Towns hoping for federal grants for cleanups

APPLICATIONS SEEK HELP FOR NORTH BROOKFIELD TOWN HOUSE, BROOKFIELD LAND

BY DAVID DORE

NEW LEADER STAFF WRITER

Two local communities will apply for grants from the federal government to clean up contaminated town-owned property. North Brookfield is seeking its fourth appropriation from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Brownfields Cleanup Program to remove soil permeated with

gasoline from around the Town House. Meanwhile, Brookfield is hoping to turn land on Mill Street into a parking area so people can use the nearby Quaboag River. The plans were presented at separate public hearings last week. The deadline for sending applications to the EPA for the fiscal 2010

grant program is today, Oct. 16. With member Mary Walter leading the way, the North Brookfield Board of Selectmen is applying for up to $200,000 to fund both a plan to fix the contamination around the Town House and the cleanup itself. The town is facing a February deadline from the state Department of Environmental Protection to come up with the plan, although officials have asked the DEP for an extension.

SEA Consultants, hired by the town to do the cleanup, estimated the two phases would cost between $86,000 and $104,000 to determine where the gasoline “is going or has gone in terms of water table flow,” Walter said. “They will test until they can’t find evidence above a certain step,”Walter said at an Oct. 8 hearing. Gasoline-contaminated soil and water were discovered in the summer of 2006 as part of preparations for a planned renovation project rejected a year later by North Brookfield residents. The presence of gasoline has been attributed to the removal of a leaky storage tank in 1947, when the McCarty Fuel Company was in the Town House basement.

Walter said the cleanup could start next June and be done in July 2013. Most residents who responded to a survey  earlier this year said they want the 145-yearold Town House renovated in stages over a three- to five-year period, and at a cost of about $3 million. The building has been closed since late 2002 because of structural issues. “Most of that will be submitted to show public support,” Walter said. However, she stressed later, “We’re not talking about restoration or renovation right now.”

Voters at the June Annual Town Meeting approved borrowing up to $104,000 for the plan and the cleanup. But “because of the economic crisis, budget cuts [and] lack of revenue,” Walter said she decided to look for grants instead of borrowing the money. The town has a successful track record of receiving grants from the EPA Brownfields program. The former Aztec Industries property at the corner of School and Grove streets, now known as the North Brookfield Downtown Development Project, got $600,000 from the program over the last several years. It will soon be the new home for the Police Department, while negotiations are continuing with Quabaug Corporation to use the rest of the 5-acre parcel as warehouse space.

CLEANING UP MILL STREET. Officials in Brookfield are hoping the town can get $200,000 from the EPA to clean up 59- 67 Mill St., the former Ludlow Papers factory that burned down in 2000. The town bought the property in 2003 for $1, which means it must remove the lead, wire, small  machinery, concrete and other items left in the factory’s former basement. According to a summary distributed by grant writer William Scanlan at the Oct. 6 selectmen’s meeting, there is lead in the soil that is “stable,” but could result in lead poisoning if released in the air as dust. The lead, the summary stated, has not been found in nearby water.  The plan for dealing with the contamination, according to Scanlan, is to put several

inches of soil on top of the foundation, with topsoil and grass above that. Brownfields Program grants require a 20 percent local match of money, supplies or services, which North Brookfield would satisfy by either finding money in the town budget or using some of the $104,000 approved by  voters earlier this year.

In Brookfield, the town’s Highway Department would provide the fill and topsoil and the Water Department would supply the water for dust control.  Brookfield officials have not said how they would fund the project if the town does not receive the EPA grant.

“It will already be difficult to come up with [the] $45,000 [local match], although it will be in kind,” said Selectmen Chairman Rudy Heller. Once the soil, topsoil and grass are put on top of the former factory, the next step will be figuring out how to use the land. One idea is to turn it into a parking  area so canoeists and kayakers can launch their vessels into the Quaboag River. The town received letters of support from local groups, a few state

agencies and the West Brookfield Board of Selectmen, according to Scanlan. Both towns will face plenty of competition for Brownfields Program grants. Scanlan said the EPA plans to give out 163 grants totaling about $35 million throughout the country. Last year, he said, the EPA received

169 proposals from the six New England states and funded 83 of them, at a cost of $24.5 million. David Dore may be reached at (508) 909-4140, or by e-mail at ddore@stonebridgepress.com.