Hartford Creates
                    Greens pace  in  a
                    Neighborhood
                                                         Community
                                                         Blighted
                                                                        rr
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                                  Hartford, CT
      -esidents from one of the poorest neighborhoods in Hartford,
Connecticut, are enjoying an aesthetic revival of the area. The impetus of
this revival is the transformation of a hazardous brownfield adjacentto a
local school into greenspace benefitting the entire community. The city's
efforts, along with those of EPA and other federal and state agencies, have
brought new opportunity to Hartford's distressed areas by focusing on
brownfields reuse.

Thirty percent of the land in Hartford has been abandoned since 1986 due
to migration of the city's heavy manufacturing industry. Statistics showthe
economic consequences: in 1995, 62 percent of the city's population of
125,100 was identified as living below federally defined low- to moderate-
income levels. The situation was perhaps the worst in the near-100 percent
minority Clay/Arsenal neighborhood, where unemployment rates climbed
as high as 24 percent. For 11 years, students attending a school located in
this neighborhood, Quirk Middle School, were forced to pass an unsafe
and unsightly dump full of tires, mattresses, oil cans, and other debris.
Known as the Chestnut/Edwards Street property, this site had once been
home to a paint store before being abandoned.

Now, thanks in part to assistance from EPAand other federal agencies,
the Chestnut/Edwards Street site has been transformed into a 1.74-acre
greenspace that includes open  playing space, a nature path, and a
community garden that is the pride of community groups and local students
who contributed to its planting.  The city received an initial $200,000
grant from EPA's Brownfields Initiative in September 1997, and has since
received $150,000 in supplemental funding and $200,000 as aBrownfields
Showcase Community finalist. The city used $60,000 of this Pilot funding
to perform preliminary environmental assessments on the site in December
1998, followed by amore detailed assessmentin April 1999. The discovery
of high levels of lead contamination from the former paint store made
cleanup of the site a major priority. The City of Hartford committed

                                                continued ^
    Community gardens at the Chestnut/
         Edwards street site.

JUST THE  FACTS:
                                                               The city used $60,000 in EPA
                                                               Assessment Pilot funding to perform
                                                               environmental assessments on the
                                                               Chestnut/Edwards street site. The
                                                               discovery of high levels of lead
                                                               contamination made cleanup a major
                                                               priority.
                                                               In addition to other funding sources, the
                                                               Kellogg Foundation at Trinity College
                                                               provided $38,000 to fund cleanup of the
                                                               site through phytoremediation. Students
                                                               from the college employed this innovative
                                                               cleanup method, which uses plants to
                                                               extract lead from soil.
                                                               The community also played a major role
                                                               in planning the site's transition, specifically
                                                               through community organizations such as
                                                               the South Arsenal Neighborhood
                                                               Development Corporation and the
                                                               Organized North Easterners/Clay Hill and
                                                               Northeast community group.
                                                                 Thanks in part to assistance
                                                                  from EPA and other federal
                                                                agencies, a brownfield in one of
                                                               Hartford's poorest neighborhoods
                                                               has been transformed into a 1.74-
                                                                 acre greenspace that includes
                                                               open playing space, a nature path,
                                                               and a community garden that is the
                                                                pride of community groups and
                                                               local students who contributed to
                                                                        its planting.

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   $ 108,000, a Community Development Block Grant from the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban
   Development provided $100,000, and the Knox Parks Foundation used $30,000
   in funding from a 1997 EPA Urban Environmental Initiative Grant to design
   and develop the site into recreational greenspace and a garden ready for
                              planting. The Kellogg Foundation at
                                 Trinity College provided $38,000
                                   to  fund cleanup of the site
                                   through phyto-remediation
                                   techniques.  Students from the
                                   college   employed  this
                                   innovative cleanup  method,
                                 which uses Indian mustard plants
                                to extract lead from the soil as they
                                grow.
                                                              CONTACTS:
                                                              For more information contact
                                                              U.S. EPA-Region 1 (617) 918-1424
                                                              Or visit EPA's Brownfields Web site at:
                                                              http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/
The Chestnut/Edwards street site with
  phytoremediation in progress.
   The community also played a maj or role in planning the site's transition, specifically
   through community organizations such as the South Arsenal Neighborhood Development Corporation
   (SAND) and the Organized North Easterners/Clay Hill and Northeast community group (ONE/
   CHANE). Students from Quirk Middle School were also involved in garden planting. Teacher Wendi
   di Corcia stated, "I was always taught to leave a place better than when you came in. This gardening
   proj ect gives our students ownership in this neighborhood. This is where their neighborhood is. This
   is their garden. It gives them a sense of pride." The garden also has a positive impact on the adj acent
   House of Bread soup kitchen as it receives fresh produce from the
   site. Area residents are finally able to enj oy open greenspace, and
   the local economy is now growing as development spreads to
   properties adj acent to this former brownfield.

   This thriving, urban greenspace is an example of the innovative
   brownfields restoration proj ects currently underway by the City
   ofHartford.
                                                             Community gardens at the Chestnut/
                                                                  Edwards street site.
Brownfields Success Story
Hartford, Connecticut
                                      Solid Waste
                                      and Emergency
                                      Response (5105)
      EPA 500-F-03-009
             May 2003
www. epa.gov/brownfields/

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