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Brownfields 2006
Grant Fact Sheet
Regional Growth
Partnership, South
Central Connecticut
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 Regional Growth Partnership was selected to
receive a brownfields assessment grant. The Partner-
ship represents the 15 towns (total population
546,799) of the Greater New Haven Region. Over
time, the area has lost a substantial number of manu-
facturing businesses, including many in the defense
industry, the historical backbone of the state's
economy. The region has been left with a classic rust
belt of old, obsolete, and abandoned sites. Higher-
paying manufacturing jobs have been replaced by
lower-wage service jobs that lack health and retire-
Assessment Grant
$200,000 for petroleum
EPA has selected the Regional Growth Partner-
ship for a brownfields assessment grant. Petro-
leum grant funds will be used to conduct commu-
nity outreach activities, develop smart growth
planning, and perform approximately five Phase I
and three to five Phase II environmental site
assessments. These assessments will focus on the
urban center of the region and on the historically
industrialized Quinnipiac River which flows
through the center of the region.
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: Regional Growth Partnership, CT
203-821-3682
The cooperative agreement for this grant has not
yet been negotiated; therefore, activities described
in this fact sheet are subject to change.
ment benefits. The urban centers of the region, includ-
ing New Haven, a federally designated Empowerment
Zone, are disproportionately affected by the number of
brownfields in their communities. They have the
communities' largest concentrations of minority
populations and the highest levels of poverty. For
example, New Haven's minority population exceeds 56
percent, and nearly 22 percent of its residents live in
poverty. Assessment and cleanup of the region's
brownfields sites will help communities implement
smart growth principles and remove potential health
threats in the urban centers and along the Quinnipiac
Solid Waste and
Emergency Response
(5105T)
EPA 560-F-06-005
May 2006
www.epa.gov/brownfields
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River, one of the country's most degraded rivers.
Redevelopment of the sites will create jobs and gener-
ate tax revenues in key communities, especially in
urban centers, while preserving the region's greenspace
and promoting access to the river.
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