By Molly Callahan
Record-Journal
MERIDEN — The city received part of a $10.3 million federal Environmental Protection Agency grant this month aimed at helping assess and clean up contaminated parcels.
Meriden received a $200,000 community-wide assessment grant, according to a statement from the EPA, which will be used to assess various properties around the city on an as-needed basis, as well as to continue assessments at the former Meriden-Wallingford Hosptial.
U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty, D-5th, said in a statement that in Meriden the grant will be used “to organize environmental site assessments as well as to provide support for community outreach activities, and to create an area-wide plan.”
City Economic Development Director Juliet Burdelski said most of the money would be used to investigate city-owned properties or properties where businesses are looking to build or expand, for environmental hazards, and according to the city’s grant application, specifically areas within the Choice Neighborhood district.
According to the application submitted by the city: “The presence of brownfields create multiple concerns for exposure to chemicals and asbestos in buildings that children and homeless frequently trespass, off-site mitigation into streams and open spaces, and the potential for direct exposure to airborne pollutants.”
The activities afforded by the grant funds “will reduce the risk of exposure to contaminated sites to create better housing and economic opportunities.”
Some of the money will also be used to investigate the former hospital site for similar hazards.
“That’s a very long-term assessment project, so most of the community planning work will be geared toward that,” Burdelski said.
The city will have access to the EPA grant money starting Oct. 1, and most of the planning at the hospital site can be done concurrently with an interim cleanup there, potentially funded by the state, Burdelski said.
“By this fall we should have some activity there,” she said.
A small portion of the grant will also go toward staff compensation for city employees doing brownfields work, Burdelski said.
Meriden was one of only four groups to get part of this EPA funding in Connecticut. Bridgeport and East Hartford were the other municipalities in the state to receive part of the grant.
“It’s a limited pool of money so we’re very happy to have tapped into that,” Burdelski said. “It’s a big help to have the federal funds to continue to support our brownfields program, because we have so many needs here in Meriden, having so many sites with potential hazards.”
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