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EPA Grants $1 Million For Brownfield Cleanup In Hartford, East Hartford

By SUZANNE CARLSON

May 10, 2013

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has granted a total of $1 million to Hartford and East Hartford to clean up industrial pollution.

The grants provide communities with funding necessary to "assess, clean up and redevelop contaminated properties, boost local economies and leverage jobs while protecting public health and the environment," the agency said in a statement. The EPA has awarded 54 grants to 32 different organizations across six New England states as part of a more than $62 million nationwide investment in brownfield cleanup.

In Connecticut, Hartford received three grants totaling $600,000 for cleanup: $200,000 will be used to clean 393 Homestead Ave., the former site of the Philbrick, Booth and Spencer factory and foundry, said Jared Kupiec, chief of staff for Mayor Pedro Segarra.

Also, $200,000 will be used to clean up petroleum contamination at 40 Chapel Road, and $200,000 will be used to clean up the site of an old paint store at 70 Edwards St.

Kupiec said the mayor is pushing to clean up Homestead Avenue from Sigourney Street to Albany Avenue and prepare the area for commercial development. That project has become a collaborative effort, as the state also granted $500,000 for cleanup at the site, and Segarra included $750,000 in the city's capital improvements budget, totaling $1.5 million for brownfield cleanup there.

In East Hartford, Goodwin College received two cleanup grants totaling $400,000.

Goodwin College spokesman Matthew Engelhardt said the sites to be addressed are each 0.44 acres. The first is at 361-363 Main St., directly across from Pratt & Whitney, and was purchased by the college in 2008. A variety of businesses have operated at the site since the Depression, and Engelhardt said it housed a gas station from 1949-1968.

The second site was residential prior to 1950, and was the location of the car repair shop A&P Auto Sales from 1998 to 2012, Engelhardt said.

Both sites are vacant and will be used in the ongoing expansion of the Goodwin College campus, Engelhardt said.

Other grant recipients in the state include the Greater Bridgeport Regional Council, which received $400,000; Meriden, which received $200,000; Plainfield, which received $200,000. The Renaissance City Development Association of New London received $400,000, Stratford received $400,000 for two communitywide assessments; and the Willimantic Whitewater Partnership received $200,000 for cleanup.