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Brownfields Success Stories
Rising from the Depths in Naugatuck Valley: the Restoration and Reuse of Idle Land
The Connecticut cities of Ansonia, Beacon Falls, Derby, Naugatuck, Oxford, Seymour, Thomaston, Waterbury, and Watertown are encompassed not only by the Naugatuck Valley but by EPA's Naugatuck Valley Brownfields Pilot. Awarded in October 1996, the Pilot was designed to help remove contamination uncertainties regarding former commercial and industrial properties, or brownfields. In Derby, a former mixed-use property is being assessed by the Pilot using more than $180,000 in leveraged funding. Also in Derby, the Brownfields Pilot performed assessments on O'Sullivan's Island, and is now working with EPA Region 1 to determine the feasability of phytoremediation--an innovative technology that uses plants or trees to extract contaminants from soil--to further prepare the site for redevelopment. Eventually, the riverbanks surrounding O'Sullivan's Island will be restored to pristine condition, and residents will enjoy a new park, a marina, and pedestrian and bicycle paths.
In addition to providing the assessment funding needed to remove potential developers' fear of the unknown, the Brownfields Pilot is helping to form partnerships between developers, local environmentalists, property owners, and city officials. In Beacon Falls, the owners of a 60,000- square-foot former manufacturing facility paid more than $500,000 in back taxes to the city, following assessment proposals by the Brownfields Pilot. And in Thomaston, the Pilot's assessments of the former Plume & Atwood Brass Mill prompted the site's owner to negotiate with the city for payment of more than $81,000 in back taxes, rather than risk losing the property to foreclosure. For more information on the Naugatuck Valley Brownfields Pilot, contact Jim Byrne at EPA Region 1, (617) 918-1389.