A federal grant will help local governments investigate what type of underground contamination may be present in old, under-used commercial properties.
The Environmental Protection Agency recently awarded $750,000 to the Valley Council of Governments. VCOG serves local towns, including Ansonia, Derby, Seymour and Shelton — former factory towns each with their fair share of contaminated properties.
Most of the money to be used to determine what kind of environmental problems exist on such questionable sites: the EPA awarded $400,000 to VCOG in grants for assessing questionable properties, and $350,000 to help clean them up.
Rick Dunne, VCOG’s executive director, estimated the $400,000 portion would allow for investigations of about a half-dozen sites.
“This is to define the problem on the sites,” he said of the $400,000 award. “We have a number of sites that need assessment.”
Dunne said VCOG will be sending solicitations to Valley officials soon to see if they know of potential sites. In order for the money to be used, Dunne said, a developer must be interested in redeveloping such a property.
One of the properties VCOG listed on its grant application, Dunne said, is the former site of Healey Ford auto dealership in Ansonia, which shuttered in 2010.
Dunne said recently he was waiting for input from the city about that site, which has been attracting interest from developers since 2010.
In a region with an industrial history as rich as the Valley’s, vacant industrial properties are sadly commonplace. Officials hope the federal dollars announced last month will continue to help such sites see new life.
In Shelton, for instance, officials see potential for the funds at sites downtown, along Canal Street. A string of properties there have been re-purposed from industrial uses, and developers continue to propose new projects.
James Ryan, the president of the Shelton Economic Development Corporation, mentioned the Chromium Process building — which the city has been eying — and properties formerly used by Axton Cross and Cel-Lastik as possibilities.
“It’s a golden opportunity not only for Shelton but for all the other towns to look at opportunities to take these sites back,” Ryan said.
When a developer is looking to redevelop an old property, their plans might be hampered if there’s a history of hazardous materials at the site.
They don’t want to spend the money to buy a property it will be cost-prohibitive to develop.
And they don’t want to pay the whole cost of finding out, either.
That’s where federal assessment grants come in.
A developer looking to remediate a site would pay for 20 percent of the cost to assess any contamination, according to Dunne, with the grant picking up the rest of the tab.
The information is key for decision-makers to address when developing a property, Ryan said.
“The assessment gives you the ammunition and the facts to tell you how you should approach it, and what your cost is going to be,” he said. “They’re really what help you launch your clean-up activities.”
Dunne said the goal of the program is to equalize the cost of remediating a brownfield site and developing never-developed property.
Doing just that makes most potentially contaminated sites instantly more desirable to developers, usually because they’re already in prime spots.
“For the most part, they are really well-located in terms of infrastructure,” he said. “To have the money available to do site investigations is just so important.”
Dunne said the EPA stipulated that half the money be used on assessing sites with possible contamination by hazardous materials and half on sites with potential petroleum contamination.
The new money is part of $3.5 million in awards statewide announced by the EPA.
Can we get some idea of where in Derby some testing will be done? Perhaps the old Hull Dye property?
ReneeS – as owner of a large portion of property that formerly housed the “Hull Dye and Printworks” (ours is alongside the canal), let me clear give clarification.
Our parcel had 22 underground storage tanks: all re-mediated. There was asbestos in piping: re-mediated. There was lead paint: re-mediated. All this work was done by the State of CT when they owned the property, prior to it being sold to the City of Derby (from whom we purchased the parcel).
A “negative declaration” and a status report on the cleaned nature was filed with the Ct State Dept of Health at that time (mid 1980’s). Third party environmental studies done in subsequent years for our internal property financing purposes have continued to show no issues.
However, “Hull Dye and Printworks” did cover a large area and included parcels that my company does not own. Derby Cellular Products and McCallum Enterprises are example of such separated parcels to my south (downstream). There are well known issues with underground oil contamination on the latter most downstream parcel. These are being addressed by the United States Coast Guard, who has authorized the United States Environmental Protection Agency to administer the plan toward full remediation. This has been going on for close to 15 years. Until completed, little can be done on the location (includes the shutdown of the hydro-electric power generation).
The main building on our property has a 525 panel solar array that generates all the electricity to run our manufacturing and office operations.
As a former contaminated site with 7 monitoring wells on the property as offshoot from such status, compared to today’s clean solar generating electricity location, we are proud to be one of the greenest locations in the Lower Naugatuck Valley and Housatonic River Watershed area.
We encourage any movement toward improving Derby’s Grand List, including addressing remediation issues.
Thanks so much for your response Tom. I figured some sort of history was documented somewhere seeing that the factory has been closed for so long. It’s such a beautiful piece of land that it would be nice to maximize that view with housing, shopping, dining or recreational activities. Many people just don’t know where to find the information so your explanation is much appreciated!
ReneeS: Unsure about your confusion. For the record, our factory is operational and has been at this location since the location was purchased from City of Derby on Feb 8, 1989 (same spot for 23yrs). It is not “closed”
Derby Cellular Product building next door has been vacant since early 2009(now 3+yrs)
Thank you Tom, I thought I made it obvious that he areas of concern with the closed down Hull Dye property, were those that still needed remediation. Although your company (which, excuse me that I lived in Madison from 1989-2003), the name I’m unsure of, is comprised of some of the property, I just stated my opinion with the fact that it would be nice to rectify any issues and use some of the properties that are sitting vacant. I read your first post regarding the issue and simply responded. And hey, thanks a bunch for that math lesson. Although I am a product of the Derby school system, I was actually a very strong math student. Hull Dye is closed. Unless your company goes by that name or you took over the entire space, it is still “closed”. I do understand how vast the parcel is. My only point was that it would be great if it could all, someday, be utilized.
Apologies Renee. Didn’t mean to offend. It’s just that we have so many people say “I had no idea you were here” when they visit our office/plant, and these are people that live in town. It’s important for me to re-iterate that the location isn’t vacant or abandoned.
Being the company individual that has maintenance of environmental records, it’s important (no matter the audience) to clarify consistently and repeatedly as to the clean state of our property, despite the previous history and casual association of the name “Hull Dye” that most folks make with our location.
I agree that anything which can be done to allow redevelopment of such contaminated locations (not just next door to us, but throughout town) and put them back on the grand list to their fullest potential – that is a positive thing.
All the best.
It’s all good Tom…. My comment about math was totally meant to ease things. I appreciate your efforts, especially when it comes to the environment. There is an abundance of existing space in Derby and little business so hopefully, other business owners with your concern an foresight will come here too. Keep up the great work and continued success!