Somerville to receive $400,000 in EPA funding to help clean contaminated sites

The city of Somerville will receive $400,000 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to help clean contaminated sites known as brownfields. This funding is part of more than $16 million for brownfields allotted nationally and $3 million allotted in New England by the EPA. Somerville has received one of the 27 grants announced nationally, including eight in New England. This funding is targeted to help with cleanup activities and redevelopment projects, and to help create jobs for people living near brownfields sites. These grants will help revitalize former industrial and commercial sites, turning them from problem properties to productive community use. This money was provided as supplemental funding for revolving loan fund grants already given to these communities. Brownfields are sites where expansion, redevelopment, or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. The seven other grants given in New England included two in Conn. (totaling $600,000), three in Mass. (totaling $1.2 million), and two in Vermont (totaling $800,000) and one in Maine ($400,000). Since EPA's brownfields program began, EPA has provided 50 loans and 41 grants in New England totaling more than $24 million for brownfields cleanup. The loan funds have paved the way for more than $164 million in public and private cleanup and redevelopment investment and for 925 jobs in cleanup, construction and redevelopment. The national brownfields program encourages redevelopment of the country's estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated waste sites. "This funding for Somerville will help the local economy and will continue to assist in creating and keeping good jobs in the area. With this additional money the city will be able to fund more local cleanup projects," said Curt Spalding, regional administrator for EPA New England. "Somerville's Brownfields Program has allowed us to assess and clean up numerous sites throughout the city, and maximize the potential of our developable land in such a densely populated community. We are extremely thankful to the EPA for this funding, which will further enable us to leverage private sector funding for redevelopment activities as we continue to make Somerville a clean, green, sustainable community for the future of our residents," said Somerville mayor Joseph Curtatone.