The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is using Providence as a “showcase” community for New England for the redevelopment of brownfields, focusing on the Riverside Gateway project in Olneyville and the Save the Bay headquarters at Fields Point, in particular.
Providence was spotlighted along with Stamford, Conn., and Lowell, New Bedford and the Mystic Valley Development Commission in Massachusetts in a recent report from the EPA’s regional office, “Brownfields Revitalization in New England: A Look Back.”
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The report examined the last 12 years’ worth of brownfields cleanup and redevelopment efforts. The showcase section “tried to highlight compelling brownfields accomplishments,” said David Deegan, a spokesman for the EPA.
The showcase communities have been working with the EPA for years, demonstrating brownfields remediation with the agency’s help. They were chosen through competitions in 1998 and 2000; when Providence was chosen in 1998, it was provided with a $200,000 pilot grant and assigned an EPA employee to work full-time in the city for two years.
Showcase communities, the EPA said, have had three goals: “to promote environmental protection, economic redevelopment and community revitalization through the assessment, cleanup and sustainable reuse of brownfields; to link federal, state, local and non-governmental action supporting community efforts to restore and reuse brownfields; and to develop national models demonstrating the positive results of public and private collaboration addressing brownfields challenges.”
The Riverside Gateway development involved three lots that were contaminated with metals, polyaromatic hydrocarbons and petroleum, as well as a 10,000-gallon underground fuel storage tank. But an EPA brownfields assessment grant allowed the Olneyville Housing Corporation to leverage $200,000 for environmental cleanup and nearly $4 million in grants and low-interest loans to build affordable housing.
“What’s excellent about Gateway is, not only did we get these parcels of land with a history of industrial use and contamination cleaned up and addressed, but the redevelopment is affordable housing,” Deegan said. “On all levels, it’s an incredible accomplishment.”
The Save the Bay facility is sited on another former eyesore. The land had been used in the 1950s as a municipal dump; it was contaminated with construction debris, methane, petroleum byproducts, semi-volatile compounds, pesticides and metals.
But with a $700,000 loan from the R.I. Economic Development Corporation, Save the Bay was able to transform the site into an ecological education center. The 17,600-square-foot building now houses the group’s headquarters, as well as classrooms, exhibition space and a dock, along with demonstrations of “green” building techniques. The facility received the 2005 Phoenix Award for excellence in brownfields redevelopment.
“The building is an incredible location,” Deegan said. “It’s a resource for kids to look at the contrast of what it’s been for decades, an eyesore, and it doing a complete 180-degree turn. Now, it’s a vital part of a community. Brownfields sites have become a real focus of the community and a place that the residents are really proud of.”
Deegan said that is why the EPA decided to feature the city in its latest report. “The sites in Providence really help to illustrate the great potential of revitalizing brownfields.”
The report was released in conjunction with the 2006 Brownfields Conference, held this month in Boston.
“Our office thought it was a great opportunity to look back over the last 12 years and take stock of where are we now,” Deegan said. “We thought, let’s review some of our accomplishments.”
