs, allowing them to provide low interest loans to clean up these sites. Once assessed and cleaned, these sites can be put back into productive use by the community. Today's grants bring to $21 million the amount EPA has spent to date on brownfields projects in Massachusetts.

Funds for site assessments were given to the following communities:

• Fitchburg ($200,000): The city's long term goal is to redevelop targeted older industrial sites on the Nashua River. Assessments will initially be done at five properties, and then more extensive assessments at two sites. Community outreach activities will include public meetings and distribution of newsletters and fact sheets.
  
• West Springfield ($200,000): The city's long-term goal is to revitalize the economically depressed Merrick industrial area. This grant will help evaluate ownership and liabilities issues, conduct site assessments and design cleanup plans for several parcels in the West Springfield Trade Center.
  
• Lawrence ($200,000): The city will use $150,000 of this supplemental funding to sample under buildings on the Oxford Paper property, the focal pont of the Lawrence Gateway Project. Another $50,000 in greenspace funding will be targeted towards four sites in the North Common neighborhood: a playground site; the Union Street Community Garden and two lots on the Spicket River.
  
• Boston ($200,000): The city will use $150,000 of the supplemental funding to perform assessments at four sites : Bird Street Community Center in Dorchester; Parcel P-3 in Roxbury; the former Lewis Chemical Site in Hyde Park, and the former Modern Electroplating property in Roxbury. Another $50,000 in greenspace funding will be used to restore the habitat and create passive recreation at the Condor Street Beach Urban Wild Project in East Boston.
  
• Great Barrington ($100,000): This supplemental grant will pay for further assessment work at Great Barrington's only brownfield, the New England Log Home site.
  
• Brockton ($100,000) This supplemental grant will help the city assess property at 45 Emerson Ave. After updating and completing the site inventory, the city will set priorities and select another site for assessment, involving the community in the process.

• Taunton ($500,000): This former manufacturing center has seen hundreds of acres of industrial space left vacant or underutilized in the last few years as businesses have downsized or moved. The loan program would help clean up brownfields in the historic Weir Industrial Village, a once vibrant area that is now home to a major concentration of brownfields and high poverty rates. It would also promote the formation of a "Green Industrial Park" for Weir Village. Some of the companies looking for loans include an aluminum company, a real estate developer hoping to build a home for the elderly, and a plastics recycling company. Other likely projects include the redevelopment of a rubber factory and a chemical plant. The targeted sites represent an estimated cleanup cost of more than $3 million with a potential to create over 200 jobs.
  
• Montachusetts Regional Planning Commission in Fitchburg ($500,000): This commission has identified 782 brownfield sites and chosen 28 as priorities for development in this region of 22 communities. The commission hopes to provide gap financing or total funding for cleanup of at least two to four brownfields so that the sites can be redeveloped and help to revitalize the economy. Town of Athol may receive a loan to buy a vacant lot next to Town Hall and to expand the public library and a municipal parking lot. Gardner would like the funds to clean two sites – one for a new library and another for affordable housing. Groton would like to assess and clean up a former mill site. The region covered by the commission is made up of urbanized mill towns that once had booming paper and furniture manufacturers. Between 1989 and 1998, this region lost 192 firms and more than 1000 jobs.