CAEDC will seek $500,000 federal grant to identify and assess brownfield sites in Cumberland County

The Cumberland Area Economic Development Corp. will seek a $500,000 federal grant to identify suspected brownfield sites and assess the level of contamination.

Staff are preparing an application for a Brownfield Assessment grant available through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said Greg Welker, economic development director for CAEDC.

The money would be used primarily to identify sites in Cumberland County and to conduct phase one assessments to gauge the level of contamination by hazardous materials and petroleum products, Welker said.

In September, the Real Estate Collaborative, a subsidiary of CAEDC, signed an agreement to buy the former Frog Switch property in Carlisle. The Frog Switch Manufacturing Co. announced its intention to close the plant in July 2023 after being in business for 125 years.

CAEDC saw the grant program as an opportunity to access funds as a step toward the future redevelopment of that property, Welker said. The sales agreement provides for a due diligence and equipment removal period, with closing expected by the end of May 2025.

"We are using Frog Switch as an example, but there are a number of these types of properties that exist throughout the county," Welker said. "Brownfield is a pretty [broad] term. It can be anything from a former manufacturing facility to a former landscaping business that had underground diesel tanks.

"If an assessment reveals there is no contamination, it makes the site more attractive for a development to come in," he said. That could mean a rehabilitation of onsite facilities or building something new from scratch, he said.

"If there are potential contaminants, this grant opens up funding avenues to help with the remediation and cleanup of a site to get it to a point where we can put it back into economic use," Welker said. "It is a competitive program. We do feel strongly about our chances."

Aside from Frog Switch, there are suspected brownfield sites on the West Shore along the Susquehanna River that could be contributing to water quality issues, Welker said. "We are hitting on a number of criteria that the EPA has historically looked at [when reviewing grant applications]."

CAEDC would have to hire a consultant to do the identification and assessment work. The final scope of this research would depend on how much grant money is received.

News Reporter