Hartford Creates
Greens pace in a
Neighborhood
Community
Blighted
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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
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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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