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August 23, 2019
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Brownfields work builds foundation for redevelopment
by Edward French and Lora Whelan

 

     When a brownfields program is successful, no one notices. "It's a lot like planning and engineering. People only notice when it doesn't work," says Judy East, executive director of Washington County Council of Governments, which works on brownfields projects in the county. She and three others went on an August 13 tour of Eastport's former, current and potentially future sites where the federal brownfields program has been or could be implemented to assess and clean up industrial and commercial waste contamination.
      The brownfields program works to remove liability from the purchase and/or redevelopment of a site that could have been or was contaminated by past industrial and commercial practices. East explains, "Brownfields funding provides redevelopment leverage in several ways. It is often the 'first money in' to a project that can substantially reduce uncertainty so that private funds can then invest with greater legal, environmental and financial awareness. It supports planning to create designs and concepts for redevelopment, especially useful when the final owner is a municipality." She adds that it also used to help landowners with permitting needs and the exploration of other funding areas and needs.
     Properties in Washington County that have undergone the process include former garages, sardine processing and canning factories, an old dry cleaning establishment and more.
     Inside Lighthouse Lobster & Bait LLC, located on the former Consea factory site at the South End of Moose Island, East, Joe Ferrari, federal Environmental Protection Agency project officer for Washington and Aroostook counties, Nick Hodgkins, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) brownfields supervisor, and Todd Coffin, a consultant who works on brownfields projects, gathered with the company's owner, David Pottle, for a quick look around the facility.
     The former brownfields site, transformed into an indoor lobster pound business, has been an unqualified success of the program, they agreed, watching the circulating water in the large lobster holding tanks. Pottle discussed his buyers and the markets while standing in his spacious office that overlooks the bay and Treat's Island. Photographs of the old factory, from its early 20th century heyday, were on the wall along with two immense oars from long ago. Other than the old photographs and a pad of 1940s‑era concrete that leads to a marina float, there is little left that would point to the old days of the site.
     When Pottle was awarded the winning bid by the City of Eastport in 2011, out of five submitted for the approximately 3.4-acre property, the complex of concrete buildings was derelict, with gaping windows, walls and roofing. However, when Pottle submitted his bid for the property, it was conditional that the city complete all DEP assessments and the approval of brownfields information. He offered $43,000, with site improvements that included removing the buildings, cleaning the site and installing riprap, with the subsequent building of a 3,000‑square‑foot facility for his wholesale and retail fisheries business. In addition, he agreed to work with the city on public access to the nearby beach.
     At the time of Pottle's bid, the city noted that a brownfields assessment indicated that the land was probably not heavily contaminated from the property's former use as a fish processing facility. The city's bid guidelines required the demolition of the buildings, along with riprap stabilization of the shoreline and payment of some $30,000 in back taxes. The brownfields program provided two levels of assistance, known as Phase I and II Environmental Site Assessment, conducted an asbestos inspection and provided building demolition permitting. The site is now home to a million-dollar indoor lobster pound capable of storing up to 125,000 pounds of lobsters.

New grant funding, new round of assessments
     “Judy [East], Washington County and the consultants have done a fantastic job utilizing [grant] money to benefit its communities," says Ferrari. On their August 13 tour, they visited a number of sites, including the Boat School on Deep Cove Road, the former Wass factory near the U.S. Coast Guard Station, the 15 Sea Street building and the city‑owned former Guilford mill on Toll Bridge Road. In addition, they were scoping potential sites for the county's brownfields advisory committee to consider as a new round of grant funds has become available.
     "We're asking the committee, 'What are the sites, what's happening out there?'" explains East. They look for input from community members, including city and town officials. One surprise that came to light was the upper parking lot area belonging to the Eastport Chowder House restaurant. When owner Bob Delpapa purchased the restaurant almost 20 years ago, there was no record that the parking area had once been used as a manufactured gas plant back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
     Hodgkins says, "Bob didn't know about it." Getting the site assessed, and if necessary cleaned up, is an important tool in its continued use as a business that in its natural progression is sold to new owners, who, once aware of the problem, may encounter lending difficulties because of potential liability issues. Manufactured gas plants, much like the sardine industry plants, were ubiquitous in the region and made gas out of burning coal, wood, oil or any other fuel that was available and cheap, Hodgkins explains. As time marched on, facilities were demolished, tanks removed and land leveled, paved and redeveloped without much thought for what might remain behind.
     State DEP funds of about $35,000 are already on the table for a due diligence process that will determine if any work needs to occur at the restaurant's parking lot. Phase I includes researching the site to determine where the old buildings and tanks used to stand and thus the areas where test pits should be dug. Phase II would include test pits for soil samples to determine the scope, if any, of cleanup. They anticipate a fast timeline, with the Phase I report ready in September. "We'll work on a skeleton plan of Phase II. We know the direction we're headed," Hodgkins adds.
     The new round of grant funding opens up possibilities for new sites to apply as well as old sites that underwent Phase I brownfields assessments, such as the Boat School, to apply for Phase II. Of the program's role in expanding or redeveloping sites, East explains, "We're at the very beginning and lever open opportunities, and then in come banks and developers." Ferrari adds that he enjoys working on brownfields projects. "You get to see results quickly."

 

 

 

 

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