Tells top EPA official that cleaning up industrial sites leads to jobs, economic growth
 
Congresswoman Chellie Pingree brought a top EPA official to Maine today to highlight the opportunities for economic growth and job creation in the Biddeford/Saco and Sanford areas.  Speaking at the North Dam Mill, Pingree said that former industrial sites can turn into thriving economic developments.
 
“The North Dam Mill—where we are standing now—is an excellent example of how business can work with government to clean up and redevelop a former industrial site,” Pingree said. “This development means business, it means economic activity and, most importantly, it means JOBS for this community.”
 
The first buildings of the North Dam Mill were built in the 1800s and eventually were the home to many industrial businesses, including textile mills.  The mills are now gone but new uses are being found for these buildings. Dozens of businesses have moved into the complex and residential units are being developed as well.
 
Brownfield redevelopment funding from the EPA helped make the North Dam Mill project possible, and accompanying Pingree today was Curt Spalding, the new EPA Regional Administrator.  The trip to Biddeford and Sanford represented Spalding’s first tour of a Maine EPA site since taking the job.
 
“It is important that he sees how critical helping these communities clean up brownfield sites is to developing businesses and creating jobs,” Pingree said.  “That’s what we want out of the EPA and I think Administrator Spalding got that message today.”
 
In Sanford, Pingree took Spalding to the CGA property—a piece of environmentally contaminated land recently acquired by the town of Sanford.  Pingree has been working with local officials to try and find a way to clean up the waste on the site.