Cleanup on horizon for contaminated Winchester site

The town of Winchester is one step closer to revitalizing an old tannery site.

The Monadnock Economic Development Corp. (MEDC) awarded the town a $100,000 grant in June to clean up the grounds where the A.C. Lawrence Tannery once stood.

“We’re thankful for the funds that will go towards solving a problem that’s been hanging over our head,” said Town Administrator Karey Miner.

The tannery opened its doors in 1908 and closed in 1987, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s website.

The 7.2-acre property, which is now clear of any buildings, sits right off of Bridge Road. The town acquired it through a tax foreclosure in 1993, the Keene Sentinel previously reported.

Winchester is looking to build a solar array where the tannery once stood, but the site contains hazardous waste and chemicals that must be removed before construction can begin.

As soon as the paperwork with Monadnock Economic Development Corp. is completed, Miner said she will meet with engineers from Pinchin, a consulting firm that works in environmental health and safety, to discuss further plans.

Work on the project, which will involve cleaning up hazardous waste and removing contaminated soil from the site, is expected to begin later this year, but Miner said she did not yet have a timeline for the project’s completion.

The rehabilitation process can be complex, and Miner said she does not know if the grant from MEDC will be enough to complete the project. The town is not allocating any public funds toward the project, and Miner said she’s keeping an eye out for any more grant opportunities.

The grant comes on the heels of a 2023 grant for $1.2 million from the EPA, which the town will also use for the cleanup.

Once the rehabilitation is complete, the town plans to build the new solar array with the help of ReVision Energy, a solar-installation company, Miner said.

The size of the solar array, which will help lower the town’s energy costs, depends on how much contaminated soil can be removed from the northern half of the site, Miner said. She added that there has been discussion of potentially expanding the array into a second lot, which sits on the other side of Bridge Road.

Cody Morrison, executive director of Monadnock Economic Development Corp., said funding these types of environmental remediation projects is key to his organization’s mission.

In May 2023, the EPA awarded the development corporation $1 million to create the Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund, which provides financial support to clean hazardous waste sites in the region so they can be redeveloped.

Winchester is not the only community contending with a contaminated site that once belonged to a corporation that’s no longer there. These sites, known as brownfields, require remediation to be useful again.

The EPA estimates that there are more than 450,000 brownfields in the United States. Typically, brownfield sites are old factories, laundromats or gas stations, Morrison said, and they tend to crop up in underserved communities.

Morrison’s organization was one of 10 development corporations in the country to receive the award, he said.

“Government intervention is really needed in this area,” Morrison said. “It’s difficult to acquire funding from banks if there’s contaminants (at the site).”

MEDC has awarded two brownfields grants this year — one for the tannery in Winchester and another to Jaffrey to clean up the former W.W. Cross tack factory on Webster Road, Morrison said.

He said MEDC is eyeing the Kingsbury Corp. site on Marlboro Street in Keene as a potential next candidate for the program. The 22-acre factory site has been vacant since 2011 after the company filed for bankruptcy, per previous Sentinel reporting.

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