Portland is hosting a New England Brownfields Summit this week, where hundreds of stakeholders are learning about programs to transform the blighted properties into economic engines.
Brownfield grants and low interest loans can help communities clean up land and water contaminated by mills and military chemical storage.
Thompson's Point in Portland was once a port for the railroad and shipping industries but by the 1940s was relegated to industrial manufacturing and storage.
Mayor Mark Dion said a brownfields grant served as a catalyst to create the bustling event and business venue it is today.
"Every investment in brownfields has resulted in significant activity. Every one of those districts that were abandoned, and now it's people. It's the reason people come here to our city," Dion said.
The Environmental Protection Agency has announced $86 million in brownfield grants are coming to New England. Maine is getting $17 million of brownfield grants for 8 projects that will tackle contamination of mill sites and adjacent waterways.
EPA New England Administrator David Cash Wednesday told hundreds of waste management officials at the summit that environmental justice is a goal of federal brownfield grants.
"Almost by definition many of these broken down mills have suffered under overburden of pollution and have been underserved by the government. Here's an opportunity to invest in these communities. It's a real opportunity to bring justice to communities that have been denied that," Cash said.
Tribal leaders said that some of their land that was taken for industrial and military uses over 75 years ago became a toxic waste dump and destroyed a tribal village.
Corey Hinton of the Passamaquoddy Tribe described the devastation after the Eastern Surplus Company took over.
"Meddybemps, the place where toxic military chemicals were improperly stored for many, many years and destroyed an ancestral village our people inhabited a thousand years ago," Hinton said.
The EPA designated Meddybemps as a Superfund site in the 1980s. The tribe assisted in the remediation of Meddybemps and returned the site to the robust landscape it once was and to tribal control in 2021.
Hinton said federal funds and redevelopment projects like Meddybemps are desperately needed in Washington and Aroostook Counties as well to tackle polluted properties and make them safe and clean for the tribal members who live there.
Cash said Maine is getting $17 million of federal grants for 8 projects. The Environmental Protection Agency has announced $300 million in brownfield grants for projects across the country.
The agency is also providing $11 million in supplemental funding to four successful existing Revolving Loan Fund Grant programs in Maine that are in the process of cleaning up brownfield sites: Eastern Maine Development Corporation, Maine Department of Economic and Community Development, Piscataquis County Economic Development Council, and Southern Maine Planning and Development Commission.
Learn more about the 2024 Multipurpose, Assessment and Cleanup applicants selected for brownfield grant funding.
