Brownfields Supplemental Assistance Fact Sheet

Town of Great Barrington, MA

EPA's Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative is designed to empower states, communities, and other stakeholders in economic redevelopment to work together in a timely manner to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields. A brownfield is a site, or portion thereof, that has actual or perceived contamination and an active potential for redevelopment or reuse. EPA is funding: assessment demonstration pilot programs (each funded up to $200,000 over two years), to assess brownfields sites and to test cleanup and redevelopment models; job training pilot programs (each funded up to $200,000 over two years), to provide training for residents of communities affected by brownfields to facilitate cleanup of brownfields sites and prepare trainees for future employment in the environmental field; and, cleanup revolving loan fund programs (each funded up to $500,000 over five years) to capitalize loan funds to make loans for the environmental cleanup of brownfields. These pilot programs are intended to provide EPA, states, tribes, municipalities, and communities with useful information and strategies as they continue to seek new methods to promote a unified approach to site assessment, environmental cleanup, and redevelopment.

PILOT SNAPSHOT

Date of Announcement:
March 2000

Amount: $100,000

Target Area: Town of Great Barrington, MA

Profile: The Pilot targets the New England Log Homes site, a 8.2-acre former wood processing and treatment facility located on the Housatonic River in western Massachusetts.

BACKGROUND

EPA has selected the Town of Great Barrington to receive supplemental assistance for its Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot. Great Barrington (population 7,740) is the commercial center of southern Berkshire County, a rural area of western Massachusetts. The town's poverty rate is 7.5 percent; its unemployment rate is 4 percent; and its household income is 91 percent of the statewide median income. Between 1993 and 1997, the Berkshire Economic Target Area, which includes Great Barrington, lost more than 2,000 jobs. The town has been designated as a state Economic Target Area, which allows it to take advantage of the state's Economic Incentive Development Program.

Great Barrington plans to further the efforts of the original Assessment Pilot by targeting the 150-year old, 8.2-acre former industrial riverside site for cleanup and redevelopment. Originally a textile mill, it was used more recently as a wood processing and treatment facility for the New England Log Homes company. Affected by the housing slump during the late 1980s, the company finally closed its facility in 1993, leaving an abandoned building. An assessment by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) discovered the presence of hazardous materials, including dioxins and polynuclear hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the soil. After a short-term cleanup was conducted, the DEP deemed that further assessments of the site were required, which were subsequently conducted by the original Assessment Pilot. Through the Pilot, the town and the Community Development Corporation of South Berkshire, Inc. (CDC) forged a strong partnership and proved instrumental in designating the targeted site an Economic Opportunity Area. While the site stands empty, unpaid property taxes are currently estimated at more than $137,000.

OBJECTIVES

The Pilot, in coordination with the CDC, will use EPA's supplemental assistance grant to build on the momentum generated by the original Assessment Pilot grant to return the 8.2-acre downtown site to productive use by evaluating cleanup options and designing a cleanup plan.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:

Conduct an evaluation of cleanup alternatives;
Develop a design plan for selected cleanup options;
Conduct site preparation and cleanup planning; and
Conduct community outreach regarding the targeted site.

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

CONTACTS

Town of Great Barrington
Office of the Town Manager
(413) 528-1619

Regional Brownfields Team
U.S. EPA - Region 1
(617) 918-1347

Visit the EPA Region 1 Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/region01/brownfields/index.html

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

United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, D.C. 20460

Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5101)

EPA 500-F-01-297
April 2001

Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5101)

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