MID-HUDSON – The City of Kingston is getting a $400,000 EPA grant and the Village of Wappingers Falls has received $200,000, for environmental reviews.
The Kingston grant will be used to conduct environmental site assessments for up to 26 properties and clean-up planning for 10 properties in the Rondout and Midtown areas, as well as provide support for community outreach activities.
Mayor Steven Noble said the funds are “the next step in making our Waterfront and Midtown brownfields most developable and attractive to investors in our city.”
The Wappingers Falls money will be used to conduct 15 environmental site assessments, said Mayor Matthew Alexander. If the assessments determine the properties need remediation, the mayor said they will have to make choices.
“We will either need a lot of money or we would need to be eligible for the brownfield cleanup program, which would offer refundable tax credits to a developer who would come in and do the remediation, which might be quicker than the Village of Wappingers Falls doing that,” Alexander said.
Among the prospective properties are former metal plating facilities, dry cleaners, ink and dye manufacturing facilities, industrial storage, gasification facilities, and mechanical operations.
