&EPA
United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, D.C. 20460
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5101)
EPA 500-F-00-192
May 2000
www.epa.gov/brownfields/
                 Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5105)
                                        Brownfields Success Stories
Rising  from  the Depths  in  Naugatuck
Valley:   The  Restoration  and  Reuse of
Idle Land
     .        NAUGATUCKVALLEY CT

         former landfill in Seymour, Connecticut, dormant for 20
   years, avoided by investors and developers alike, now has a future.
   Soon, the old Silvermine Landfill will be the new home of the Haynes
   Construction Company. In the neighboring cities of Thomaston and
   Beacon Falls, the owners of former commercial and industrial sites
   are finally making arrangements to pay long-overdue property taxes,
   fattening up city tax rolls by more than $500,000. And in nearby
   Ansonia, the charred remains of an abandoned building were re-
   moved to make room for a park enjoyed by residents of an adjacent
   senior citizen's center.

   These four cities, along  with Derby, Naugatuck, Oxford, Water-
   bury, 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 contamina-
   tion uncertainties regarding former commercial and industrial prop-
   erties, or brownfields.  Covering only 10 percent of the state's land
   area, the 45-mile Naugatuck Valley includes an estimated 20 per-
   cent of the state's brownfields.

   In addition to providing the assessment funding needed to remove
   potential developers' fear of the unknown, the Brownfields Pilot is
                                        cont.	^
                                         JUST THE  FACTS:

                                         • Covering only 10 percent of the state's land area,
                                          the 45-mile Naugatuck Valley includes an
                                          estimated 20 percent of the state's brownfields.
                                         • In the City of Beacon Falls, the owners of a former
                                          manufacturing facility paid more than $500,000
                                          in back taxes following assessment proposals
                                          by the Brownfields Pilot.
                                         • In the City of Derby, a former mixed-use property
                                          is being assessed by the Pilot using more than
                                          $ 180,000 in leveraged funds.
                                            In Beacon Falls, the owners of
                                            a former manufacturing facility
                                            paid more than $500,000 in
                                            back taxes to the city, following
                                            assessment proposals by the
                                            Brownfields Pilot.
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.

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      helping to form partnerships between developers, local environmentalists, prop-
      erty owners, and city officials. In Thomaston, the Pilot worked with a local
      community group to develop a reuse plan for the former Plume & Atwood
      Brass Mill, idle since 1992. The Pilot's assessments 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. A cleanup
      plan has been approved by the  city, and the owners have agreed to
      provide public access to the site along the Naugatuck River, where a
      new park and museum are among the planned reuses.  Similarly, in
      Beacon Falls, the owners of a 60,000-square-foot former manufactur-
      ing facility paid more than $500,000 in back taxes to the city, following
      assessment proposals by the Brownfields Pilot.
CON
TACTS:
Valley Regional Planning Agency
(203) 735-8688
U.S. EPA-Region 1
(617)918-1209
Visit the EPA Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/
      Restoration of Naugatuck Valley's brownfields has extended beyond the ac-
      tivities of the Brownfields Pilot as well. A portion of the former Seymour Spe-
      cialty Wire Company site was purchased by the Stop & Shop company, which conducted
      environmental assessments, is performing the necessary cleanup, and is building a new
      supermarket that will bring new jobs to the area, meeting a critical community need. The
      City of Seymour has since asked the Pilot to conduct assessments on another portion of
      the site, which the city hopes to redevelop into a new police station. In the City of Derby,
      Home Depot will occupy a 10-acre former industrial site where the previous owner funded
      assessments.  Home Depot is now conducting cleanup prior to redevelopment. Mean-
      while, just across the  street, a former mixed-use property is being assessed by the Pilot
      using more than $180,000 in leveraged funding—$100,000 in U.S. Department of Housing
      and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds, $50,000
      from the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven,  and $30,000 from EPA
      Region 1.

      At the confluence of the Naugatuck and Housatonic Rivers lies O'Sullivan's Island, part of
      the City of Derby. Local environmentalists  and citizens' groups see cleanup and restora-
      tion of this island and its riverbanks as a top priority, and the Brownfields Pilot adopted the
      island as its primary target. More than 90 drums of pollutants  were taken off the island
      during an emergency  removal action in 1985. The Brownfields Pilot performed assess-
      ments on the island in March 1999, 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.  Eventu-
      ally, 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.
                                                                                              :Y
Brownfields Success Story
May 2000
              Naugatuck Valley, CT
                EPA 500-F-00-192

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