Brownfields 2006 Grant Fact Sheet

Regional Growth Partnership, South Central Connecticut

EPA BROWNFIELDS PROGRAM

EPA's Brownfields Program empowers states, communities, and other stakeholders 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, President George W. Bush 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 petroleum
EPA has selected the Regional Growth Partnership for a brownfields assessment grant. Petroleum grant funds will be used to conduct community outreach activities, develop smart growth planning, and perform approximately five Phase I and three to five Phase II environmental site assessments. These assessments will focus on the urban center of the region and on the historically industrialized Quinnipiac River which flows through the center of the region.

COMMUNITY DESCRIPTION

The Regional Growth Partnership was selected to receive a brownfields assessment grant. The Partnership represents the 15 towns (total population 546,799) of the Greater New Haven Region. Over time, the area has lost a substantial number of manufacturing businesses, including many in the defense industry, the historical backbone of the state's economy. The region has been left with a classic rust belt of old, obsolete, and abandoned sites. Higher-paying manufacturing jobs have been replaced by lower-wage service jobs that lack health and retirement benefits. The urban centers of the region, including New Haven, a federally designated Empowerment Zone, are disproportionately affected by the number of brownfields in their communities. They have the communities' largest concentrations of minority populations and the highest levels of poverty. For example, New Haven's minority population exceeds 56 percent, and nearly 22 percent of its residents live in poverty. Assessment and cleanup of the region's brownfields sites will help communities implement smart growth principles and remove potential health threats in the urban centers and along the Quinnipiac River, one of the country's most degraded rivers. Redevelopment of the sites will create jobs and generate tax revenues in key communities, especially in urban centers, while preserving the region's greenspace and promoting access to the river.

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
617-918-1424
http://www.epa.gov/region01/brownfields/

Grant Recipient: Regional Growth Partnership, CT
203-821-3682

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