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Latest $500 Thousand Award for Brownfields Redevelopment Pushes EPA Brownfields Contributions to Trenton to $1.9 Million

Release Date: 07/19/2000
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(#00135) NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Just last month, the City of Trenton made its first loan under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Brownfields Cleanup Revolving Loan Fund program. The funds will be used to remove any remaining taint of chemical contamination at the 6.5-acre Kramer site, a former industrial property on North Olden Avenue, which will ready the site for redevelopment. Today, EPA Regional Administrator Jeanne M. Fox announced that Trenton has been awarded an additional $500,000 to supplement the previous EPA revolving loan grant for the same amount. The Revolving Loan Fund provides capital funding to municipalities to create loan funds, which provide money to clean up brownfield sites. EPA has now awarded a total of $1.9 million to Trenton in Brownfields redevelopment grants, funding for staff support and revolving loan funds. EPA supports communities across the country through its Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative - a national effort to renew industrial and commercial properties where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination. "Trenton’s brownfields success stories provide valuable lessons for other municipalities in the early stages of this national initiative," Ms. Fox said. "EPA continues to support Trenton’s brownfields efforts because they are working, as evidenced by the city’s track record of building strong partnerships with all levels of government, the community and the private sector." Through private and public partnerships with the federal and state governments, the city has already cleaned up and redeveloped more than 30 brownfields, recycling nearly 100 acres. The urban revitalization impact is clear, with one of these sites leveraging approximately $90 million to create a new shopping center, an office complex and more than 400 jobs. Trenton’s first loan from the revolving fund was for $275,000 to finish the cleanup of the Kramer site, which the city acquired in foreclosure in 1997. The money will be used for soil excavation and removal, as well as capping. EPA spent $210,000 to remove the serious chemical threats at the site, which included, among other hazards, flammable liquids and heavy metals, under its Superfund program in 1997,. The APEX Lumber Company plans to use the site for facility expansion following cleanup work. Earlier this month, Trenton made its second loan from the revolving fund. This loan, for $150,000, will be used to clean up the Warren-Balderston property, a 1.4-acre site with heavy metals and organic chemical contamination, which is bordered by Pennington Avenue and North Willow Street. EPA’s commitment to Trenton’s efforts to revive neglected and derelict urban sites is significant. Prior to today’s announcement, EPA had contributed $1.4 million to support brownfields redevelopment in Trenton. In March 1998, Vice President Al Gore announced that Trenton had been selected as a Showcase Community, one of only 16 municipalities chosen from across the country to share $28 million in federal resources and receive coordinated technical assistance from 17 federal agencies to develop models of innovative environmental cleanup and economic revitalization. In addition, an EPA expert has been working full-time in Trenton for the last two years coordinating the federal assistance being used to address Trenton’s specific concerns. EPA has also been very active in hazardous waste site cleanups within the city’s borders. In addition to the Kramer site cleanup, EPA conducted a $450,000 cleanup at the Gould Battery (a.k.a. Magic Marker) site on Calhoun Street in 1998 and the $400,000 Champale site cleanup on Lamberton Street in 1997. Also, EPA cleaned up the Champale Laboratory site on Centre Street in 1996 for $34,000, the Blakely Laundry site on Montgomery Street in 1992 for $124,000 and the Titan Lighting site on Lawlor Street in 1991 for $454,000. Including Trenton, there are 20 municipalities participating in the national Brownfields Economic Redevelopment program in New Jersey, including: Camden, Newark, Perth Amboy, Jersey City, Elizabeth, Atlantic City, Long Branch, Paterson, Essex, Somerset, Union, Hudson, Middlesex and Morris Counties, Orange, Phillipsburg, Gloucester City, Pennsauken Township and the Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission District. Over the past six years, these grants represent an investment of more than $6 million to assist in the redevelopment of New Jersey’s brownfields.