$1.4 million in brownfields grants awarded for New Hampshire projects
Assessments, cleanup work planned for sites across the state
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $1.4 million in grants aimed at helping to assess and clean up brownfields sites in New Hampshire.
The grants were awarded to the Nashua Regional Planning Commission, Strafford Regional Planning Commission and Upper Valley Lake Sunapee Regional Planning Commission, which each received $300,000 to conduct site assessments, and the town of Walpole, which received $500,000 to clean up the former Central Plating site.
The awards were announced by Alexandra Dunn, assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, at the annual New Hampshire Day luncheon hosted by U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in Washington, D.C.
“Communities across New Hampshire will benefit from EPA Brownfields funding,” said EPA New England Acting Regional Administrator Deb Szaro. “Brownfields funding jump-starts environmental cleanup at contaminated properties allowing them to be re-developed to benefit the community and its residents.”
The Nashua Regional Planning Commission grant will help fund environmental site assessments for five sites in downtown Nashua and Milford.
The Strafford Regional Planning Commission grant will target Route 125 corridor between Milton and Rochester to conduct five environmental site assessments and develop seven cleanup plans, including for Lockhart Field in the Milton and Gonic Dams in Rochester, develop a market analysis for 73-77 Main St. in Rochester and conduct a redevelopment study.
The Upper Valley Lake Sunapee Regional Planning Commission
grant will be used to conduct five environmental site assessments and develop seven cleanup and reuse plans for sites Claremont and Lebanon. In addition, reuse planning will be conducted for the Westboro Railyard in Lebanon in designing an appropriate engineered cover system and park design.
In Walpole, cleanup will begin of the Central Plating site at 12 Westminster St., a nearly 0.3-acre site operated as a metal electroplating facility from 1963 until 2006. The site is contaminated with heavy metals and PFOS.
