On July 31, the Department of Community and Economic Development announced the award of $1,042,794 in Industrial Sites Reuse Program grants to clean up former industrial sites in Berks, Bucks and Montgomery counties.

The grants will be used to prepare them for use as residential properties, open space for park systems, and manufacturing, warehousing, distribution, call centers, and for small business space in general.

“Investing in bringing new life to old and unutilized properties creates clean and safe spaces for surrounding communities,” said Gov. Tom Wolf. “These projects will result in new opportunities like housing options, space for future outdoor recreational activities, and new jobs for these three counties.”

The ISRP provides loans and grants for environmental assessments and remediation carried out by eligible applicants who did not cause or contribute to the contamination.

The program is designed to foster the cleanup of environmental contamination at industrial sites, thereby bringing blighted land into productive reuse.

The three approved projects are:

-- Berks County: The Redevelopment Authority of the City of Reading was granted $878,612 for environmental remediation of the former Buttonwood Gateway site in Reading.

The authority is partnering with the Delaware Valley Development Company (DVDC) to revitalize a long-blighted property by constructing 28 interlocking townhomes with integral parking garages, 12 walk-up apartments, and six three-bedroom townhomes, all with individual entrances and on-site parking.

ISRP funds will be used to excavate the soil to an off-site disposal facility; place a cap to eliminate direct contact with soil; install monitory wells and three separate phase liquid recovery wells; conduct quarterly groundwater sampling, soil sampling, and separate phase liquid sampling; liquid waste characterization and disposal; drum disposal; soil vapor reporting; inspections; well abandonment; and reporting.

-- Bucks County: The Redevelopment Authority of the County of Bucks (RDA) was granted $87,600 for an assessment at the former Bensalem Drum Dump Site. The site includes six blighted acres.

A Phase I Assessment was completed in 2017 and revealed concentrations of several heavy metals including lead, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), perchloroethylene (PCE), and trichloroethylene (TCE).

A Phase II Assessment was recently completed through a Greenways, Trails, and Recreation Program (GTRP) grant. The RDA will continue assessing the site which is intended to be preserved as open space and incorporated into Bensalem Township’s municipal park system.

ISRP funds will be used for soil investigation, groundwater sampling and analysis activities, groundwater monitoring wells, groundwater monitoring well survey activities, sub-slab soil gas sampling and analysis activities, aquifer testing, fate and transport modeling, Act 2 remedial investigation reports, and Act 2 procedural requirements.

-- Montgomery County: The Redevelopment Authority of the County of Montgomery was granted $76,582 for an assessment of the former Pottstown Plating Works property. The site is 3.89 acres and contains a two-story, 46,500-square-foot vacant building.

The assessment will include soil samples, ground water samples, vapor intrusion evaluation, and reporting.

The Redevelopment Authority of the County of Montgomery is working with 215 South Washington Street, LLC, to assess and remediate the site for use for light manufacturing, warehousing, distribution, call center, and general small business.

The project is anticipated to create between 20 and 75 new jobs.

For more information on the program, visit DCED’s Industrial Sites Reuse Program webpage.

[Posted: July 31, 2020]

8/3/2020