State Announces $600,000 in Grants for Katrina Road Brownfield Site

Officials yesterday from from the Patrick-Murray Administration and state and federal agencies announced more than $600,000 in grant money will be used to clean up the brownfield site at 27 Katrina Road.

“Cities and towns are going to be able to economically develop over the coming years, it it will not be on the greenfield sites but on the brownfields sites. We all need to be working together,” said Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Richard Sullivan.

The Brownfield Support Team, launched by Lieutenant Governor Timothy Murray in 2008, celebrated its success today with its model project at 27 Katrina Road.  Funded by the state Department of Environmental Protection, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and MassDevelopment in a collaborative effort, recognition was given to the officials and organizations involved in the project in an onsite ceremony.

The Brownfields Support Team is a pilot program that brings together staff from key state and federal agencies to help municipalities solve problems that impede the process of redeveloping the contaminated properties.

“The whole is always bigger than the sum of the parts.  It’s all these different federal and state agencies working together that make a success,” said Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Kenneth Kimmell.

The brownfield site at 27 Katrina Road was selected in a competitive process from a group of six statewide projects designated as most worthy of cleanup from the list of contaminated properties.

“The town took the site as a tax possession five years ago and (it) presented the town with a unique challenge.  This is a very attractive location for the community adjacent to Route 495 and the on-ramps for Route 3 here at the Lowell Connector,” said Chelmsford Town Manager Paul Cohen.

Cleaning up the site is a priority but the town is aiming to bring the land to productive use so a business can add to the tax base and provide jobs and economic opportunities.

A Brownfields cleanup grant was used to remove the former Silicon Transistor Company building and will continue to investigate what lies below the building slab still on the site. 

The project is due to be completed in the spring.