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EPA Provides Brownfields Grant to Shelton, Conn.

Brownfields Funding Leverages Jobs and Promotes Economic Redevelopment

08/23/2017
Contact Information: 
Emily Bender (bender.emily@epa.gov)
617-918-1037

BOSTON - Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency celebrated the City of Shelton, Connecticut as a brownfields grant recipient. This year, the City will receive $200,000 to assess contaminated properties.

EPA has selected the City of Shelton to receive a $200,000 brownfields assessment grant focused on assessing contaminated properties in the Shelton Canal and Shelton Industrial District. These funds will be used to update three Phase I environmental site assessments, conduct three Phase II environmental site assessments, and prepare three cleanup plans. Grant funds also will be used to support community outreach activities, including community meetings and updates to the city's brownfields website.

"EPA is committed to working with communities to redevelop Brownfields sites which have plagued their neighborhoods. EPA's Assessment and Cleanup grants target communities that are economically disadvantaged and include places where environmental cleanup and new jobs are most needed," said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. "These grants leverage considerable infrastructure and other investments, improving local economies and creating an environment where jobs can grow. I am very pleased the President's budget recognizes the importance of these grants by providing continued funding for this important program."

"This EPA grant will help the City of Shelton continue its success in transforming brownfields from a burden on the community into community assets. Shelton can be proud that it has won an EPA brownfield grant for the second year in a row in an intense nationwide competition," said Conn. Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Rob Klee. "EPA's money is a smart investment that will leverage additional investment by the State and by private developers. Cleaning up brownfields helps to protect human health and the environment and strengthens our economy. DEEP greatly appreciates EPA's continuing financial support of and partnership in brownfields redevelopment in Connecticut."

Mayor Mark A. Lauretti said, "The City of Shelton has been actively engaged in Brownfields remediation since the early 1990s before brownfields was popular. Over these past two decades, the City of Shelton in partnership with the State of Connecticut and the United States Environmental Protection Agency have invested a total of $23,250,000 toward the clean-up of environmentally challenged brownfields sites and buildings located along the Housatonic Riverfront in downtown Shelton. Through a sustained effort, the City of Shelton has managed to demolish seven contaminated and blighted buildings and participate in the environmental clean-up of 14 acres of formerly contaminated industrial sites."

"The results of our efforts have been transformative as Shelton has revitalized a once blighted and decayed industrial zone into a thriving and inviting public space. Together, we can continue to do great works with these public dollars. Shelton's most recent US EPA Grant award of $200,000 will be used to coordinate the environmental assessment of four properties located along the vibrant Housatonic River," stated Mayor Mark A. Lauretti.

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