Brownfields and the Bay
By Chip Young

Love Canal. Erin Brockovich. PCBs. Ever since the word “brownfields” came into the public dialogue, it has conjured up some unpleasant images regarding polluted land and waters.

Today, regardless of the many fearful thoughts in the back of people’s minds, brownfields represent a tremendous opportunity for redevelopment. And no more so than in the upper Narragansett Bay region. Bringing back these contaminated sites for commercial and residential development will be critical to the overall success of the environmental and economic revitalization that planners and developers envision.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines brownfields as such: “With certain legal exclusions and additions, the term ‘brownfield site’ means real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.” A local example is the site of the old oil tank farms along the East Providence coast.

The R.I. Department of Environmental Management (RIDEM) Office of Waste Management’s Site Remediation Unit has been working at a variety of locales along the upper Bay in partnership with the state’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC), the EPA, private financial institutions, and development companies. The goal is to restore the environmental and economic value of these sites—abandoned for the most part after having been polluted years ago in many different ways—while protecting human health and the environment, as has been done in Bristol with the Thames Street Landing harborfront development (see sidebar, page 19).

“Brownfield remediation usually goes hand-in-hand with

redevelopment,” explained Jeffrey Crawford, RIDEM brownfields principal environmental scientist. A great deal of multiagency and public/private work goes into restoring a brownfield site. State statute and regulations make the agency generally reactive, rather than proactive: “People must notify us if a brownfield restoration is planned,” said Kelly Owens, a supervising engineer at RIDEM. Yet last year, in response to the burgeoning plans for the upper Bay, RIDEM hired a consulting firm to inventory all potential brownfield sites in Providence and East Providence.

Normally, owners of properties and potential purchasers with bona fide developer status will come into RIDEM, with their consulting and engineering firms, for guidance. They may choose to enter a settlement agreement and covenant not to sue that outlines what must be done in order to remediate the site. Before making any final decision, however, RIDEM attempts to work with the developers to reach agreement on existing environmental conditions that have been evaluated by private environmental engineering consultants hired by the developers. The consultants present their data to RIDEM. If not enough information is supplied, the consultants will be sent back to obtain more. When RIDEM and the developers agree on what levels of contamination exist and what remediation is necessary, the developer’s consultants will, by law, offer three remediation alternatives and identify which they would like to pursue.

While RIDEM officials say their regulations are flexible, they also point out that they are often interpreted more strictly when remediation and redevelopment proposes residential future use (e.g., schools, housing, daycare, recreational facilities).

When RIDEM is notified of the discovery of a polluted site, the agency looks at any site investigation work that may have been performed. The developer will evaluate the redevelopment and determine if it appears to be worth the expense. If not, the site may be recommended to be “orphaned,” and go into a different program, such as being declared a pre-remedial Superfund site under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). RIDEM has a memorandum of understanding with EPA even for CERCLA sites to be evaluated under the state site remediation program instead of the federal Superfund program.

Over time, there has been an improvement in the education among developers, environmental consulting firms, and financial institutions about how to work out a plan to invest in a brownfield remediation that will not be a financial disaster for all parties. RIDEM officials cite Citizens Bank as having environmental professionals on staff to evaluate redevelopment opportunities presented to them. Thus the financial institutions have some comfort in knowing that lenders enjoy limited liability when making loans to redevelop contaminated properties. RIDEM and EDC also have an EPA-backed Brownfields Clean-up Revolving Loan Fund for developers. Sub-grants are available for municipalities and nonprofit organizations. This makes it particularly easy for municipalities and nongovernmental organizations to take advantage of a redevelopment opportunity on a brownfield site. Save The Bay’s brownfield remediation at Field’s Point provides a good local example. In a situation like this, EDC steps in to handle financing the remediation, while RIDEM takes care of the environmental cleanup oversight.

With a long list of brownfield sites in the Metro Bay region that are planned as part of the redevelopment in the upper Bay, the increasing knowledge, cooperation, commitment, and expertise among a variety of partners in dealing with this issue holds great promise—a promise that will need to be kept if the ambitious vision for the region is to be realized.

There are hundreds of brownfield sites in and around upper Narragansett Bay. They range from properties owned by the Port of Providence and New England Petroleum along Allens Avenue to major revitalization projects in East Providence at the former Ocean State Steel site adjacent to Phillipsdale Landing, which will combine commercial and residential development.

One brownfield restoration project that has received a great deal of attention is Save The Bay’s new eco-friendly center at Fields Point and the adjacent development by Johnson & Wales University.

“It has been amazing,” said Joseph Martella, RIDEM Office of Waste Management senior engineer. “The whole complexion of the area has changed.” Martella pointed not just to Save The Bay’s grass-roofed headquarters, which has received a good deal of media attention, but to the excellent job Johnson & Wales University has done with their new student housing projects in what had become an almost abandoned area.

The Thames Street Landing Success 

One of the jewels in the crown of the national brownfields redevelopment program is Thames Street Landing in Bristol, R.I.

The Thames Street Landing is an $8.3 million mixed-use development on 2.2 acres of waterfront property along the East Bay town consisting of retail establishments, a restaurant, pub, offices, a 40-room inn, and apartments. The development is a central part of the town’s revitalization plan that reconnects the city with its historic harbor. In 1983, the revitalization was one of 13 winners of the Phoenix Award, given by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. One brownfield project in each region of the country was honored.

“This project exemplifies how small investors can make huge changes through superior vision and dedication,” said Robert Varney, regional administrator of EPA’s New England office.

The Thames Street Landing project showcases a unique approach by a group of small local investors to take an abandoned, contaminated site and restore it— with historical accuracy—to provide the cornerstone for revitalization of the Bristol waterfront. The project served as a catalyst for additional redevelopment; businesses have expanded and moved in around the project and a second significant brownfield redevelopment to transform the former Premier Thread manufacturing facility into condominiums is under way.

Financing for the development was a challenge, as most banks refused to back the project. Private funds and one commercial bank loan allowed the project to go forward under the direction of the Miles Avenue Property Co. The group was newly founded by three classmates from Syracuse University who joined forces after graduation.

The Thames Street Landing was empty for three years before development began in 1999 on property originally used as a lumberyard. One block from the town’s main street, this site is at the State Street Pier, where its extensive history is evident in several of the existing buildings. The original Bank of Bristol building dates from 1797, and a 1798 building was the William Taylor Store. Byron Dinman’s County House of 1800 and the stone DeWolf Warehouse from 1818 also remain on this landing, which was once a cornerstone of waterfront business in Bristol, sitting halfway between Providence and Newport.

“It was a great honor to be selected as the Region One Phoenix Award winner,” said Lloyd Adams, managing partner in Miles Avenue Property Co., which developed the site. “The brownfields program will be a very important factor in the future, preserving our region’s open space by making it possible to redevelop desirable locations that have been contaminated, keeping towns and cities active, and preventing urban sprawl.”

Most contamination at the Thames Street Landing site—lead, arsenic, petroleum, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons—resulted from production of coal, coke, and lumber during the last 40 years of the 1800s. A total of 20,000 yards of contaminated soil was removed during the cleanup. The engineering work cost $51,000 and cleanup was $316,000—all of it completed by the Miles Avenue Property Co.

The benefits of the Thames Street Landing project are evident in the local and state tax revenues generated, the improvement in the quality of life and sense of place in the community around the Bristol waterfront, and the value of encouraging more redevelopment, improvement, and investment in this neighborhood. Thames Street Landing exemplifies how local investors with a strong vision and dedication can accomplish great things.

For more information about the Thames Street Landing project, contact Lloyd Adams, Miles Avenue Property Co., 474 Hope Street, Bristol, RI 02809; or call (401) 253-2016.

—Chip Young is Communications Liaison for the URI Coastal Institute.