United States Environmental Protection Agency Washington, D.C. 20460 Solid Waste and Emergency Response (5101) EPA 500-F-99-021 March 1999 www.epa.gov/brownfields/ PA Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot Walpole, MA Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5101) Quick Reference Fact Sheet EPA's Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative is designed to empower States, communities, and other stakeholders in economic redevelopment to work together in a timely manner to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields. A brownfield is a site, or portion thereof, that has actual or perceived contamination and an active potential for redevelopment or reuse. Since 1995, EPA has funded more than 200 Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilots, at up to $200,000 each, to support creative two-year explorations and demonstrations of brownfields solutions. The Pilots are intended to provide EPA, States, Tribes, municipalities, and communities with useful information and strategies as they continue to seek new methods to promote a unified approach to site assessment, environmental cleanup, and redevelopment. BACKGROUND EPA has selected the Town of Walpole for a Brownfields Pilot. Walpole (population 22,235) is a suburb 19 miles south of Boston with a history of industrial development along the Neponset River. A recent survey found Walpole to have the second- largest number of undeveloped industrial and commercial sites in the Metropolitan Boston Region, but many of these sites have been abandoned or underutilized because of real or perceived contamination. These brownfields sites pose arisk to the community's economic, environmental, and public health. Some known or suspected brownfields are located over the town's sole source aquifer that supplies Walpole's drinking water. The Pilot will examine a group of sites located in prime commercial areas nearthe town's center. These include an abandoned auto garage, a 60-year-old industrial site with known contamination, the former site of the town grit facility, and an abandoned manufacturing site. The Pilot plans to select three of these sites for assessment. OBJECTIVES The town's objective is to clean up its brownfields sites to ensure the protection of public health and the environment by cleaning up its brownfields sites and returning them to productive use. The initial obj ective PILOT SNAPSHOT Date of Announcement: March 1999 Amount: $200,000 Profile: The Pilot targets three sites in the downtown area of Walpole. Walpole, Massachusetts Contacts: Walpole Board of Health (508) 660-7320 Regional Brownfields Team U.S. EPA- Region 1 (617)918-1209 Visit the EPA Region 1 Brownfields web site at: http://www.epa.gov/region01/remed/brnfld/ For further information, including specific Pilot contacts, additional Pilot information, brownfields news and events, and publications and links, visit the EPA Brownfields web site at: http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/ ------- is to mitigate the potential threat to the town's water supply through the assessment and cleanup activities conducted at the targeted sites. To accomplish these goals, the Pilot will rely heavily on community input throughout the site identification, assessment, and cleanup planning processes. ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES Activities planned as part of this Pilot include: • Selecting three target sites through community involvement efforts; • Performing assessments at the selected sites; • Developing cleanup and redevelopment plans for the targeted sites; and • Organizing a community-based stakeholder group to keep the community involved in the project. The cooperative agreement for this Pilot has not yet been negotiated; therefore, activities described in this fact sheet are subject to change. Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot Walpole, Massachusetts March 1999 EPA 500-F-99-021 ------- |