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Gloucester to receive $400,000 in EPA funding for Brownfields

Release Date: 08/04/2010
Contact Information: David Deegan, (617) 918-1017

(Boston, Mass. - Aug. 4, 2010) - The City of Gloucester will receive $400,000 from EPA to help clean contaminated sites known as brownfields. This funding is part of more than $16 million for brownfields allotted nationally and $3 million allotted in New England by the EPA.

“This funding to the City of Gloucester will be a boon to the local economy and will continue to assist in job creation in the area. With this additional money the city will be able to fund more local cleanup projects, “said Curt Spalding, regional administrator for EPA New England in announcing the grant this week.

“This $400,000 in federal funds will support efforts to clean up abandoned waste sites in Gloucester and is expected to help local businesses put residents back to work," said U.S. Rep. John Tierney. “Gloucester was one of only 27 communities in the entire country to be selected for this federal funding, and I am pleased to join the EPA and Mayor Kirk in moving these projects forward and supporting our local economy.”

Added Mayor Carolyn Kirk, "Old cities like Gloucester are faced with many redevelopment challenges. EPA funds which help with site clean up removes a big obstacle and make it easier to promote the job growth and expansion of the tax base that come with redevelopment."

Gloucester received one of the 27 grants announced nationally, including eight in New England. This funding is targeted to help with cleanup activities and redevelopment projects, and to help create jobs for people living near brownfields sites. These grants will help revitalize former industrial and commercial sites, turning them from problem properties to productive community use.

This money was provided as supplemental funding for revolving loan fund grants already given to these communities.

Brownfields are sites where expansion, redevelopment, or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant.

The seven other grants given in New England included two in Connecticut (totaling $600,000), three in Massachusetts (totaling $1.2 million), and two in Vermont (totaling $800,000) and one in Maine ($400,000).

Since EPA’s brownfields program began, EPA has provided 50 loans and 41 grants in New England totaling more than $24 million for brownfields cleanup. The loan funds have paved the way for more than $164 million in public and private cleanup and redevelopment investment and for 925 jobs in cleanup, construction and redevelopment.

The national brownfields program encourages redevelopment of the country’s estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated waste sites.

More information:

- FY 2010 Brownfields grant recipients (www.epa.gov/brownfields/pilot_grants.htm)

- EPA New England EPA’s brownfields program (www.epa.gov/region1/brownfields/success.html)

- Brownfields success stories (www.epa.gov/brownfields/success/index.htm)

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