Rome, St. Regis Mohawk Tribe to use federal funding to clean up, assess contaminated sites

The City of Rome and the St. Regis Mohawk tribe in Franklin County will use federal funding to clean up brownfields.

Brownfields are properties where contamination threatens environmental quality and public health and can interfere with productive re-use of the sites.

The funding is part of $1.5 million for a total of six projects in New York, U.S. Senators Charles Schumer (D–N.Y.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D–N.Y.) said in a recent news release issued by Gillibrand’s office.

Both Rome and the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe will each use $200,000 through the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) brownfields program, the lawmakers said.

Rome will allocate the federal funding to clean up the former Rome-Turney Radiator Company site at 109 Canal St.

A petroleum release from fuel-storage tanks contaminated the property’s soil and groundwater, the lawmakers said. The site has an estimated 2,000 tons of contaminated soil, which Rome will need to clean up to reuse the property.

The EPA is also awarding funds to the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe, which will use the money to conduct nine environmental assessments at former gasoline-station sites. It will also allocate funding to update a brownfields inventory, support community-involvement activities, and conduct cleanup planning, according to the release. 

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