SOUTH PORTLAND – Even as the debate regarding the potential impact of a tar-sands oil spill rages on in South Portland, city officials are working to assess the lasting impact of past environmental damage, in hopes of clearing the way for future economic development.

Assistant City Manager Jon Jennings said Monday that as soon as annual application guidelines are issued by the federal Environmental Protection Agency – usually in the fall but perhaps delayed this year due to the recent government shutdown – he will apply for two $200,000 brownfield study grants.

Brownfields, former industrial sites potentially contaminated by fuels, oils and other hazardous materials, have been targeted for environmental cleanup, sometimes as so-called “superfund” sites if lingering health hazards are great enough, since the early 1990s. South Portland hopes to get one grant to look for hazardous materials, as well as one geared specifically toward old petroleum spills.

“We’re going to apply for both,” said Jennings, noting that South Portland has never filed its own brownfield study application. Doing so will give the city “greater latitude” on how to expend funds than if it applied for brownfield money obtained by the Greater Portland Council of Governments, but there would still be a “good deal” of cooperation, given the experience the councils of governments have in the brownfield arena.

According to Jennings, there are as many as eight potential study sights, including the public works garage on O’Neil Street, assuming a $10 million bond to relocate the facility is approved by voters Nov. 5, and the site of the capped landfill off Highland Avenue, where the city hopes to locate a solar farm.

Private sites up for consideration include the Aspasia Marina at 257 Front St., once a Liberty ship construction yard, and the John Cacoulidis property between Bug Light Park and the Portland Pipe Line storage tanks.

In the case of property under private ownership, the city can conduct the environmental assessment – or use the grant money to hire a consulting firm – but any of the costs of an actual cleanup required would be the responsibility of the property owner.

Either way, getting a clean bill of health is the first step in redeveloping former industrial sites, said Jennings.

“We have a number of properties, public and private, that we want to at least do the assessment on,” he said. “If you have the funds available, you can begin that process of the redevelopment of property. Most of the time, in order to get any kind of financing, the lender really needs to know that the ground is clean.”

The public works facility has been floated as a good site for a potential housing development, with the city potentially selling the land to a developer if it proves to be uncontaminated, or after remediation, if any is needed.

The Aspasia Marina owners have had longstanding hopes of building a hotel on the site, but economic reality has often stepped in the way. Often, when brownfields are discussed, the fear of even greater costs emerges, but Jennings says he’s been working with the property owners during the past few months “to build a good relationship” and that “initial discussions were about re-imagining the property.”

“There is concern that if we start this big discussion about brownfields and possible contaminants, and anything is found, then all of a sudden someone swoops in and closes their marina, and then they have no source of income, and I get that,” said Jennings.

It has been rumored that Cacoulidis, who once famously proposed two 41-story hotels with a gondola spanning Casco Bay for his site, may be ready to bring forth a new plan.

Jennings, hired this past spring to spur economic development in South Portland, says his first goal is to figure out what the city has to work with.

“Really, none of us has any idea what is there, on any of these sites,” he said.

As seen here, one of the buildings at the Aspasia Marina at 257 Front St. in South Portland appears to be falling into the harbor. City officials have been in talks with the owners for several months in hopes of spurring development potential for the site. Leaders are also concerned about environmental impact from the site’s days as a Liberty ship construction yard and hope to win a grant for an environmental study.

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