5 o T> Brownfields 2007 Grant Fact Sheet Southern Windsor County Regional Planning Commission, VT EPA Brownfields Program EPA's Brownfields Program empowers states, commu- nities, and other stakeholders 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 Southern Windsor County Regional Planning Commission was selected to receive a brownfields assessment grant. Located in southeastern Vermont, the Southern Windsor County Regional Planning Commis- sion serves ten small towns (population 25,105) in Windsor County. Southern Windsor County was the birthplace of the machine tool industry in the United States. By 1900, hundreds of thousands of square feet of factory space were devoted to machine tool manu- Assessment Grant $100,000 for petroleum EPA has selected the Southern Windsor County Regional Planning Commission for a brownfields assessment grant. Petroleum grant funds will be used for community outreach, site identification and prioritization, and three Phase I and two Phase II environmental site assessments. 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 617-918-1424 http://www.epa.gov/region01/brownfields/ Grant Recipient: Southern Windsor County Regional Planning Commission, VT 802-674-9201 The information presented in this fact sheet comes from the grant proposal; EPA cannot attest to the accuracy of this information. The cooperative agreement for the grant has not yet been negoti- ated. Therefore, activities described in this fact sheet are subject to change. facturing, with subsequent surges in capacity to support war efforts. By the 1980s, the county's economic fortunes began to change. Between 1980 and 2000, the county lost about 43 percent of its manufacturing jobs. Many large manufacturing plants, totaling nearly a million square feet of floor space, were closed. A decline in population, wages, and employment has followed. Many of these now vacant or underused industrial properties are located in town centers and along the Black and Connecticut Rivers. Redevelopment momen- tum is growing in southern Windsor County, and many of these properties provide excellent opportunities for mixed-use development with river frontage. Solid Waste and Emergency Response (5105T) EPA560-F-07-161 May 2007 www.epa.gov/brownfields ------- |