BOSTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection agency has awarded two grants of $200,000 each to support brownfields redevelopment projects led by Johnson & Wales University and the City of Providence.
The money is part of a $75.9-million brownfields grant distribution announced this week by EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson, including more than $11.6 million for New England.
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“New England communities this year have once again fare very well in the distribution of Brownfields grants,” said Robert W. Varney, the EPA regional administrator. “These funds will be a catalyst to make Rhode Island communities stronger and more whole, by spurring cleanup efforts and redevelopment of abandoned, contaminated parcels.”
The new grants will support the restoration of the former Louttit Laundry site on Cranston Street, on the West End of Providence, and the remediation of contaminated soil in the former train maintenance pit at 250 Shipyard St., at Fields Point.
“Environmental restoration and economic development go hand in hand,” U.S. Senator Jack Reed said in a news release about the grants. “Providence has demonstrated a commitment to the revitalization of its communities, and this funding will help reclaim land lost to past industrial development. I commend Johnson and Wales University for its desire to work with Providence on these important goals.”
Brownfields are former commercial and industrial sites that are contaminated and require environmental remediation before they can be reused. There are about 450,000 such sites nationwide, according to the EPA; in Rhode Island alone, more than 130 brownfields projects are now pending, according to the state Department of Environmental Management.
The EPA estimates that every acre of reclaimed brownfields saves 4.5 acres of greenspace, and every reclaimed site has, on average, has doubled the value of surrounding properties. Since 1995, the agency has provided more than $12.6 million for brownfields projects in the state.
Brownfields funds help communities assess contamination at abandoned and vacant sites and estimate the costs of cleaning up sites for redevelopment. Municipalities and select organizations can also receive funding for cleanup grants and to establish revolving loan programs that provide low interest loans for cleanups.
In addition to industrial and commercial redevelopment, brownfields projects have converted industrial waterfronts to riverfront parks, landfills to golf courses, rail corridors to recreational trails, and gas station sites to housing.
The EPA’s New England brownfields Web site is www.epa.gov/NE/brownfields. The DEM’s brownfields site is at www.brownfields.state.ri.us.
