United States
                  Environmental
                  Protection Agency
                  Washington, D.C. 20460
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5101)
EPA500-F-99-010
March 1999
www.epa.gov/brownfields/
          PA  Brownfields Assessment
                  Demonstration  Pilot
                                                Great Barrington, MA
Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5101)
                    Quick Reference Fact Sheet
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. Since 1995, EPA has funded
more than 200 Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilots, at up to $200,000 each, to support creative two-
year explorations and demonstrations of brownfields solutions. The Pilots 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.
BACKGROUND

EPA has selected the Town of Great Barrington for
a Brownfields 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 only 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.

The Pilot targets a 9-acre downtown site on the
Housatonic River that has been used for industrial
purposes since the 1880s. 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, selling its equipment and leaving only the empty
building. A 1995 assessment by the Massachusetts
Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)
discovered the presence of hazardous materials,
including dioxins  and polynuclear hydrocarbons
(PAHs) in the soil.  A short-term cleanup was
conducted, but the DEP determined that further
assessment was needed.  While the building  stands
 PILOT SNAPSHOT
 Great Barrington,
 Massachusetts
Date of Announcement:
March 1999

Amount: $200,000

Profile:  The Pilot targets
the New England Log
Homes site, a 9-acre former
wood processing and
treatment facility located on
the Housatonic River in
western Massachusetts.
 Contacts:

 The Town of Great
 Barrington
 (413)528-1619
 Regional Brownfields
 Team
 U.S. EPA-Region 1
 (617)918-1209
     Visit the EPA Region 1 Brownfields web site at:
     http: //www. ep a. gov/regionOl/remed/brnfld/

  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. ep a. go v/bro wnfields/

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empty, unpaid property taxes, currently estimated at
over $100,000, are increasing at arate of $30 per day.

OBJECTIVES

Great  Barrington's objective is to remove the
environmental threat and return the 9-acre downtown
site to productive use. New England Log Homes has
agreedto sell the site to the South Berkshire Community
Development Corporation (CDC) for $ 1. Working
with  the  town,  the CDC has developed a
comprehensive redevelopmentplan that includes input
from members of the community.  Proposed uses
include an  office park, an industrial facility,  and a
riverside commercial-retail complex. The Pilot's plan
is  to assess,  identify,  and characterize the  site's
contamination, thus clearing  the way to leverage
cleanup of the site and identify a developer.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

Activities planned as part of the Pilot include:

• Performing Phase I and II assessments of the New
 England Log Homes site; and

• Developing cleanup plans for the site.
The cooperative agreement for this Pilot has not yet been
negotiated; therefore, activities described in this fact sheet are
subject to change.
Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot                              Great Barrington, Massachusetts
March 1999                                                                    EPA 500-F-99-010

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