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EPA Announces $400,000 Brownfields Funding To Clean Up Chestertown, Md. Properties

Release Date: 04/20/2010
Contact Information: Roy Seneca seneca.roy@epa.gov, 215-814-5567

PHILADELPHIA (April 20, 2010) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today that Washington College in Chestertown, Md. will receive $400,000 in EPA brownfields funding to help clean up two former industrial sites in Chestertown so that the college can use the properties to expand its waterfront presence.

Funding includes a $200,000 grant to clean up the 2.6-acre site at 419 Cross Street that was used from the late 1800s until 1987 as a fertilizer storage facility and marine terminal. Another $200,000 grant will be used to clean up the 2.8-acre Alger Oil, Inc. property at 501 Cross Street. Funds will be used to excavate contaminated soil, place a clean soil cover over the properties, and to conduct post-clean-up monitoring of groundwater.

"Brownfields initiatives demonstrate how environmental protection and economic development work hand-in-hand," said Shawn M. Garvin, regional administrator for EPA's mid-Atlantic region. "Along with generating jobs, this grant will help Washington College reclaim properties that have been unused for years and turn them into assets for the community, the environment, and the economy."

Once the sites are cleaned up, the college intends to expand its waterfront presence with a new home for the Center for Environment and Society and a dormitory. This redevelopment is expected to contribute to the economic development of Chestertown, bringing jobs to the community and increasing the town's tax base.

EPA’s brownfields program encourages cleanup and redevelopment of America’s estimated 450,000 brownfield sites. Brownfield grants help to assess, clean and redevelop abandoned, contaminated properties known as brownfields. Brownfields are sites where expansion, redevelopment, or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. Grant recipients are selected through a national competition.

Additional information on the EPA brownfields program is available at https://www.epa.gov/brownfields/ and additional information on brownfields cleanup grant recipients is available at https://www.epa.gov/brownfields/cleanup_grants.htm .