City of Sanford, ME Brownfields Program

TRC has been assisting the City of Sanford with their Brownfields Program since 2012 as their Qualified Environmental Professional under EPA’s Brownfields Program and has assessed dozens of sites repositioning them for redevelopment. The City has been awarded multiple Brownfields Assessment Grants and Cleanup Grants. Additionally, TRC assisted the City with obtaining one of EPA’s first Brownfields Multipurpose Grants in 2019 with an award value of $800,000.

The focus of the 2019 Multipurpose Grant was the cleanup and redevelopment of the 18-acre CGA Site, a former electronic circuit board recycling facility that had been abandoned since the early 1990s. Left behind were copper-contaminated soil and groundwater, along with discarded drums and thousands of tons of discarded circuit board backing. The Maine Department of Environmental Protection had funded initial assessment and removal activities in 1992-2017. However, completing the cleanup required additional financial commitments.

TRC designed and supervised the cleanup, which included the removal of over 2,000 tons of solid waste and the excavation and off-site disposal of contaminated soil, followed by wetland restoration. The site is currently under development for a solar project. TRC assisted the City of Sanford with securing an additional $300,000 in state Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund dollars to fund the cleanup. At its completion, the CGA site will have transformed from a human health hazard to a symbol of the city’s bright future in renewable energy developments. In total, the cleanup and redevelopment costs are estimated at $1.4 million.