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EPA GIVES CITY OF TAUNTON $200,000 BROWNFIELD GRANT FOR ASSESSMENTS

Release Date: 06/22/1999
Contact Information: Amy Miller, EPA Press Office (617-918-1042)

BOSTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced that the city of Taunton was chosen to receive a $200,000 Brownfields assessment pilot grant targeted for assessment and cleanup work at a former tannery.

Taunton is among three communities in Massachusetts and 57 nationally that have been chosen to receive a total of $11.4 million in Brownfields pilot grants, which are designed to help spur the assessment and cleanup of contaminated urban parcels so that they can be redeveloped. Marlborough and Salem also received $200,000 grants.

The City of Taunton will use the $200,000 to conduct site assessment work and cleanup planning at the West Water Street site, a 15-acre former tannery. The eventual business redevelopment of this parcel will generate full time jobs to area residents and spur other investors to making a commitment in this area.

"All over the country and all over New England, Brownfields sites like the one in Taunton 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 Taunton, beginning with the crucial first step of getting some of these sites assessed so we can determine how much they are contaminated."

"The $200,000 grant award will allow the City of Taunton and EPA to conduct a comprehensive site assessment on the tannery site and Cobb Brook in the Weir neighborhood," said Taunton Mayor Robert G. Nunes. "Our successful partnership has resulted in the cleanup of 21 Brownfield sites in the Weir. Our innovative environmental initiatives will generate hundreds of jobs and commit millions of dollars in private sector investment."

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.

A total of $1.4 million in Brownfield grants were awarded today to seven New England communities, including the following:

• The city of Marlborough will use its $200,000 grant to complete environmental assessments at the Frye Boot and Tannery Site and identify and assess properties along the Assabet River Rail Trail. Funds will also be used to conduct outreach activities such as newsletters and public meetings. A park on the former tannery site is one possible end use of that property.
• The city of Salem will focus on the Boston, Bridge and Mason Street Corridor with its $200,000 grant. The city will inventory its Brownfields sites, conduct environmental site assessments at up to four sites and form an advisory group to help identify the sites.

Other grants to New England communities went to Winsted, Haddam and New Milford, Conn., and to the South Windsor Regional Planning Commission in Vermont.