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Advocates push Connecticut to fund pilot converting brownfields into health-focused 'wellness campuses'
Summary
Community leaders, health researchers and lawmakers urged the Public Health Committee to back House Bill 5241, a one-year 'triple bottom line justice' pilot to convert brownfields into community farms, learning centers and health-monitoring sites using ICD-10 Z codes and cross-agency remediation. Testimony stressed local asthma burdens, monitoring after remediation, and the need for cross-committee work to align health, environment and housing tools.
Representative Andre Baker told the committee that HB 5241 would create a demonstration pilot to turn contaminated urban lots into community assets that address environmental drivers of disease. "This pilot would demonstrate... how to turn brownfields into health fields," Baker said, describing partnerships with health professionals and students in Bridgeport.
Debbie Sims, representing the Mount Growmore team, described decades of local organizing at the former Mount Trashmore site and urged the state to invest in community-driven remediation and programming. "We are asking you to see what we see... Vacant land that could become healthy space, children who…
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