KENNEBUNK — The Southern Maine Planning and Development Commission will receive supplemental funding of $373,170 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as part of its Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund grants for 2019.

These funds are part of $9.3 million for 24 communities nationwide with $2.6 million designated for seven communities in New England, including towns and cities served by the Southern Maine Planning and Development Commission for the clean up and redevelopment of brownfield sites. It will be used to continue to make progress in reusing vacant and abandoned properties and turning them into community assets such as housing, public recreation and open space, health facilities, social services, and commerce opportunities.

“This Brownfields supplemental funding will provide additional resources to 24 communities with a proven track record of success so they can continue their progress revitalizing their local economy and improving the health and wellbeing of their community,” said EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. “We are proud to report that a majority of communities receiving these supplemental funds have Opportunity Zones within their jurisdiction, which means we are reaching communities most in need.”

EPA’s New England Acting Regional Administrator Deb Szaro said that communities across New England will benefit from the supplemental EPA Brownfields funding.

“This funding enables communities to continue conducting environmental cleanups at contaminated properties, allowing them to be redeveloped to benefit the community and its residents,” Szaro said.

A brownfield is a property for which the expansion, redevelopment or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutants or contaminants. There are estimated to be more than 450,000 brownfields the U.S. today.

Paul Schumacher, Executive Director of the Southern Maine Planning and Development Commission, said the $373,170 will help sustain the commission’s brownfields redevelopment effort locally.

“It will allow us to continue to work with communities like Biddeford, Saco and Sanford in their ongoing projects and to also be able to assist nonprofit organizations and municipalities across southern Maine,” Schumacher said.

Besides the environmental benefits resulting from site cleanups, Schumacher said furthering economic development is an essential component of the EPA’s brownfields grants.

“It’s been successful and that is the reason we keep receiving these grants,” he said.

Examples of that success include affordable housing from a long abandoned industrial mill in Saco, the thriving shops and businesses using Biddeford’s Pepperell Mill and even the Waterhouse Center skating pavilion in Kennebunk, once an old gasoline filling station.

The recipients of EPA’s Brownfields RLF funding provide low-interest loans and sub-grants to carry out cleanup activities at brownfields sites. When loans are repaid, the loan amount is returned into the fund and then reloaned to other borrowers, providing an ongoing source of capital within a community. Since its inception, EPA’s RLF grantees nationally have completed 694 cleanups, creating more than 42,000 jobs and $8 billion in public and private funding for new projects.

Szaro said that a majority of the New England communities receiving supplemental funds have census tracks designated as federal Opportunity Zones within their jurisdiction. An Opportunity Zone is an economically-distressed community where new investment, under certain conditions, may be eligible for preferential tax treatment.

Schumacher said that the 2019 grant will be put to good use by the Southern Maine Planning and Development Commission.

“We’re very happy,” he said. “The entire region is doing extremely well with the program and we will work with all of our communities and rural areas to spend this funding in a useful way,” he said.

Earlier this month, the city of Sanford received an $800,000 multi-purpose EPA Brownfields grant and the Marble Block Redevelopment Corporation of Biddeford received a $500,000 Brownfields grant to be used to clean up the WestPoint Stevens Mill Boiler House located at 2 Main St. in Biddeford.

— Executive Editor Ed Pierce can be reached at 282-1535 or by email at editor@journaltribune.com