$200K EPA Grant Will Ease Brownfields Clean-up for Future Parking Lot

The Environmental Protection Agency has awarded Middletown a $200,000 hazardous substances grant to clean up the former Midstate Autobody property at 1 Kings Avenue.

The auto repair and auto body shop operated from 1924-2009 behind , according to the mayor’s office. The auto body shop left behind solvents, motor and hydraulic oils on the grounds and chemical testing has revealed inorganic contaminants and metals in the building.

The city will build a parking lot once the brownfield has been remediated. “While new buildings and businesses are critical, equally critical is parking and a clean environment,” according to a statement by Mayor Dan Drew.

“Parking is essential and we have to carefully plan for it in the back of buildings to that lots don’t take up Main Street frontage. We need to enclose the street with beautiful buildings not parking lots.”

The EPA Brownfield Program allows communities to assess, safely clean up and sustainably reuse brownfields — property where the redevelopment or reuse may be complicated by the presence of hazardous substances, pollutants or contamination.”

In April, the Common Council approved $10,000 in economic development funds to demolish the former bought by the city earlier this year with a $400,000 state grant to be used for environmental cleanup of PCBs and asbestos.

Last December,