The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $14.5 million to Maine communities for the assessment, cleanup and redevelopment of contaminated properties.
Funding includes $9.5 million in brownfield grants and $5 million in supplemental funding for revolving loan fund programs.
The grants include $500,000 for the city of Augusta to advance cleanup planning for a former textile manufacturing facility and other sites and $500,000 for Caribou to assess and prepare neglected properties along its river corridors for redevelopment. (Scroll down for full list of recipients and projects.)
“This funding will help communities assess and clean up contaminated sites so they can be safely redeveloped for housing, businesses, recreation and other community priorities,” said Mark Sanborn, the EPA’s regional administrator for New England.
Funding recipients
- Augusta: $500,000 to develop cleanup plans for a 57,000-square-foot former textile manufacturing facility and a 6.2-acre former recycling site in the Water Street/Mount Vernon Avenue corridor.
- Caribou: $500,000 to conduct multiple site assessments and to develop plans for properties located along the Caribou Stream and Aroostook River corridors.
- East Millinocket: $4 million to clean up the Western and Eastern Main Mill Areas-South, at the former Great Northern Paper Mill property.
- Greater Portland Council of Governments: $1 million for its brownfields revolving loan program for properties at 578 U.S. Route 1 in Scarborough, and in Portland, 307 Cumberland Avenue and 42 Mellen St.
- Kennebec Valley Council of Governments: $500,000 for the Cascade Mill in Oakland and the Pittsfield Community Theater.
- Maine Department of Economic and Community Development: $1 million for the Caribou Power Plant in Caribou, Steamship Navigation in Warren and Beals Linen in Auburn.
- Our Katahdin: $4 million to clean up the Paper Machine 11 Buildings at the former Great Northern Paper Co. located at 1 Katahdin Avenue in Millinocket.
- Portland: $1 million to be used for the Time and Temperature Building at 477 Congress St., the COMB Block in East Bayside, and for an Avesta Housing site.
- Southern Maine Planning and Development Commission: $1 million to clean up projects at the Former MERC Facility site in Biddeford, and 42-44 Old Post Road in Kittery.
- South Portland: $500,000 to continue remediation work on brownfields sites within the city to encourage redevelopment.
