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I JBt; | Brownfields 2005 Cleanup Grant Fact Sheet
West Springfield, MA
EPA Brownfields Program
EPA's Brownfields Program empowers states,
communities, and other stakeholders to work together to
prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse
brownfields. A brownfield 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. Additionally, funding support is provided
to state and tribal response programs through a separate
mechanism.
Community Description
The Town of West Springfield was selected to receive a
brownfields cleanup grant. West Springfield (population
27,899) is involved in an effort to revitalize the 750-acre
Merrick neighborhood. Merrick is the poorest of the
town's neighborhoods, with a large immigrant population,
a poverty rate of 27.6 percent, and a substandard housing
stock. Although Merrick comprises less than 15 percent of
the town's land area, it is the location of more than half of
West Springfield's active hazardous waste sites. The
Trade Center site, once a railway repair facility, is now a
mostly vacant industrial condominium complex.
Environmental conditions at the site have led to the
abandonment of units and have deterred remaining
business owners from undertaking any major capital
improvements to their units. Cleanup of the Trade Center
site is expected to facilitate the redevelopment of this
underutilized property, transform a blight in the
neighborhood, induce existing owners to invest and
expand, spur the creation of jobs, generate tax revenues,
and stimulate other redevelopment efforts in the area.
Cleanup Grant
$156,560 for hazardous substances
EPA has selected the Town of West Springfield
for a brownfields cleanup grant. Grant funds will
be used to address hazardous substances and fuel
oil contamination at the West Springfield Trade
Center, a 5.75-acre site that was home to a major
Boston & Albany Railway Company repair facility
from 1860 to 1959. Remediation activities will
include excavation and removal of soil,
monitoring and sampling of groundwater, and
preparation of documentation including a deed
restriction for a 25,000-square-foot area that
contains soil and groundwater contaminated by a
fuel oil release from an underground storage tank.
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
(http://www.epa.gov/brownfields).
EPA Region 1 Brownfields Team
(617) 918-1424
EPA Region 1 Brownfields Web site
(http://www.epa.gov/regionl/bro wnfields )
Grant Recipient: Town of West Springfield,MA
(413)263-3045
The information presented in this fact sheet comes
from the grant proposal; EPA cannot attest to the
accuracy of this information. The cooperative
agreement for the grant has not yet been
negotiated. Therefore, activities described in this
fact sheet are subject to change.
United States	c
Environmental	anri Fmpflpn™	EPA 560-F-05-019
Protection Agency	Response (5105T)	May 2005
Washington, DC 20450	Kesponse (si us )

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