By Karen Keene

Monmouth Conservation Foundation (MCF) is thrilled to be the recipient of a $500,000 Brownfield Community-Wide Assessment grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The three-year funding will be used to assess Brownfield sites over a 210-acre area of Red Bank, New Jersey, including the Borough’s former landfill, to plan for remediation, and to develop plans for a new park, with community engagement being a key element of the work.

Award announcements were made this past Monday, May 20, 2024, as part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to expedite the assessment and cleanup of brownfield sites in New Jersey while advancing environmental justice. The EPA selected four communities in the Garden State to receive grants totaling $3 million in competitive EPA Brownfields funding through the Multipurpose, Assessment, and Cleanup (MAC) Grant programs. Investments through MAC and the Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) Grant Programs will help transform once-polluted, vacant, and abandoned properties into community assets, while helping to create good jobs and spur economic revitalization in overburdened communities.

Target Area for Revitalization

The grant will focus on a 210-acre portion of the western side of Red Bank within Census Tract 8034, defined in the west by the Swimming River, north to West Front Street, east to Shrewsbury Avenue, and south to Newman Springs Road. The top priority site is the 8.6-acre former landfill – the Borough’s largest known Brownfield and its biggest undeveloped tract of land.

Located within an Environmental Justice (EJ) community and a Qualified Opportunity Zone, the landfill was active from 1922 to 1983 as a dumping site for bulky, vegetative, and dry industrial wastes, along with the residue from a since removed incinerator. It is now primarily a blighted, contaminated property with only a small area used by the Borough for its Recycling Center and Public Utilities department storage and parking. Additional sites to be investigated include the adjacent Salvation Army property and others neighboring or downstream of the landfill.

The grant work will take place through 2027, furthering an important effort that started approximately seventeen years ago. From 2007 to 2016, the Borough conducted investigations of the landfill site supported by $756,839 from New Jersey’s Hazardous Discharge Site Remediation Fund (HDSRF). Changing administrations, shifting priorities, and budget constraints paused the Borough’s efforts toward clean-up and reuse. In 2022, the Borough identified the site to be studied as part of the Borough’s Master Plan. That effort led to development of a strategic plan to restart remediation efforts and the identification of MCF as a strategic partner in the remediation work.

In 2023 MCF leveraged a private donation to contract local environmental consulting firm VHB, to resume work at the landfill site. VHB assigned a Licensed Site Remediation Professional (LSRP) to audit past landfill assessments and investigations and determine compliance with current regulations. The purpose of the review is to identify data gaps and evaluate potential impacts from updates to soil and groundwater remediation standards, emerging contaminants investigation requirements, and revisions to several New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) guidance documents.

With this work completed, the EPA grant will catapult progress toward the necessary remediation, with HDSRF remaining a key funding partner, and, eventually, construction of Sunset Park.

Vision for New Green Space

The Borough has placed the landfill and several adjacent sites on the New Jersey Recreation and Open Space Inventory (ROSI). This designation means the land can be used only as a park or open space. In 2017, the Borough’s consultant engineers engaged community members to develop a conceptual plan for a public waterfront park (“Sunset Park”), and that vision was updated in 2021 to include a skate park based on residents’ requests.

In October 2021, an anonymous donor made a remarkable $2 million restricted gift to MCF – the largest gift in our organization’s history – to support the future construction of Sunset Park. This gift has helped MCF and the Borough stay the course to completion and to leverage additional support for the project.

FHI Studio developed a Small Area Plan for Sunset Park as part of the 2023 Master Plan, a planning effort led by BFJ Planning. The Small Area Plan includes a strategic process for advancing through remediation to park construction and provides a framework for community engagement. An early action item in the plan was applying for EPA Grant funding.

The plan for the park includes vision for a trail connecting to the park along the Swimming and Navesink Rivers. The plan requires further recreational development based on the remediation plan for the site and riverfront properties that will come through the EPA grant work. To advance the riverfront trail, the Borough has been strategically acquiring access easements in the target area.

Public-Private Partnership

The EPA grant announcement this week comes on the heels of MCF and the Borough of Red Bank entering a formal partnership in April 2024 to transform Red Bank’s former landfill into green, open space – further ensuring the project will come to fruition. Once assessment planning is complete, MCF, the Borough of Red Bank, and our partners will work to aggressively fundraise to complete the vision for Sunset Park with input from the community.

MCF forms crucial, beneficial partnerships by serving as a facilitator and/or funding partner among public and private entities. Our objective is to facilitate land preservation and utilization so the public-at-large and our natural resources benefit. Historically, access to parks and open spaces has been denied to underrepresented populations. MCF continues to prioritize park development in EJ communities like the project area in Red Bank, working toward a goal for every person in Monmouth County to have access to green space within 10 minutes’ walking or biking distance from their homes.

To learn more or get involved in MCF’s park development projects in Monmouth County, please contact us at 732.671.7000 or info@monmouthconservation.org.