Claremont moves ahead with $800,000 grant for riverfront brownfield cleanup

Claremont has locked in $800,000 in federal brownfield money to push cleanup and reuse planning on riverfront parcels that have long been held back by contamination, old manufacturing debris and coal tar. The priority sites are the former Synergy, or Monadnock Gas Works, property and the former Joy Manufacturing, or Foundry, site, with adjacent land available for study if contamination or redevelopment needs spill over. If the work succeeds, the payoff could be straightforward for taxpayers and neighbors alike: fewer vacant eyesores, safer land along the Sugar River, and a stronger path toward housing, businesses, trails and other uses that can return value to downtown Claremont.

The grant runs for up to five years and is aimed at site testing, cleanup planning and reuse decisions rather than a one-time fix. EPA’s grant fact sheet says the money will cover supplemental Phase II environmental site assessments at the 6.9-acre Joy Manufacturing/Foundry site and the 1.5-acre former Synergy site, along with additional Phase I and Phase II work on other properties as needed. That acreage matters because the project is not small or symbolic: it covers a significant stretch of riverfront land where blight has been tied directly to the city’s industrial past.

The former Synergy property already has one cleanup milestone behind it. EPA said the manufactured gas facility was cleaned up after work began in 2015 and concluded in July 2018, and that the site was suitable for reuse and redevelopment. The rest of the corridor still carries the scars of earlier industry, including the Sullivan Machinery Company era and later uses that left behind manufacturing debris and coal tar contamination. Those pollutants are exactly the kind of barriers that keep riverfront land from becoming homes, commercial space or public access.

Claremont’s planning push did not start with the grant. New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services said the city completed a detailed market assessment, stakeholder interviews and reuse options work before it formed a redevelopment plan and competed for the multipurpose grant. The city also issued a request for proposals for environmental engineering services covering community engagement, site assessment, reuse and cleanup planning, and remediation on city-owned property along the Sugar River. Claremont later awarded the project to Weston & Sampson, whose plans include improved Sugar River access, a multi-use trail, ADA-compliant pedestrian access and open-space amenities.

The city’s steering committee is keeping the effort tied to local oversight, with one city councilor, one planning board representative, one conservation commission representative and four public members. A public notice on June 3 showed the committee was already active, and that matters because the next decisions will shape what residents see first: testing, cleanup boundaries and the earliest reuse scenarios for land that sits between the river and downtown Claremont.