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EPA Celebrates Successful Economic Redevelopment in Stamford, CT

Release Date: 12/01/2000
Contact Information: Andrew Spejewski, EPA Press Office (617-918-1014)

STAMFORD, CT -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the City of Stamford celebrated today the cleanup and re-use of a downtown property - a cleanup made possible by EPA brownfields grants, including one of the first ever cleanup loans using EPA funds. A press conference was hosted today by the Harley Davidson dealership that moved to the half-acre site after buying and cleaning up the property.

The cleanup was made possible by several grants to the City of Stamford from EPA's Brownfields Program. The program is designed to spur the cleanup and economic re-use of brownfields – properties that are abandoned or underused because of environmental contamination.

Most significant for the Harley Davidson development was a $750,000 EPA grant to the city to set up a revolving loan fund for making low-cost loans to developers for cleaning up contaminated sites. The developer of the site borrowed $160,000 from the revolving loan fund to remove close to 3,000 tons of soil contaminated with PCBs, lead, arsenic and other metals. This was the third completed loan anywhere in the country using funds from the new EPA program.

"The cleanup and re-use of this downtown parcel is a major step forward for Stamford and for the local economy," said Patricia Meaney, director of the Office of Site Remediation and Restoration at EPA's New England office. "It's a great example of how EPA's Brownfields Program can help cities like Stamford and entrepreneurs like Fritz Blau turn abandoned properties into clean and productive sites."

Stamford is an EPA Brownfields Showcase Community. As a result of that designation, an EPA staff person is working full time for two years with the city on brownfields redevelopment. The city has also received $400,000 in grants in addition to the revolving loan fund. Since launching the program in the mid 1990's, EPA has awarded more than $8 million in grants for brownfields assessment, cleanup and redevelopment in the state of Connecticut.