May 12, 2006
WASHINGTON – Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Joe Lieberman (D-CT) today announced the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded ten grants to Connecticut communities and regional councils worth a total of $2 million to help them assess, clean and redevelop abandoned, contaminated parcels known as Brownfields. These grants will benefit the cities of Bridgeport, East Hampton, Meriden, Shelton and the town of Sprague, as well as the North Star Center for Human Development in Hartford, the Norwalk Redevelopment Agency in Norwalk, and the Regional Growth Partnership in South Central, Connecticut.

"This assistance can help weed out old and contaminated facilities and plant new seeds of economic growth and opportunity," said Dodd. "It can help create jobs, generate a stronger economic foundation for these communities, and provide a better quality of life for citizens in our state."

“The funding provided by the EPA is a crucial step in the on-going revitalization efforts of these communities,” Lieberman said. “These resources should make the cleanup and redevelopment of potentially contaminated Brownfields attractive to businesses and inject new life into these cities' core downtown areas. These funds will help turn our Brownfields into amber waves of grain and fields of economic growth.”

The following grants were awarded:

• City of Bridgeport - Two grants totaling $400,000
• City of East Hampton - $200,000
• City of Meriden - $200,000
• North Star Center for Human Development - $200,000
• Norwalk Redevelopment Agency – Two grants totaling $400,000
• City of Shelton - $200,000
• Town of Sprague - $200,000

EPA’s 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.

Since 1995, EPA New England has provided more than $91 million for grants, site evaluations, job training and cleanup loan programs to dozens of communities and agencies, including more than $19.9 million to Connecticut. Federal funding has leveraged another $150 million in private investments to cleanup and redevelopment. With that was the addition of some 2000 new jobs in the state. EPA estimates that every acre of reclaimed Brownfields saves 4.5 acres of green space and every green space created, on average, has doubled the value of surrounding properties.