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EPA Gives $500,000 of Brownfields Grants to Gloucester for Cleanup Loans

Release Date: 05/18/2000
Contact Information: Peyton Fleming, EPA Press Office (617-918-1008)

BOSTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced that Gloucester has been chosen to receive $500,000 of Brownfields assistance to set up a revolving loan fund to help pay for site cleanups in the city.

Gloucester is among 15 recipients in New England and 102 nationally that have been chosen to receive a total of $35 million nationally in Brownfields grants. The funds are being used across the country for site assessments, revolving loan cleanup programs and Brownfields job training programs.

Gloucester will use the revolving loan funds to target the city's downtown and waterfront areas. Potential cleanup sites include the Marine Railways site, the Linsky Junkyard, Cape Ann Forge, the Gloucester Paint Factory and the Omniwave Electronics site. Some of these properties have already been assessed.

"This grant will help jump start Gloucester's efforts to clean up abandoned and contaminated sites so they can be put back to productive reuse," said Mindy S. Lubber, regional administrator of EPA's New England Office. "As a result, residents of Gloucester can look forward to a cleaner environment, new jobs and more tax revenues."

"Congress, the Clinton Administration and EPA are committed to revitalizing these polluted sites that once were given up for dead," said U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy. "Neighborhoods and businesses across the country are proving that the best days of these Brownfields are in the future, not in the past. This grant will enhance the impressive efforts by Gloucester to clean up their Brownfields and turn them into new engines for job creation and economic growth."

"These grants provide tremendous capital resources to cities striving to address the most pressing issue facing many urban centers," added U.S. Senator John Kerry. "Brownfields redevelopment is at the heart of the urban revitalization movement and these grants provide us with a strategic approach to identification and cleanup."

"Gloucester has put together a sound proposal for the use of this grant, one that I was happy to advocate for with EPA officials," said U.S. Congressman John Tierney. "The $500,000 revolving loan fund will help the city facilitate productive and appropriate new uses for a number of sites, including the Gloucester Marine Railways, where an exciting maritime park concept has gained widespread community support, Linsky's junkyard, the Cape Ann Forge, the Paint Factory and the Omni-Wave building."

A total of $5.4 million in Brownfield grants were awarded today to 15 New England recipients, including $1.34 million to four Massachusetts communities. Other grants went to Brockton, New Bedford and North Adams in Massachusetts; Providence and two Rhode Island state agencies; Westbrook and Lewiston in Maine; the Windham Regional Commission in Vermont; and New London, Berlin, Danbury, Naugatuck Valley and Middlesex Community College in Connecticut.