Economic Development & Planning
Brownfields Site Assessment And Revolving Loan Programs
The DuBois property in Turners Falls received Brownfields Site Assessment funding.
Project Overview
"Brownfields" are properties that may or may not be contaminated with hazardous materials, the presence of which may impact the ability of the property to be used for redevelopment. The FRCOG administers two Brownfields programs on behalf of the region - a site assessment program, and a clean-up program. The site assessment program uses funds from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to hire an engineering firm to complete environmental site assessments for identified properties. The Brownfields Clean-up Revolving Loan Fund was created by a $1 million pilot grant from the EPA to the FRCOG in 1999. This loan fund gives low-interest loans to entities cleaning up brownfield sites that have been identified by the region. The Upper Mill site in Colrain and the First National Bank Building in Greenfield both used the revolving loan program to fund their clean-up.
Current Activities
Vacant or underutilized brownfield sites impact our region's natural resources, community health, and economic development opportunities. As a result of two Brownfields Site Assessment Grant received by the FRCOG, 25 properties in 13 Franklin County communities have had assessments conducted.
More properties will be assessed in the coming months under a recently awarded third EPA grant for environmental site assessment of brownfield sites. Unlike the previous grants that focused assessment on properties with potential hazardous substances, this new grant targets properties impacted by petroleum products. To view the Work Plan for this new grant, click here (96K PDF file).
Future Plans
The FRCOG has submitted a grant application for a fourth EPA grant for environmental site assessment of brownfield sites. Like the first two grants, this application is to fund assessment of properties with potential hazardous substances. This grant would allow the FRCOG to extend its assessment program to include additional properties that have been identified by communities, but were not in past environmental site assessment grants due to the level of funding available.
Links
MA Department of Environmental Protection's Brownfields Program
US Environmental Protection Agency's Brownfields Program
Page last updated on 10/25/07.