Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com June 19, 2017 • Hartford Business Journal 3 Brownfield 'land banks' a step closer in CT By Gregory Seay gseay@HartfordBusiness.com A second attempt in one year at encourag- ing municipalities to hasten cleanup of Connecticut's inventory of contaminated commercial-industrial properties is expected to draw the governor's signature this time around. A year ago, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy vetoed the predecessor to this year's measure — House Bill 7229 — allowing for the estab- lishment of local nonprofit land banks that would collaborate with cities and towns to acquire, remediate and redevelop some of the hundreds of contaminated, or "brownfield,'' sites in the state, supporters say. The land banks would also be eligible for state incentives, including grants, as well as legal protections that make it more palatable to develop risky soils. Ann M. Catino, a Hartford environmental and land-use attorney who co-chairs the legislature's Brownfield Working Group, said the bill, which she and others expect Malloy's signature on soon, provides municipalities greater flexibility in cleaning and redeveloping brownfield sites. The measure is particularly good news, said Graham Stevens, office director for constitu- ent affairs and land management at the Depart- ment of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), for Connecticut's urban communities, many of which are home to a number of current and former manufacturing and industrial sites. Many more vacant or underused polluted sites are scattered throughout the state: vacant gas stations/auto-repair shops, dry clean- ers, auto and metal scrapyards, tire dumps, among others. A pair of long-vacant downtown Hartford office buildings — 101 and 111 Pearl St. — qualified for $4 million in brownfield-reme- diation loans to convert both to apartments. Older buildings like those often contain lead paint and asbestos insulation. Moreover, some sites are too big, or are subject to cloudy ownership or murky opera- tions, complicating cleanup, Stevens said. DEEP's role, Stevens said, is to work with the land banks and municipalities to ensure brownfields are remediated satisfactorily. Since the Brownfield Working Group's cre- ation a decade ago, Catino said, the state has sought ways to encourage cities and towns to remediate brownfields within their borders and return fallow acreage to productive resi- dential or commercial use. "A lot of these properties are nonperform- ing,'' said Catino, partner at law firm Hallaron & Sage LLP. "Nobody's paying taxes. Taxes are delinquent. … Ideally, it will come back on the tax rolls.'' Dirty legacy The state Department of Economic and Community Development, which oversees brownfield remediation/development, esti- mates at least 1,000 known brownfield sites exist in Connecticut. Many date back to the state's colonial days, when Connecticut's land, air and water were all harnessed to churn out farm plows, housewares, long guns and cannons. Later, Connecticut was home to makers of machinery and other capital goods, including parts for aircraft engines. Their legacy was the toxic exposure of Con- necticut's soils and surface and groundwater to high levels of heavy metals such as mercury, and toxins such as arsenic, and oily and pol- luted runoff containing, among other things, polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs, which are known cancer-causers in humans. That's enough to scare off the most seasoned cleanup specialists, much less a municipality with no expertise in toxic cleanup, observers say. It was a concern that the Waterbury Region- al Chamber of Commerce expressed in sup- porting testimony in March to the Commerce Committee. "Unfortunately, many municipalities do not have the financial resources to acquire, remediate and redevelop these sites, or are wary of the challenges inherent in such efforts, including federal liability exposure,'' said David Krechevsky, the chamber's public policy and economic development director. "Communities also may not have access to the expertise needed,'' Krechevsky said, "in deal- ing with the complicated regulatory maze such remediation and redevelopment efforts entail.'' Continued 860.871.1111 Toll Free: 800.741.6367 nemsi.com License #'s: E1-104939 • S1-302974 • P1-203519 • F1-10498 • SM1-192 • MC-1134 MECHANICAL • ELECTRICAL • PLUMBING • SHEET METAL • BUILDING AUTOMATION • FACILITIES SERVICES FACILITY SOLUTIONS…ONE SOURCE The company that builds and installs the critical systems in virtually every type of facility is the same company you can rely on to maintain them. For over 50 years, our clients have trusted us to deliver end-to-end facilities solutions, so they can focus on their core business. We design, install, maintain, and protect systems in: Industrial Facilities Manufacturing Facilities Commercial Facilities Higher Education Facilities Healthcare Facilities Pharmaceutical Facilities State Brownfield Investment Activity The state Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) has various brownfield-assistance programs. Over the last 10 years DECD has funded 241 brown- field projects with about $154 million in funding. # of Total DECD Total Non-DECD Projects Investment Project Cost Funds Acreage FY 2016 51 $32,830,537 $236,315,091 $203,484,554 374 Brownfields Portfolio 241 $154,459,568 $912,856,795 $758,397,227 2,373 S O U R C E : D E C D Two downtown Hartford buildings — 101 and 111 Pearl St. — have qualified for state brownfield loans to help convert them to apartments. P H O T O | C O N T R I B U T E D

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