YORK COUNTY — Several sites in York County are among nine recipients for brownfields grants awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to communities in Maine. 

A total of $2.7 million has been designated by the EPA for assessment and cleanup of brownfield sites in Maine for the coming year.

Brownfields are defined as properties for which the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants. 

According to the EPA, cleaning up and reinvesting in these properties increases local tax bases, facilitates job growth, uses existing infrastructure, takes development pressures off undeveloped and open lands and both improves and protects the environment.

“Brownfields redevelopment has had a major impact on Maine’s economy and environment,” said Maine Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Paul Mercer. “We are grateful to EPA for making the funds available to Maine and encourage establishments who are interested in the program to contact DEP and work with our staff.”

The EPA is awarding $600,000 in a Supplemental Revolving Loan Fund to the Southern Maine Planning and Development Commission in order to continue and recapitalize its highly successful RLF program in the York County area.  

Additional funding will go toward cleanup activities at catalytic brownfields sites awaiting redevelopment like the Pepperell Mill Campus in Biddeford and Prime Tanning in Berwick. 

“The Southern Maine Planning and Development Commission is deeply appreciative of the supplemental funding for our Revolving Loan Fund Program, which will enable us to continue with our active clean-up efforts in communities both large and small all over York and southern Oxford County,” said Paul Schumacher, SMPDC executive dirtector. “To date, the funding has resulted in 18 loan and grant awards for clean-up, accounting for 140 new jobs created, 52 million in leveraged private and public sector dollars and 240 units of new housing. We look forward to continuing with these efforts.”

Schumacher said the revolving loan fund will help developers remove asbestos and lead paint from properties like Pepperell Mill in Biddeford where development is ongoing and help clean up the former Prime Tanning company property in Berwick, among others.

The Town of Berwick will receive $200,000 for a Brownfields cleanup grant and hazardous substances grant funds will be used to clean up the Prime Tanning Blue Sort Building at 35 Sullivan St. 

Tannery operations occurred at the site from about 1930 until 2008, when the mill closed and the Prime Tanning owners filed for bankruptcy protection. The site previously had various manufacturing uses, including wool pulling, sash and door manufacturing, laundry operations, shoe manufacturing, and lumber activities and grant funds also will be used for cleanup planning and community involvement activities.

“This grant will help us complete the last phase of the Prime Tanning Cleanup,” said Steven Eldridge, Berwick town manager. “This community driven project has brought new life to our Downtown and has helped bring economic interests as well as providing much needed green space.”

The EPA selected the sites in consultation with the Maine DEP. 

“The assessment of Brownfields sites in Maine is a critical first step on the path to safe redevelopment and re-use of these underutilized properties, and we look forward to a productive partnership with EPA,” said Nick Hodgkins, DEP brownfields coordinator.

— Executive Editor Ed Pierce can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 326 or by email at [email protected]