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EPA Gives Conn. Towns Seven Grants Worth $3.4 Million for Brownfield Sites

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 seven grants worth $3.4 million for nearly two dozen communities in Connecticut.

EPA New England announced that $750,000 will be spent to assess contamination at sites in several Connecticut communities. Bristol and the South Central Regional Council of Governments, representing 15 communities, will each receive $200,000 each in assessments funds, while Bridgeport and Norwich will receive a total of $350,000 to supplement earlier assessment grants they received. Another $2.65 million will be used to establish a revolving loan fund program for clean-up and development in New Milford, Norwich and Winchester.

"These grants will bring additional momentum to community Brownfields programs all across Connecticut," 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 sites 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 $13 million the amount EPA has spent to date on brownfields projects in Connecticut.

Funds for site assessments were given to the following communities:

• Bristol ($200,000): These funds will help to revitalize the downtown and improve gateways to the city. Assessments at five blighted properties in the city's enterprise zone will be done. The funds will also help develop cleanup plans, provide community outreach and put an environmental justice plan in place.
  
• South Central Regional Council of Governments ($200,000): This grant will pay to identify and prioritize sites in New Haven, North Haven and Hamden for redevelopment, and to conduct environmental site assessments on selected properties. A project advisory committee will be formed.
  
• Bridgeport ($200,000): The city will use $150,000 of this supplement funding for assessments at four sites in the Lower East End – at 48 and 106 Trowel St.; 868-886 Seaview Ave.; 740 Seaview Ave. and 580 Seaview Ave. Another $50,000 will be targeted towards greenspace at the Chrome Engineering Site , which will buffer the Lower East End housing from a light industrial corridor and provide a link to Johnson's Creek.
  
• Norwich ($150,000): The city will use the supplemental grant tp develop a brownfields inventory and database. Properties will then be put in priority order for assessments.

• Winchester ($650,000): This former mill town used an assessment grant to assess and identify likely brownfields project. This loan fund will help develop some of the sites, which could include the former Union Pin building, which has already been demolished. In addition, plans call for the development of a four story, full-service hotel and conference center. Another potential project is the conversion of the "Carnell Building" to an iron forge manufacturing facility. This property will be open to the public and include exhibit space, a retail store, and a warehouse.
  
• New Milford ($1 million): New Milford's loan program is focused primarily on the DAVKO site, nearby quarries, and the Town Garage. Cleanup of the DAVKO site (formerly Century Brass) is a high priority. This site in a former industrial town is located above the town's water supply and has good redevelopment potential. The site could be redeveloped into a commercial laundry (creating 300 jobs), a propane gas distributor, and an "Internet hotel" (housing for mainframe computers that run the Internet).
  
• Norwich ($1 million): This former mill town on the Thames River saw its manufacturing base dissolve in the 1980s, when mills were closed and abandoned. Many of the resulting brownfields lie in deeply impoverished areas, leaving the town with poverty rate double that of the county and state. An EPA Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot Program allowed Norwich to characterize and prioritize its contaminated sites for redevelopment. The overall goals of the loan program are to clean up and return the city's priority brownfields to productive use, including the former Capehart Manufacturing and Chambers/Storck sites.