&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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