New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Basil Seggos announced today that the cleanup of contamination at the Former Breneman Site located at 8 East Utica Street in the city of Oswego is complete. This is the first time a Certificate of Completion as part of the State’s successful Brownfield Cleanup Program (BCP) has been issued in Oswego County and will allow for the redevelopment of the property to benefit the local economy and community. The site is located in the Department of State’s (DOS) designated Canal Corridor Brownfield Opportunity Area.

Commissioner Seggos said, "New York’s Brownfield Cleanup Program is advancing the restoration of communities across the state and putting hundreds of underutilized properties back into productive use. The cleanup and restoration of brownfield properties like the Former Breneman Site are critical to safeguarding public health, protecting the environment, and developing community assets with the potential to energize Oswego’s economy and improve quality of life."    

New York Secretary of State Rossana Rosado said, “It is exciting to celebrate the successful cleanup of this former brownfield site located in the City of Oswego and within the Department of State’s designated Canal Corridor Brownfield Opportunity Area. This marks another step forward in the state’s partnership with Oswego to revitalize the city’s downtown and to attract new, catalytic investment. The redevelopment of this site will offer new housing opportunities and public amenities helping to provide a healthier community for all residents of Oswego. I commend all who have worked hard to achieve this milestone, and DOS looks forward to continuing to work with our agency partners and Oswego to advance the community’s revitalization goals.”

The Breneman property overlooks the Oswego River and was previously used for industrial purposes from about the 1830s until 1981. The site remained vacant for nearly 40 years due, in part, to the liability associated with contamination at the site. Petroleum, semi-volatile organic compounds, metals, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and cyanide were in soil and groundwater and addressed using a mix of in-place treatment, clean fill, a clean soil cover system, environmental easement, and site management plan.

The project has received funding from the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance. The State Office of Mental Health will provide operating support through the Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative.

RuthAnne Visnauskas, Commissioner of New York State Homes and Community Renewal said, "New York’s Brownfield Cleanup Program contributes innumerable benefits to a community’s environment, health, local economy and quality of life. Congratulations to DEC and our other partners for moving this important project forward in Oswego."

OTDA Commissioner Mike Hein said, “Supportive housing is a crucial component in our efforts to ensure all New Yorkers have access to a safe, stable place to live. With the successful cleanup of the Breneman site in Oswego, this long-dormant property can now be transformed into permeant supportive housing that will bring new hope to those who experience homelessness. We applaud the DEC’s efforts to clean up this contaminated property so that this project can advance to the next step on the path toward completion.”

Office of Mental Health Commissioner Dr. Ann Sullivan said, "Safe and stable supportive housing gives people with mental illness the foundation they need to live and thrive in their own community. It is an important step on the road to recovery, and thanks to Governor Cuomo's commitment to supportive housing, even more individuals and families are able to pursue full and successful lives."

DEC issued the Certificate of Completion based on review of the Final Engineering Report certifying that the remediation work performed by Canalview Development LLC meets BCP cleanup requirements for the protection of public health and the environment.

DEC strictly oversees the State’s BCP, which has successfully cleaned up hundreds of formerly contaminated properties statewide to protect public health and the environment and return these sites to productive use. The goal of the program is to encourage private-sector cleanups of brownfields and to promote their redevelopment as a means to revitalize communities. The BCP is an alternative to greenfield development and is intended to remove some of the barriers to, and provide tax incentives for, the redevelopment of urban brownfields.

Since its inception, 827 applications to the BCP have been approved, and to date 456 sites have been issued Certificates of Completion. For more information on the BCP, visit DEC’s website.

Additional information, including environmental and health assessment summaries, is available on DEC's Environmental Site Remediation Database (by entering the site ID, C738046) and DECinfo Locator.