United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, D.C. 20460
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5101)
EPA500-F-97-041
May 1997
National Brownfields
Assessment Pilot
Worcester, 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. Between 1995 and 1996, EPA funded 76 National and Regional Brownfields
Assessment Pilots, at up to $200,000 each, to support creative two-year explorations and demonstrations of brownfields
solutions. EPAis funding morethan 27 Pilots in 1997. 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 selected the City of Worcester for a Brownfields
Pilot. Worcesterand the 59 surrounding municipalities
in Worcester County have been an area of heavy
industrial activity since the early 1800s. However.
Worcester has lost 30 percent of its manufacturing
employment base since 1970, and the entire area has
seen dramatic declines as industries have moved
away. This migration has resulted in hundreds of
acres of often contaminated industrial land and high
poverty and unemployment rates in surrounding
industrial areas. Nearly 200 sites in the City and 270
sites in the surrounding County have been classified
"urban brown ground" (2IE) under the State of
Massachusetts' Superfund law.
OBJECTIVES
The Worcester Pilot is working on creating incentives
for the redevelopment of urban industrial sites and
ensuring the safety and health of the surrounding
neighborhoods. The project is focusing on returning
2IE properties to the economic base, facilitating
economic expansion and property tax sharing for area
communities, and providing a mechanism and
resources for future control and response actions at
2 IE communities. At least 3 sites will be selected for
assessment and redevelopment.
PILOT SNAPSHOT
Worcester, Massachusetts
Date of Award:
June 1996
Amount: $200,000
Site Profile: The Pilot
targets at least 3 sites for
assessment and
redevelopment out of the
nearly 200 former
industrial sites in
Worcester that have been
designated as "urban
brown ground" by the
State of Massachusetts.
Contacts:
Chris Pierpan
Central Massachusetts
Economic Development
Authority
(508)799-1400
Lynne Jennings
U.S. EPA-Region 1
(617)573-9634
jennings.lynne@
epamail.epa.gov
Visit the EPA Brownfields Website at:
http://www.epa.gov/brownfields
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AND
The Pilot has:
* Presented a packet of educational information
regarding brownfields redevelopment at the annual
Massachusetts Municipal Association Conference
and to the nearby Towns of Auburn and Boylston.
The Pilot is:
* Defining procedures and protocols for the identifi-
cation, analysis, selection, acquisition, and disposi-
tion of sites;
* Developing a public input mechanism and process
through the formation of the Central Massachusetts
Brownfields Advisor}- Council; and
* Preparing a process manual as a model for other
communities.
Experience with the Worcester Pilot has been the
catalyst for related activities including the following.
* Established the Central Massachusetts Redevelop-
ment Authority (CMEDA) through State legislation
to redevelop three sites.
* CMEDA has partnered with the Massachusetts
Development Finance Agency, the Massachusetts
Department of Environmental Protection and the
City of Grafton and has raised $90,000 to perform
an environmental assessment on the Fisherville Mill
site in Grafton.
* Investigating and developing alternatives for
financing site redevelopment.
National Brownfields Assessment Pilot Worcester, Massachusetts
May 1997 EPA 500-F-97-041
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