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  Brownfields  2005
  Grant  Fact  Sheet
  West Springfield,  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 Town of West Springfield was selected to receive
a brownfields cleanup grant. West Springfield (popula-
tion 27,899) is involved in an effort to revitalize the
750-acre Merrick neighborhood. Merrick is the poorest
of the town's neighborhoods, with a large immigrant
population, a poverty rate of 27.6 percent, and a
substandard housing stock. Although Merrick com-
prises less than 15 percent of the town's land area, it is
the location of more than  half of West Springfield's
active hazardous waste sites. The Trade Center site,
once  a railway repair facility, is now a mostly vacant
industrial condominium complex. Environmental
conditions at the site have led to the abandonment of
units  and have deterred remaining business owners
from  undertaking any major capital improvements to
                       Cleanup Grant
120051
                       $156,560 for hazardous substances

                       EPA has selected the Town of West Springfield
                       for a brownfields cleanup grant. Grant funds will
                       be used to address hazardous substances and fuel
                       oil contamination at the West Springfield Trade
                       Center, a 5.75-acre site that was home to a major
                       Boston & Albany Railway Company repair
                       facility from 1860 to 1959. Remediation activities
                       will include excavation and removal of soil,
                       monitoring and sampling of groundwater, and
                       preparation of documentation including a deed
                       restriction for a 25,000-square-foot area that
                       contains soil and groundwater contaminated by a
                       fuel oil release from an underground storage tank.
                       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: Town of West Springfield, MA
                       413-263-3045

                       The cooperative agreement for this grant has not
                       yet been negotiated; therefore, activities described
                       in this fact sheet are subject to change.
                    their units. Cleanup of the Trade Center site is ex-
                    pected to facilitate the redevelopment of this
                    underutilized property, transform a blight in the neigh-
                    borhood, induce existing owners to invest and expand,
                    spur the creation of jobs, generate tax revenues, and
                    stimulate other redevelopment efforts in the area.
                                                  Solid Waste and
                                                  Emergency Response
                                                  (5105T)
                                             EPA560-F-05-019
                                             May 2005
                                             www.epa.gov/brownfields

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