Redevelopment authority lands $5 million to clean up old factories. How it will be spent

Expansive environmental cleanups at two vacant Erie industrial properties — sites where tons of potentially dangerous materials were abandoned — are getting a $5 million boost from the federal government.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded a $5 million cleanup grant to the Enterprise Development Center of Erie County, an affiliate of the Erie County Redevelopment Authority, for continued environmental remediation at both the former Quin-T Tech Paper and Boards property near East 16th and French streets and the former Erie Malleable Iron site, 603 W.12th St.

The money will be used for continued environmental cleanup at both properties, as well as “community engagement activities” related to those redevelopment projects, according to the EPA.

'Contaminated properties'

The EPA grant is the latest infusion of public money for the county Redevelopment Authority’s cleanup/demolition efforts at the properties, which are two of the largest brownfield sites in Erie County.

The county Redevelopment Authority, which purchased both vacant properties in 2021, has collectively spent more than $3.2 million on demolition and environmental cleanup at the Quin-T and EMI sites, aided by previous state and federal grants.

The Erie Times-News reported in July that tons of potentially dangerous materials, including asbestos and a number of chemicals/substances that have been linked to various cancers, were left inside both the Quin-T and EMI sites after they were abandoned by their former owners.

Further, the newspaper reported in December that recent soil and groundwater testing at the Quin-T property revealed that portions of the property are contaminated with potentially-harmful chemicals, including arsenic and lead.

Tina Mengine, the county Redevelopment Authority’s executive director, said the EPA grant is a welcome infusion of funding that should help the authority complete full environmental cleanups at both properties.

“We are obviously very grateful to the EPA for recognizing the importance of these two projects," Mengine said.

The EPA also announced an additional $500,000 grant to another county Redevelopment Authority affiliate, the Erie County Industrial Development Authority, that will be used to “update and maintain site inventory, prioritize sites, and conduct environmental site assessments” and develop cleanup plans at other sites, including the vacant Erie Coke Corp. plant at the foot of East Avenue on the city’s east bayfront; and brownfield sites in Lake City, Union City and Corry.

Mengine said that funding "kick starts our efforts to clean up Erie Coke," a 182-acre property located on Presque Isle Bay. The plant, an industrial site since 1833, has been closed since 2019 due to chronic pollution issues.

"We can do some preliminary work on site characterization, figuring out what’s there and what needs attention, as well as the removal of some materials,” Mengine said.

The county Redevelopment Authority and the Erie-Western Pennsylvania Port Authority have joined forces to acquire and clean up Erie Coke. Local officials have said it will take millions of additional dollars and several years to fully remediate that property.

The grants are a portion of more than $16 million recently awarded by the EPA throughout Pennsylvania to help various environmental cleanup projects. The funds are aimed to help “transform once-polluted, vacant, and abandoned properties into community assets,” according to the EPA.

The money gives federal officials “an opportunity to invest in healthier, revitalized communities” and helps “clean up contaminated properties in overburdened communities and bring them back into productive use,” EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said in a statement.

EPA officials plan to visit Erie County on May 30 to provide more details about the grants and various environmental cleanup projects throughout Erie County, EPA spokeswoman Virginia Nurk said.

What the Erie County Redevelopment Authority plans at both sites

Plans to remake both sites have been in the works for years.

The county Redevelopment Authority plans to transform the EMI property into a new business park/complex. Full-scale demolition of portions of the 5-acre EMI property began in December 2022, and the project will take several years to complete.

At the Quin-T site, partial demolition began in 2016; most of the demolition was completed in 2021. The Redevelopment Authority has entered into a $142,683 purchase option agreement with the Perseus House Charter School of Excellence, headquartered at 1511 Peach St.

The charter school is eyeing the Quin-T property for an expansion of its campus and programs, including a gymnasium, event space, outdoor soccer and athletic fields, an outdoor kitchen and other amenities.

However, the deal is contingent upon a full environmental cleanup of the 4-acre Quin-T site, which could take several years.

Both the Quin-T and EMI sites are located in state-designated Environmental Justice areas, defined by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection as any census tract where 20% or more of the residents live at or below the federal poverty line or where 30% of the population identifies as a non-white minority.

In the census tract that includes the Quin-T property, 51% of residents live below the federal poverty level, according to U.S. Census Bureau data, which is more than three times greater than the overall Erie County poverty rate of 16%.

Nearly 60% of those who live there identify as non-white.

Census data shows that 43% of residents living in the census tract where the EMI site is located live below the federal poverty level and more than 40% of residents in that area identify as non-white.

According to the EPA, federal officials intended to earmark at least 40% of the federal cleanup funding to projects that help disadvantaged communities affected by underinvestment "and overburdened by pollution."

Mengine added: "All of the projects we’re looking at are addressing environmental justice. It’s important that we keep that in focus and what we can to make these sites safe for neighborhoods and citizens.”

Contact Kevin Flowers at kflowers@timesnews.com. Follow him on X at @ETNflowers.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: EPA distributing $5 million grant to Erie to clean up factories