Murray announces Chicopee one of six new brownfields

Date: 9/28/2010

Sept. 29, 2010

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor

CHICOPEE -- Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray didn't come with an over-sized presentation check to help further fund the clean-up of the Uniroyal/Facemate site, but rather he came to announce the site is one of six in the state to be part of a new program to clean up brownfields.

Murray joined Mayor Michael Bissonnette, State Rep. Joseph Wagner and Department of Environmental Protection Assistant Commissioner Gary Moran in making the announcement near the entrance to the Facemate property last week.

Murray explained the Patrick Administration's pilot program, the Brownfield Support Team (BST), in which members of the state agencies involved in the reclamation of brownfields meet to coordinate efforts, has been successful.

The program is now being extended to six new brownfields and the Chicopee site is one of them.

During the pilot program, five brownfields were targeted by the BST, which met with local officials. The BST sought grants and other funding sources and was able to identify $8 million to go to the remediation of the five sites.

Murray explained the BST would meet on a regular basis with Bissonnette and members of his administration to determine the level of contamination, the legal issues surrounding the property and other key issues. Then the group will determine how to access grant money to pay for the clean up. Murray said, in Massachusetts, "there is not a lack of interest from business owners wanting to grow and expand ... there is a lack of, in particular cities, pre-permitted pad ready sites."

Cleaning up brownfields provides much needed land for development and Wagner said, "Chicopee is land poor."

Demolition of the long-closed Uniroyal tire plant has begun, with some of the buildings closest to the dike near the Chicopee River now gone. Bissonnette explained the city is now awaiting a report on the best development potential for the site. He noted how the new senior center might go there.

He called the sites " a cancer," and said the sites are beginning to "get the state and federal recognition we deserve."

Wagner observed, "it has taken us 30 years to get to [this] point ... if these things were easy, they would have already been done."

Bissonnette said, "Lieutenant Governor, all I can say is 'Where's the check?'"

Murray responded there would be, hopefully, a series of checks.

With "coordinated planning, money follows," Murray said.