Brownfields 2004 Grant Fact Sheet

Griswold, CT

EPA BROWNFIELDS PROGRAM

EPA's Brownfields Program empowers states, communities, and other stakeholders in economic development to work together to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields. A brownfield 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. On January 11, 2002, the President signed into law the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act. Under the Brownfields Law, EPA provides financial assistance to eligible applicants through four competitive grant programs: assessment grants, revolving loan fund grants, cleanup grants, and job training grants. Additionally, funding support is provided to state and tribal response programs through a separate mechanism.

ASSESSMENT GRANT

$200,000 for hazardous substances

EPA has selected the Town of Griswold for a brownfields assessment grant. Grant funds will be used to perform Phase I and Phase II assessments of a 17-acre former wire manufacturing site. Contamination consists of various chemicals and compounds that were used in the manufacturing of wire, including lead, dichloromethane, antimony trioxide, volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds, PCBs, and copper.

COMMUNITY DESCRIPTION

The Town of Griswold was selected to receive a brownfields assessment grant. Of the town's 10,807 residents, 3,713 live in the target area, half of whom have low or moderate incomes. The former wire manufacturing facility once employed 700 to 800 people, and had been the town's largest employer. The downsizing and eventual closing of the site had a significant negative impact on the local economy. There is concern that surface and ground contamination could have leached into a 102-acre pond near the site that is used for recreation. Environmental assessment is expected to lead to the site's cleanup and redevelopment as a high-tech industrial and manufacturing park that will provide needed jobs for the entire town. The town also intends to reclaim an area of the pond's shoreline contiguous to the site to establish a conservation easement for use by the general public.

CONTACTS

For further information, including specific grant contacts, additional grant information, brownfields news and events, and publications and links, visit the EPA Brownfields web site at: www.epa.gov/brownfields.

EPA Region 1 Brownfields Team
617-918-1221
http://www.epa.gov/region01/brownfields/

Grant Recipient: Griswold, CT
860-376-7084

The cooperative agreement for this grant has not yet been negotiated; therefore, activities described in this fact sheet are subject to change.