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  Brownfields  2005

   Grant Fact  Sheet

Essex Historical Society

       and Shipbuilding

          Museum,  MA


  EPA Brownfields Program

  EPA's Brownfields Program empowers states, commu-
  nities, and other stakeholders in economic development
  to work together to prevent, assess, safely clean up,
  and sustainably reuse brownfields. Abrownfield site is
  real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse
  of which may be complicated by the presence or
  potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant,
  or contaminant. On January 11, 2002, President George
  W. Bush signed into law the Small Business Liability
  Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act. Under the
  Brownfields Law, EPA provides financial assistance to
  eligible applicants through four competitive grant
  programs: assessment grants, revolving loan fund
  grants, cleanup grants, and job training grants. Addi-
  tionally, funding support is provided to state and tribal
  response programs through a separate mechanism.

  Community Description

  The Essex Historical Society and Shipbuilding Museum
  was selected to receive a brownfields cleanup grant.
  The Town of Essex (population 3,267) is a rural
  community on Cape Ann, 26 miles north of Boston.
  From the time  of its settlement until the early part of
  the 20th Century, shipbuilding accounted for most of the
  town's revenues. Today the main sources of income
  for the town come from the  shellfish industry and
  tourism. The museum, on the site of the old Story
  family shipyard, is currently used as a non-profit
  education and historic preservation facility for wooden
  shipbuilding and associated crafts. Each year thou-
   Cleanup Grant
120051
  $200,000 for hazardous substances

  EPA has selected the Essex Historical Society
  and Shipbuilding Museum for a brownfields
  cleanup grant. Funds will be used to remove and
  dispose of soil contaminated with hazardous
  substances at the museum site at 66 Main Street.
  Funds also will be used to place a physical barrier
  over the remaining contaminated soil, and conduct
  community involvement activities. The contamina-
  tion is associated with the site's long history of
  shipyard activities between 1813 and the 1990s.
   Contacts
  For further information, including specific grant
  contacts, additional grant information, brownfields
  news and events, and publications and links, visit
  the EPA Brownfields web site at: www.epa.gov/
  brownfields.

  EPA Region 1 Brownfields Team
  617-918-1221
  http://www.epa.gov/region01/brownfields/

  Grant Recipient: Essex Historical Society and
  Shipbuilding Museum, MA
  781-631-1537

  The cooperative agreement for this grant has not
  yet been negotiated; therefore, activities described
  in this fact sheet are subject to change.
sands of visitors, including school groups, visit the
museum. The museum property also provides recre-
ational access to the Essex River which flows through
the largest contiguous marsh in New England. The soil
and sediment at the site are contaminated with metals,
PCBs, and poly cyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Since
the site is unpaved, soil contamination poses human
health risks and possible transport of contaminants to
sediments in an adjacent tidal inlet of the river. Cleanup
of the soil contamination will reduce these threats to
human health, eliminate a source of contamination to
                                                  Solid Waste and
                                                  Emergency Response
                                                  (5105T)
                        EPA560-F-05-012
                        May 2005
                        www.epa.gov/brownfields

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the Essex River, and allow the museum to dedicate its
economic resources to providing educational and
historic preservation functions to the community.

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