United States Environmental Protection Agency Washington, D.C. 20460 Solid Waste and Emergency Response (5105) EPA 500-F-01-318 April 2001 www.epa.gov/brownfields/ &EPA Supplemental Assistance Southern Windsor County Regional Planning Commission, VT Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5105) 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, and safely clean up brownfields to promote their sustainable reuse. Brownfields are abandoned, idled, or under-used industrial and commercial facilities where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination. EPA is funding: assessment demonstration pilot programs (each funded up to $200,000 over two years, with additional funding provided for greenspace) to test assessment models and facilitate coordinated assessment and cleanup efforts at the federal, state, tribal, and local levels; and job training pilot programs (each funded up to $200,000 over two years) to provide training for residents of communities affected by brownfields to facilitate cleanup of brownfields sites and prepare trainees for future employment in the environmental field; and, cleanup revolving loan fund program (each funded up to $1,000,000 over five years) to provide financial assistance for the environmental cleanup of brownfields. These pilot programs 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 Southern Windsor County Regional Planning Commission (SWCRPC) to receive supplemental assistance for its Brownfields AssessmentDemonstration Pilot. Southern Windsor County includes ten towns in southeastern Vermont with a total population of 24,524. The region borders the Connecticut River on the east, and includes most of the Black River watershed. For much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the region dominated the precision machine tool manufacturing industry, earning itthe nickname "Precision Valley." After World War II, the machine tool industry began to decline. Between 1980 and 1990, the number of people employed in manufacturing dropped 40 percent and every town in the region experienced a decrease in per capita income. These old manufacturing towns have been left with high unemploymentrates, empty buildings, andsuspected environmental contamination from a century of industrial activity. The original Pilot has conducted, or will soon complete, four Phase I assessments, five Phase II assessments, and one Phase III assessment. In PILOT SNAPSHOT Date of Announcement: April 2001 Amount: $150,000 Profile: The Pilot targets sites in ten small towns in the Precision Valley part of the Black River watershed. Southern Windsor County Regional Planning Commission, Vermont Contacts: Southern Windsor Regional Brownfields Team County Regional U.S. EPA - Region 1 Planning Commission (617)918-1424 (802)674-9201 Visit the E PA Region 1 Brownfields web site at: http://www.epa.gov/region01/brownfields/ Forfurtherinformation,includingspecific 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/ ------- addition, the SWCRPC prepared an initial inventory of brownfields in the region, established an ongoing community involvement program, created a steering committee made up of representatives from member towns, and coordinated with the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation on site assessment activities. OBJECTIVES AND PLANNED ACTIVITIES Supplemental assistance will be used to continue assessments on priority sites in the region, with the goal of developing remediation plans for high-priority sites. Supplemental assistance will be used to conduct three Phase I environmental site assessments, two Phase II environmental site assessments, and three Phase III environmental site assessments. Sites targeted for Phase III assessments are the former Goodyearfacility in Windsor, the Precision Valley Development Corporation site in Springfield, and the Jewell Brook Mill in Ludlow. Supplemental assistance also will be used for public education and outreach, continued development of the brownfields inventory, and the ongoing development of a strategy for reuse of brownfields properties in the region. Activities planned as part of this Pilot include: • Conducting education and outreach to residents and other stakeholders in the ten small towns in the region; • Updating the inventory of brownfields in the region; and • Conducting Phase lenvironmental site assessments at three sites, Phase II assessments at two sites, and Phase III assessments at three sites. The cooperative agreement for this Pilot has not yet been negotiated; therefore, activities described in this fact sheet are subject to change. Brownfields Supplemental Assistance Southern Windsor County Regional Planning Commission, Vermont April 2001 EPA500-F-01-318 ------- |