Earlier this month, Chelsea received a half-million dollar award for an EPA Brownfields Assessment Grant as part of the Biden Administration’s Investing in America Agenda. The community-wide grant funds will be used to conduct environmental site assessments, conduct community engagement activities, and prepare cleanup and reuse plans.
The target area for this grant is the Chelsea Creek waterfront located along Marginal Street and Eastern Avenue from the Tobin Bridge at Route 1 to Crescent Street. Priority sites include the Former Forbes Lithograph, the New England Trawler, Amoco Petroleum, Boston Hides & Furs, Seagulls Auto Sales, and the Fitzgerald Shipyard. “The City of Chelsea is pleased to be the recipient of these much needed resources,” said Karl Allen, the city’s economic development planner and the program administrator for the grant. “The funds will be used to spur the redevelopment of properties along our waterfront industrial corridor to transform under-utilized properties into productive uses that will bring good, living-wage jobs to the community. These efforts will leverage prior planning work already done through the Chelsea Creek Municipal Harbor Plan and help property owners to characterize and address historic contamination on their parcels.” The EPA selected 14 communities in Massachusetts to receive 14 grants totaling $8,740,000 in competitive EPA Brownfields funding through the Multipurpose, Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund, and Cleanup (MARC) Grant programs. Thanks to the historic boost from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, this is the largest ever funding awarded in the history of the EPA’s Brownfields MARC Grant programs. These investments are part of President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda to grow the American economy from the bottom up and middle-out – from rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure, to driving over $470 billion in private sector manufacturing and clean energy investments in the United States, to creating a manufacturing and innovation boom powered by good paying jobs that don’t require a four-year degree, to building a clean-energy economy that will combat climate change and make our communities more resilient, according to a press release from the EPA. “I’m grateful to the EPA and the Biden-Harris Administration for their significant investment in Massachusetts’ infrastructure,” stated Governor Maura Healey. “This unprecedented level of federal brownfields funding will help our Administration partner with local communities and regional planning agencies to clean up polluted and contaminated properties that are often in environmental justice communities. Together, we can transform these sites for beneficial uses like housing and renewable energy generation.” Senator Ed Markey stated that for years, big corporations have polluted water, land, and air, all to make a profit. “Thanks to the EPA, we are one step closer to protecting public health and cleaning up decades worth of pollution in Massachusetts,” stated Markey. “These major investments in our communities will not only spur economic growth but also create a brighter and more livable future for our Commonwealth.” EPA’s Brownfields Program also advances President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative to direct 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain Federal investments to disadvantaged communities. The Brownfields Program strives to meet this commitment and advance environmental justice and equity considerations into all aspects of its work. Approximately 84 percent of the MARC program applications selected to receive funding proposed to work in areas that include historically underserved communities.