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EPA presents $200,000 brownfields grant to help clean up former TS and T Pottery site in Chester, W. Va.

Release Date: 07/11/2012
Contact Information: Roy Seneca seneca.roy@epa.gov (215) 814-5567

PHILADELPHIA (July 11, 2012) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today presented a $200,000 brownfields cleanup grant to the Business Development Corporation of the Northern Panhandle that will be used to help clean up hazardous substances at the site of a former pottery plant in Chester, W. Va.

"This funding will help the Business Development Corporation of the Northern Panhandle spearhead cleanup activities at an abandoned industrial site that has been vacant and underutilized in the Chester community for more than 20 years,” said EPA mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Shawn M. Garvin. "Our brownfields resources target communities where environmental cleanups and new jobs are most needed and where our investments will have the greatest effect on the health and economy of the area."

The funding is supporting cleanup of the former Taylor, Smith and Taylor (TS&T) Pottery site at 8th and Plutus Streets near downtown Chester, which has been vacant for more than 20 years. The site is being demolished and developed so that the property can be used for future business activities. The site was used as a ceramic pottery manufacturing facility from 1900 until operations ceased in 1982. The facility is contaminated with metals and inorganic contaminants. Grant funds also will be used for reuse planning and community outreach activities.

EPA's Brownfields program empowers states, communities, and other stakeholders to work together to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields. A brownfields site is real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. There are an estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated waste sites in the United States.

For further information, visit the EPA Brownfields website https://www.epa.gov/brownfields .