SILVERTON – The Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 8 administrator, KC Becker, visited Durango and Silverton last week to meet with stakeholders and visit one of the sites where the town of Silverton will spend part of the $800,000 Brownfields grant it received from the agency last month.
Becker, a former state legislator and speaker of the House, was appointed regional administrator in November 2021. Standing on a 1.24-acre parcel of land known as the “Zanoni property,” Becker said the $800,000 was an unusually large award made possible by funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, passed by Congress in 2021.
The Zanoni property, named for the brothers who arranged a deal on the property beneficial to the town so it could be developed as affordable housing, was once the site of a smelter. Given findings on the adjacent properties, it is likely contaminated with lead and arsenic. The Brownfields grant will be used to research and clean up the site.
Becker lauded the partnership between San Juan County and the town, which have worked together to make affordable housing a reality in Silverton. Representatives from the two governments called the lack of affordable housing a “crisis across America.”
San Juan County Commissioner Scott Fetchenhier said that when the town was working with the EPA to establish the boundaries of the Bonita Peak Minding District Superfund Site in 2015 and 2016, the town itself was kept outside the boundaries, in part so that it would be eligible for these sorts of funding opportunities.
Land that sits inside a Superfund site is not eligible for Brownsfields grants, which targets smaller tracts of land with less serious contamination.
“Brownsfields money is really used with an eye toward redevelopment,” said the region’s Superfund Project Manager Christina Progess. “… A lot of what we’re doing in the Bonita Peak Mining District is up in the hills, it’s not really commercially viable land. Here, it’s a focus of EPA to bring land back to beneficial use.”
Town Administrator Gloria Kaasch-Buerger said Silverton officials are still in the early stages of planning. Details, such as how many units will be built on the 1.24-acre property or what cleanup work is necessary are not yet known.
Becker said the funding now available for developing infrastructure has created a windfall situation for this sort of funding.
Kaasch-Buerger said that although there is a surplus in cleanup funding, the town has no current plans to buy more property for affordable housing. Brownfields grants are to be used for environmental cleanup, not property acquisition, meaning the town would need to find alternative funds to buy more land.
rschafir@durangoherald.com
