Newark Receives $1M in EPA Brownfields Cash

Newark is slated to receive $1 million from the United States Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Brownfields Program for the clean up and redevelopment of three abandoned industrial sites across the city, officials announced Monday afternoon.

Of the $1 million, the former Northern Jersey Oil site on McCarter Highway, Scientific Chemical property on Wilson Avenue and the Central Steel property on Doremus Avenue will receive $200,000 each in federal money to aid in the cleanup. The remaining $400,000 will be used toward the assessment of the city's other brownfields or contaminated property with the potential for redevelopment. Newark has nearly 700 acres of brownfield property.

"We offer these grants in an effort to kick-start cleanups, spur redevelopment and get parcels like these back on the tax rolls," said Judith A. Enck, regional administrator of EPA region 2, which includes New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. "We know that investments in brownfields are a tremendous investment in protecting health, removing the urban blight and creating jobs."

The redevelopment of the three contaminated sites is expected to create 55 jobs in Newark. Once revitalized, the sites have the potential to be purchased and developed, creating an investment for the city.

Speaking from the old Northern Jersey Oil site, a rundown, overgrown property adjacent to Route 21 that once housed petroleum storage tanks, U.S. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.) lauded the grant funds for turning eyesores into a community assets.

"This site represents a danger … that is the damage it could do to a water system," said Lautenberg, who motioned to the nearby Passaic River. "The people of Newark deserve a city that they can be proud of."

Also on hand to announce the grant were Newark Deputy Mayor Stefan Pryor, Council President Donald Payne Jr., U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and U.S. Rep. Donald M. Payne.

"We're going to take these stumbling blocks and make them stepping stones," said Rep. Payne, who noted he grew up in the area near the Northern Jersey Oil site.

Newark is one of six towns and cities in New Jersey to receive part of the $3.4 million total in Brownfields Program grants, which were announced Monday across the nation. EPA selected 40 states and three tribes to receive 214 grants through the Brownfields Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund and Cleanup Grants programs. Newark received $600,000 for the clean up of three brownsfield sites last year, according to EPA.

The announcement of the brownfield grant is on par with the upswing of Newark's industrial sector this year, according to Pryor. Twenty-five economic development projects are currently in motion in the city which have produced over 2,200 permanent jobs, he said.

"Sites like these that were brownfields are becoming fields of dreams, are becoming places of opportunity for our residents," said Pryor. "We need to make these sites workable and buildable and safe so that not only we protect our environment…but also we continue to create jobs. And that's what these kinds of projects can do."