It is rewarding to see the overwhelming improvement in the quality of life for residents when a brownfield is transformed into a place for family, food and fun. It truly takes a dedicated community to brings these projects to fruition.

Colleen Kokast Please provide a brief overview of the project.
Manchester Street Park (the former "Covanta site"), located in Lawrence, Massachusetts, is a stellar example of equitable riverfront renewal and environmental justice. Once a hidden 5-acre parcel situated at the edge of a 19th Century mill complex on Stevens Pond and the Spicket River, the area suffered a legacy of contamination stemming from an incinerator that once operated on-site, where municipal trash was burned for nearly 20 years. At its peak of operation, the trash-to-energy facility emitted 800 pounds of mercury and 400 pounds of lead each year, an issue that caused chronic asthma and a host of other acute health problems for many low-income Latino residents and youth across Lawrence, particularly those living nearest to the facility. The site also sustained significant illegal dumping in the years following the incinerator's dismantling, which took place in 2001 thanks to the advocacy efforts of a grassroots community group called Lawrence Environmental Action Group (LEAG).

Along with being one of many brownfields located in a "weak market" community, the site's isolation and multiple environmental issues long posed challenges to its redevelopment. Today, thanks to nearly a decade of hard work and persistence on the part of Groundwork Lawrence, the City of Lawrence, residents, and numerous partners, the site is home to a 5-acre waterfront park that features such active and passive recreational amenities as play equipment for children aged 2-12, picnic tables and benches, a grassy open field, bilingual interpretive signage, 30 community garden beds, a scenic overlook and gazebo, native riparian plantings, and 80 trees. Completed in September 2009, Manchester Street Park is the second brownfield-to-park project completed along the Spicket River in Lawrence, and the fifth new or rehabbed park project the organization has managed. Together with Manchester Street Park, these site transformations have helped spur development of the Spicket River Greenway, a multi-use recreational riverfront trail connecting parks and tree-lined urban habitat, which runs through Lawrence's poorest and most densely populated environmental justice neighborhoods.

What makes this project unique? How does it stand out among other successful brownfield redevelopment projects?
The Manchester Street Park project is unique because it is a former brownfield whose end use was entirely defined and designed by residents who lived nearby and desired its transformation. Many brownfield reclamation projects are pushed by private developers seeking the promise of a revenue stream at the project's end; Groundwork Lawrence and the City of Lawrence, the park's developers, instead sought the metamorphosis of this community liability into a quality neighborhood asset, thereby achieving triple bottom lines of improved environment, economy and equity. While a brownfield-to-municipally-owned-park end use doesn't generate revenue the way a commercial end use typically would, such a project indeed generates a host of community benefits that are pivotal for environmental justice neighborhoods, but very difficult to translate to the traditional marketplace: unfettered public riverfront access for residents, improved health of residents growing and eating community garden vegetables and recreating in new and different ways; heightened resident stewardship of public open spaces, and increased property values of residential lots located nearby are just some of the many valuable "revenues" generated from the Manchester Street Park project.

What were the primary funding sources (i.e. private or public) for the project and what were the total redevelopment costs?
Public funds:

•  Massachusetts Urban Self-Help Program (PARC) Grant from EOEE (park design, construction): $500,000
•  City of Lawrence CDBG (Local Match for PARC Grant): $161,689
•  EPA Brownfields Cleanup Grant: $200,000
•  City of Lawrence CDBG (Local Match for EPA Grant): $40,000
•  Massachusetts Urban River Visions Grant from EOEE (Site analysis; Pre-development): $75,000
•  City of Lawrence CDBG (Final Design and Project Management): $134,602
•  City of Lawrence CDBG (Community Garden Beds): $3,000
•  MA Office of Refugees and Immigrants Grant  (Community Garden Beds): $8,000
•  National Park Service Rivers, Trails & Conservation Assistance Program: $15,000
   Private funds:
•  NiSource Environmental Challenge Fund: $2,500
•  Total Project Cost: $1,139,791
•  In-Kind Support: 250 hours - volunteer time (building raised garden beds, etc.)

What contaminants were present on the site? Please discuss what remediation technologies were used and what the total remediation costs were.
    Contaminants Present On-Site:

• Arsenic
• Dioxin
• Benzo(a)pyrene
• Remediation Methodology:
• Pre-Characterization
• Targeted Excavation
• Backfill and Capping of Remaining Less Significantly Contaminated Soil
• Revision of Site AUL to Allow Recreational Use
• Construction of Park

    Total Remediation Cost: $240,000

Before:
After:

Did the project increase job opportunities in the community, or communities, surrounding the site?
Yes. Temporary jobs were created during remediation and construction. Teens employed as Groundwork Lawrence Green Team members worked to research, document, and create bilingual interpretive signage that tells visitors about the site's history and transformation; they continue to work on-site conducting ecological assessments of the park and the flora and fauna its habitat supports. Ongoing jobs include maintenance of the park, which is done by the City's DPW staff but is bolstered heavily by Groundwork Lawrence and countless resident volunteers and the community gardeners they engage in regular park and river cleanups.

Did the project help to decrease local crime rates or to improve human health and safety?
Yes, the health of residents utilizing the park's recreational amenities and community gardens are improved from eating fresh fruit and vegetables they grow in the park's garden beds, walking to/from/in the park, etc. The site no longer sustains illegal dumping or other unattractive activities once present on this vacant, underutilized brownfield. Across the city, air quality is improved, ambient air temperature is cooled, and surface water slowed thanks to 80 new trees planted on-site.Finally, residents are able to visit this site without risking their health due to possible exposure to toxins in the soil, a vast improvement to community health and public safety and welfare.

What was most challenging about your project?
The project's pre-development phase, which lasted six long years. As a non-profit organization with a slim margin, we had little capital to sustain the work and staffing capacity necessary to leverage funds, manage details, and catalyze this important project. This meant we had to be creative with the funding we did receive during that time. Most challenging but also most gratifying is the fact that this project was a multi-year labor of love.

Did the project receive any loans, grants or financial assistance from any public or private organizations?

• Massachusetts Urban Self-Help Program (PARC) Grant from EOEE (park design, construction): $500,000
• City of Lawrence CDBG (Local Match for PARC Grant): $161,689
• EPA Brownfields Cleanup Grant: $200,000
• City of Lawrence CDBG (Local Match for EPA Grant):$40,000
• Massachusetts Urban River Visions Grant from EOEEA (Site analysis; Pre-development): $75,000
• City of Lawrence CDBG (Final Design and Project Management): $134,602
• City of Lawrence CDBG (Community Garden Beds): $3,000
• MA Office of Refugees and Immigrants Grant (Community Garden Beds): $8,000
• National Park Service Rivers, Trails & Conservation Assistance Program: $15,000
• NiSource Environmental Challenge Fund: $2,500

        Total Project Cost: $1,139,791

Could you describe the collaboration that occurred among multiple parties to enable the project?
In pursuit of all its undertakings, Groundwork Lawrence uniquely maintains "middle ground" in its community by acting as a "value-added" arm of local government and, at the same time, as a trusted doer and convener among local residents and stakeholders. A cooperative agreement between our Federal parent agency, the National Park Service, and the City of Lawrence, enables our organization to assist the city's Community Development Department with leveraging State and Federal grants; managing all phases of place-making redevelopment projects from pre-development and planning through community design and construction; and conducting outreach and facilitating community meetings to gather input and mandates for local neighborhood improvement projects, broader regional planning decisions, and all levels of policymaking. In this way, we partnered with the City of Lawrence, dozens of residents, and countless public agencies to accomplish the Manchester Street Park project. We co-wrote grants with the City to secure the funds necessary for engaging a team of engineers, planners and landscape architects. That team worked back and forth to create a remediation plan that achieved No Significant Risk on-site and dovetailed seamlessly with landscape plans for the park, which were drawn from residents' input over the course of several community design "charrettes" that we facilitated. We worked with the Conservation Commission to ensure that all drainage was managed on-site, and that as many surfaces as possible were permeable. We also engaged the Attorney General's Brownfield Unit Chief to counsel the City Attorney and local businesses adjacent to the site to educate them about Massachusetts Brownfield laws and help them resolve their liability concerns. Our youth leadership program members, the Green Team, researched and created the park's interpretive signage that tells about the site's industrial history, ecology, and transformation. Finally, we partnered with Covanta Energy, the site's former owner, to help them realize their commitment to renewing their former incinerator site as a quality green space, and urged them to convey the site to the City for a nominal fee in the interest of creating a spectacular riverfront park that the community had long envisioned. Without this patchwork quilt of partnerships and collaborators all orchestrated by Groundwork Lawrence, Manchester Street Park would not exist today.

What type of innovative designs and energy-efficient technologies were implemented?
Most paved surfaces on-site are permeable, with exception of the asphalt located beneath the play area. Low Impact Development techniques including vegetated swales and selective grading were utilized to address stormwater management on-site. A cement cooling tower skeleton, remnant of the incinerator's operations, was retro-fitted to create a scenic waterfront overlook topped with a colorful metal gazebo, and a series of cement ramps and stairs allow visitors to reach the top for a view.