Mayor Daniel Bianchi, Nancy Barmakian, director of U.S. EPA's Region 1 office of site remediation and restoration, and U.S. Rep. Richard Neal at the Stetson site on Friday.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is helping the city complete an assessment of the pollution at the former Stetson Dry Cleaners. 

 

On Friday, U.S. Rep. Richard Neal joined officials from the EPA to present a $350,000 check to the city for the work. The EPA awarded the grant back in May. 

 

The building, which once sat behind City Hall, was abandoned by the owner and had fallen into disrepair. The city used Community Development Block Grant funding to demolish the building and now the federal grant will complete the second phase of environmental assessment. Perchlorate, a pollutant linked to health problems, was found a block away from the site and linked back to the dry cleaning business' floor drainage.

 

However, it is unclear what the full extent of the pollution is and the $350,000 grant for Phase 2 of the assessment seeks to find out. The plan is for the city to ultimately take the property through tax title and turn it into a parking lot.

 

"This is an excellent example of how you can leverage the interests of both for a successful outcome," Neal said. "Across Berkshire County and New England, one of the real problems we have in bringing properties back to viability is the fact that they adhere to a philosophy that the polluter pays. The problem is with a lot of the old mills across New England is finding out first who the polluter was and secondly, acknowledging that the polluters are long gone. How do you bring this property back to a productive tax-paying capacity."

 

Mayor Daniel Bianchi said the assessment will help find areas of concern surrounding the site as the city looks to eventually find use out of the land. 

 

"Wrestling with 20th century contamination in the 21st century is a challenge for all communities," Bianchi said.

 

Pittsfield's grant was just one of $1.25 million awarded to Western Massachusetts. Berkshire Regional Planning Commission received $500,000 for its brownfields loan program. The revolving loan program works with towns to perform cleanup of hazardous materials on sites. In the past, the program helped Great Barrington clean the New England Log Homes site, Lee clean petroleum at a School Street site, a site on North Street in Dalton, and several lots on Dewey Avenue in Pittsfield.

 

"We had already committed the remaining funds in the program, with many new projects seeking both hazardous and petroleum clean-up funds. Receiving this additional funding is very much appreciated as we continue an aggressive program to remove the contamination and bring these sites back into productive use across the Berkshires," said BRPC Executive Director Nathaniel Karns.

 

Chicopee was awarded $200,000 to clean up a former oil service station, and Western Mass Area Development Corp. was awarded $200,000 for cleanup of a complex in Ludlow. 

 

"This has really been a great year for the brownfields program in Massachusetts. Out of $54 million awarded nationally in new assessment grants, almost $3.2 million are going to communities in Massachusetts and $1.2 million going to four recipients in Western Massachusetts," said Nancy Barmakian, director of EPA's Region 1 office of site remediation and restoration. 

 

Barmakian said since the program's inception in the mid-1990s, some $112 million has been awarded to Massachusetts. The remediation of contaminated sites paves the way for redevelopment.

 

"The program helps energize the state's economy. Our grantees have reported nearly 5,500 jobs leveraged and over $1.6 billion leveraged as a result of the federal funds," she said.

 

Michael Gorski of the state Department of Environmental Protection said brownfields sites are a key priority and that the federal grants show a partnership among governmental agencies to accomplish projects.

 

"Working on Brownfields sites is a top priority for the western Mass regional office and we continue to work with EPA on many sites across the region," Gorski said. "Cleaning up Brownfields sites unquestionably protects public health and the environment but also brings about economic development and growth."

 

Neal said often environmentalist are seen as getting in the way of projects while developers are often seen as being harmful to the environment. The Brownfields program balances the concerns of both to accomplish the goals of both. He said if the sides aren't cooperating, nothing gets done.

 

"On sites like this if you have stalemate, in 20 years it will look the way it looks today," Neal said.