Bennington regional commission highlights two decades of brownfields cleanups, seeks new EPA funding

Jim Henderson, environmental program manager for the Bennington County Regional Commission, reviewed nearly 20 years of brownfields assessments and cleanup work at the commission’s January meeting, saying the program has helped transform former industrial and contaminated properties into housing, civic space and businesses.

Henderson told commissioners the program began in February 2006 with an EPA environmental assessment grant and has carried out 21 Phase I site assessments and 17 Phase II investigations through February 2024. Of those sites, he said, 13 reached corrective action planning and 10 were redeveloped and have received certificates of closure or equivalent completion steps.

The program’s work has included downtown Bennington sites such as the Putnam Block, a multi‑phase redevelopment with commercial ground floor and housing above; the former Vermont Tissue mill, where the owner funded cleanup and re‑licensed a hydroelectric facility; and a capped municipal landfill now hosting a large solar array. Henderson said the program’s EPA assessment grant brought a little more than $1 million in past cycles and that staff submitted a new EPA grant application for about $500,000 in December; the agency is expected to announce winners in May 2025.

“The brownfield program is not only about cleaning up contamination,” Henderson said. “It’s about revitalizing and reinvesting in downtowns and village centers so they can support housing, businesses and services.”

Henderson described the program’s typical steps: voluntary participation agreements with property owners; Phase I historical and records reviews; Phase II sampling and monitoring; corrective action planning when contamination is found; and, when appropriate, assistance pursuing cleanup financing and redevelopment. He explained the Brownfield Reuse Environmental Liability Limitation Act (BRRELA), a program that provides liability protection for eligible innocent landowners and potential purchasers and can make sites eligible for cleanup funding.

He gave several project examples: the former Alpero Motors site redeveloped as a community market and adjacent Dollar General; the Bennington Brush Company, now home to businesses and the Vermont Veterans outpatient clinic; the Sweeney Sawmill property purchased by the town of Manchester for DPW expansion; and the Bradford Mill being redeveloped by JMS Capital into 24 workforce housing units. Henderson also described ongoing work at the Energizer manufacturing complex, where vapor intrusion under slabs is central to corrective action planning and where reuse standards differ sharply between industrial and residential outcomes.

Henderson said some grants and state programs have filled gaps when EPA funding was not available: the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development, working with the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), has made roughly $300,000 per regional planning commission available in recent years. He said the commission recently committed a final $50,000 from that state funding round to continue assessment and planning work and that several current files include BRELLA (pre‑enrollment) applicants required by grant terms.

Commissioners and staff asked for clarifications about phases, liability protection and timelines. Henderson noted that Phase II investigations often reveal contamination that requires corrective action planning; only rarely do Phase II results show no recognized environmental condition. He added the brownfields program helps prospective redevelopers assemble financing packages but that implementation of corrective actions usually requires additional capital beyond the assessment grants.

Henderson said some projects leveraged relatively modest study grants into substantially larger investments: he cited a church complex where a roughly $35,000 environmental study led to more than $1.5 million in subsequent repairs and upgrades. He closed by asking commissioners to support the forthcoming EPA grant decision and said the commission has projects ready to move into assessment and cleanup if funding arrives.

Next steps: staff will await the EPA announcement in May 2025 and continue work funded through state DEC allocations and remaining local commitments. Several sites named by Henderson remain in assessment or corrective action planning stages and will return for project‑level updates as work proceeds.