Troy a winner in EPA brownfield funding round

Money will be used for site assessments, cleanup, reuse plans

Three Capital Region communities will receive federal money to assess and clean up contaminated properties under the Environmental Protection Agency’s Brownfields Program.

According to the EPA’S announcement Wednesday, they are:

A Troy, $600,000: Funds will be used to prepare a brownfields site inventory, select sites for assessment, and conduct 32 environmental site assessments. Money will also be used to produce 12 reuse plans and conduct community outreach activities. Assessment activities will focus on the South Troy Working Waterfront area.

Priority sites include a former industrial and commercial property and the Clemente Latham Concrete site on First Street and the 13-acre Troy Slag Assembly property formerly used for coal storage. Coalition partners are the Troy Land Development Corporation and Troy Industrial Development Authority.

In a statement, Troy Mayor Patrick Madden said work on South Troy’s waterfront will support the city’s continued growth, expand the tax base and create opportunities for public access to the Hudson River.

The city can now plan the remediation needed to redevelop over 200 acres of vacant riverfront property and extend the city’s Riverwalk south, Madden said.

A Fulton County Center for Regional Growth, $300,000: Communitywide grant funds will be used to inventory sites and conduct eight environmental site assessments. Funds will develop four reuse plans and support community outreach. Priority sites in Fulton County include a former municipal landfill, a vacant former chemical supply company, an active dry-cleaning facility and an abandoned leather tannery in a residential neighborhood.

A Greater Mohawk Valley Land Bank, $800,000: Funds will be used to update a brownfields site inventory, select sites for investigation, and conduct 15 environmental site assessments. Money will go to clean up five properties, develop six reuse plans, and do outreach. The target area for this grant is a 20-mile stretch of land along the Erie Canal Corridor that includes the villages of Canajoharie and Fort Plain and city of Little Falls. Priority sites include a vacant mixed-use apartment building in Little Falls, an abandoned high school and other large vacant properties in Fort Plain, and a former general store and filling station in Canajoharie.

“Cleaning up brownfields helps protect the environment and serves as a catalyst to jump-start much-needed economic growth in New York communities, often in historically underserved areas,” said EPA acting Regional Administrator Walter Mugdan. “These grants address decades-old sources of pollution and bring together a broad spectrum of stakeholders who work in concert to make their communities better and more sustainable places to live, work and play.”

Farther afield, the Mohawk Valley Economic Development Growth Enterprises Corp. will get $300,000, targeting sites in Oneida County, including Utica and Rome. The Long Island community of North Hempstead also received funding.