Remington Rand Brownfield Cleanup to get EPA Funds

Governor Rell announced today that the City will receive $200,000 to help the city remediate environmental contamination at the Remington Rand site on Johnson Street. The funding is part of stimulus package dollars disbursed through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The state applied for $2.3M on May 1st, including $300,000 for Remington Rand, and was awarded a total of $600,000 in August. The State Department of Economic and Community Development selected the Remington Rand site, as well as a site in Montville and a site in Willimantic, for funding.

Almost all of the environmental contamination at Remington Rand is the legal responsibility of the Unisys Corporation, which bought Remington Rand. A remedial action plan submitted by Unisys to the State Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), with a total cost of $6M, was approved this summer, according to City Planner Bill Warner.

In their remediation plan, Unisys claimed and the DEP agreed, that a portion of the contamination occurred subsequent to 1974, when Remington Rand ceased to exist. Unisys estimates that this portion of the remediation will cost about $300,000. Rell, in a press release, said, "This latest funding will be used to actually do the environmental remediation that is needed at the former Remington Rand site." Warner said the City is also applying directly to the EPA for the additional funding.

Rell praised the conversion of a brownfield into land that can be used, "We are taking property that is not 'working' at its full potential and converting it into a community resource that reduces sprawl, preserves natural resources and creates economic opportunity for all."

The city hopes to sell the Remington Rand property to a private owner who would use it for a business. The city had a preliminary deal to sell the property for $1M in 2008, and the Common Council budgeted and spent the anticipated revenue in the 2008-09 fiscal year. Mayor Giuliano said that the deal fell through when the buyer became concerned about whether Unisys would follow through on its portion of the environmental remediation (Remington Rand Deal DOA?). Movement towards cleanup should make the city-owned property much more valuable.