&EPA
United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, D.C. 20460
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5101)
EPA 500-F-98-173
July 1998
Assessment
Demonstration Pilot
Stamford, CT
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 City of Stamford for a
Brownfields Pilot. The Pilot designation follows as
part of EPA's commitment to Stamford as a
Brownfields Showcase Community. Stamford
(population 110,000) focuses its brownfields activities
on the Stamford Harbor Redevelopment Project,
seeking to restore the harbor areato amaj or economic
and recreational resource. Restoration of the harbor
will also provide a much-needed economic boost to
Stamford's two lowest-income neighborhoods,
Waterside and South End, which are located within a
State Enterprise Zone. Waterside's population is
71 % minority, with 25% of families living below the
poverty level, while South End's residents are 80%
minority with a 16% poverty rate.
The brownfields prevalent throughout these two low-
income neighborhoods contribute to the area's blight
and create an environment that fosters crime. The
8,300 residents ofthese two neighborhoods are living
in former factory workers' housing, which was built
prior to zoning regulations and is interspersed with
factories, maximizing the potential for exposure to
contaminants. Only 20 of the 250 acres of industrial
land in the harbor area has been converted and
redeveloped, leaving 230 acres of underused
brownfields.
PILOT SNAPSHOT
Stamford, Connecticut
Date of Announcement:
July 1998
Amount: $200,000
Profile: The Pilot targets
the harbor area, which
includes Stamford's two
lowest-income
neighborhoods, South End
and Waterside. The area
has been designated as a
State Enterprise Zone.
Contacts:
Office of Operations
City of Stamford
(203)977-4141
Regional Brownfields Team
U.S. EPA-Region 1
(617)573-9681
Visit the EPA Region 1 Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/region01/remed/bmfld/
Forfurtherinformation, 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/
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OBJECTIVES
Stamford plans to include the Pilot as an integral part
of the City's redevelopment plan for the harbor area.
The Pilot will stimulate redevelopment of the harbor
and the adjoining neighborhoods by conducting Phase
I and II environmental assessments and integrating
Stamford' s Pilot and Showcase Community activities.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES
Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:
• Leveraging Stamford's designation as a Brownfields
Showcase Community to form new Federal
partnerships, and leverage additional public funding
to stimulate private demand;
• Conducting Phase I assessments on eightbrownfields
properties;
• Conducting Phase II assessments on sixbrownfields
properties; and
• Partnering with community residents, particularly in
Waterside and South End, to assure that existing
low-income residents in the neighborhoods share in
the benefits of brownfields redevelopment.
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 Pilos Stamford, Connecticut
July 1998 EPA500-F-98-173
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