All News Releases By Date

EPA GIVES SOUTH WINDSOR COUNTY $200,0000 BROWNFIELDS GRANT FOR SITE ASSESSMENTS

Release Date: 06/21/1999
Contact Information: Amy Miller, EPA Press Office (617-918-1042)

BOSTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced that the South Windsor County Regional Planning Commission in Vermont was chosen to receive a $200,000 Brownfields assessment pilot grant targeting abandoned sites in the region.

The planning commission, based in Ascutney, is among seven communities in New England and 57 nationally that have been chosen to receive a total of $11.4 million in Brownfields pilot grants. The funds are designed to help spur the assessment and cleanup of contaminated urban parcels so that they can be redeveloped.

The regional planning commission covers 10 towns that were once home to the giants of the machine tools industry. The commission intends to use the grant to inventory, categorize, prioritize and assess the region's Brownfield sites. EPA funds will also be used to develop a cleanup and reuse plan for at least one property. Redevelopment plans include industrial and recreational use.

"All over the country and all over New England, Brownfield sites like the ones in South Windsor County are being cleaned up and restored, thereby creating news jobs, new tax revenues and new urban vitality," said John P. DeVillars, EPA's New England Administrator. "This $200,000 grant will provide much-needed momentum to get the ball rolling in South Windsor County beginning with the crucial first step of getting some of these sites assessed so we can determine how much they are contaminated."

DeVillars said the Brownfield program is among numerous initiatives the Clinton Administration has launched to revitalize the nation's cities. Among those efforts is the recently-proposed Better America Bonds initiative, which would give cities, states and tribal governments the ability to issue nearly $10 billion in bonds. The interest-free bonds could be used for preserving open space, creating parks, preserving wetlands and cleaning up Brownfield sites.

"Given the long industrial history of the Connecticut Valley, we are being very pleased that this area will now be part of the EPA's Brownfields program," said U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy. "This grant will expand economic opportunities in Windsor County by encouraging the reuse of old industrial sites," said U.S. Sen. James Jeffords. "We treasure our open spaces in Vermont and the revitalization of a Brownfield site means one less farm or field is pave over or forest cut down for the sake of a new plant or facility."

"I am extremely pleased that southern Windsor County has been named Vermont's second Brownfields assessment community," said U.S. Rep. Bernard Sanders. "What has been abandoned or under-used in the past, due to hazardous contaminants, will be cleaned up and made productive again."

A total of $1.4 million in Brownfield grants were awarded today to seven New England communities. Other grants to New England communities went to Marlborough, Taunton and Salem, Mass., as well as Winsted, New Milford and Haddam, Conn.