Just over one year has passed since Senator Charles Schumer stood at the site of the former George’s Service Center in Waterloo to announce a plan to clean up contamination of the brownfield site. On Tuesday, during a stop in Geneseo, the Senate Majority Leader announced Seneca County will receive a $1.5 million EPA Brownfields Assessment Grant to assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse contaminated properties across the Finger Lakes.
“For too long, Finger Lakes communities have had to deal with public health and safety risks from contaminated sites in their communities, from abandoned gas stations to inactive landfills or blighted businesses. I stood at one of these toxic lots last year and promised to deliver the funding to help, and now, thanks to this major $3 million federal investment, we can accelerate the cleanup of contaminated eyesores in Seneca and Livingston Counties and abandoned sites like the shuttered Willard State Asylum campus in Seneca County, making our communities healthier and cleaner, all while creating good-paying jobs and new development opportunities that enhance local tax rolls,” said Senator Schumer. “The Brownfields program has had tremendous success in transforming sites like these into areas of new growth and will supercharge cleanup and redevelopment efforts at lots across every corner of Seneca and Livingston Counties. I am proud to deliver this federal investment to revitalize our communities and will always fight for a brighter and cleaner future for Upstate NY.”
Schumer explained there are currently dozens of documented or suspected brownfields encompassing hundreds of acres throughout Seneca and Livingston Counties. These sites include abandoned gas stations, chemical manufacturers, dry cleaners, and others that contain or likely contain hazardous contaminants like volatile organic compounds (VOCs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), metals within soils, groundwater, and sediment, and soil gas that pose health threats to local residents and hamper redevelopment. Schumer said while these brownfields have long stood in the way of business development, on top of being eyesores and a burden to local taxpayers, many of these sites are located in prime commercial areas and along the county’s waterfronts and as a result, are ripe for redevelopment once remediation is resolved. Now, with this funding, Seneca and Livingston Counties will be able to start the cleanup so the areas can be used for the community, creating new jobs, and breathing new life into these spaces for residents.
Schumer said in Seneca County, grant funds will be used to prepare eight cleanup plans and conduct 20 Phase I and 16 Phase II environmental site assessments. Grant funds also will be used to update an inventory of brownfield sites and conduct community engagement activities. Assessment activities will focus on the Towns of Seneca Falls, Waterloo, and Romulus. Priority sites include an abandoned and vacant medical campus, a former army depot, a 1.4-acre former hospital, a 5-acre parcel with a deteriorated and abandoned auto garage and gas station, two former gas stations, and a 0.1-acre lot with a deteriorated building that formerly housed a dry cleaner.
Schumer specifically highlighted that the funding will support the redevelopment of the 550-acre Willard Drug Treatment Center Campus in Ovid and Romulus, which has a rich history in the Finger Lakes region. The property is right along Seneca Lake in the Hamlet of Willard and operated for almost 150 years. At its peak, Willard State Hospital housed almost 3,000 patients, but most recently, declining inmate populations led to its closure in March 2022.
Schumer explained that since Willard’s closure, elected officials, business leaders, and community members have banded together to advocate for responsible, locally-led redevelopment of the site. The community believes this site has tremendous future potential given its waterfront location with nearly one mile of shoreline along Seneca Lake and historic significance in the heart of the Finger Lakes region with its robust craft beverage, agriculture manufacturing, and tourism industries, which is why the redevelopment efforts are vital to the community.
Schumer said historically, cleaning up brownfields can cost millions of dollars and take several years, meaning local municipalities rely on support from state and federal governments to deal with the high costs of remediation, which is why these fed dollars are so vital. With brownfields in the Finger Lakes impacting business development and burdening local taxpayers, Schumer said these federal dollars are critical, shifting the financial burden to the feds and allowing the region to take action to clean up these areas for the communities’ benefit.
Last year, Schumer launched his two-pronged plan to cleanup brownfield sites in the Finger Lakes which included 1) pushing for access to existing federal brownfield grant funding, including $1.5 billion in grants Schumer helped secure in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, for Seneca County’s first-ever Brownfields Redevelopment Strategy and 2) reauthorizing the EPA’s Brownfield Program so the Finger Lakes could complete site redevelopment. Thanks to his push to deliver the necessary investments to the Finger Lakes region, local efforts to transform these sites will get underway, improving public health and community development.
“Seneca County, together with its partners the Towns of Waterloo, Seneca Falls, and the local nonprofit STEPS are excited to finally start addressing problem properties throughout the County with suspected environmental contamination that have for too long stymied local development efforts. This significant amount of funding from the EPA will jumpstart projects in Waterloo, Seneca Falls and sites across the whole County including the shuttered Willard State Asylum Campus. On behalf of the County, I’d like to thank the EPA as well as Senator Schumer and our entire congressional delegation for their continued advocacy in support of Seneca County’s efforts,” said Michael Enslow, Chairman of the Seneca County Board of Supervisors.
Have all the Finger Lakes news from Finger Lakes News Radio delivered to your email every morning for FREE! Sign up by clicking here.
