Bangor received a nearly $900,000 federal grant last month to demolish an abandoned, contaminated former military building at the Bangor International Airport and repurpose the land.
The $897,850 Brownfields Assessment Grant comes from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and doesn’t require a match from the city. The money will be used to rehabilitate the “Alert Building” at the airport leftover from its days as the Dow Air Force Base.
The grant cleared the City Council’s Business and Economic Development Committee on June 21, then received full council approval on June 26. The grant will be managed by city and airport staff.
Brownfields Assessment Grants are designed to clean up properties where redevelopment is complicated by hazardous substances, pollutants or contaminants — called brownfields sites — and have communities reinvest in them, according to the EPA.
The EPA estimates there are more than 450,000 such brownfields across the U.S. Cleaning up and repurposing the land bolsters the local tax bases, creates jobs, takes development pressure off undeveloped, open land and protects the environment.
The Alert Building was constructed sometime between 1942 when the U.S. Army Air Corps established the Dow Army Airfield and 1968 when the base closed and was purchased by the city, according to Aimee Thibodeau, marketing and business development manager for the airport.
The newly formed U.S. Air Force took control of the site in 1947 and it became Dow Air Force Base for servicemembers and their families. At its peak, the base was home to more than 5,000 people, nearly 20 percent of Bangor’s total population, and there were eight dorms on site.
The Alert Building was built into a hill on the base to somewhat resemble a bunker and sits near Lifeflight of Maine’s facilities. It served as living quarters for military pilots and a “rapid response facility in the event of a national security threat,” Thibodeau said.
“There’s a lot of contamination related to different types of chemicals that have been absorbed into the foundation,” said Robin Stanicki, Bangor’s community development officer. “There’s also a lot of wildlife living in the structure, so the remediation will excavate the foundation and make the site ready for new development.”
Thibodeau said the airport works to safely remove wildlife, such as birds and foxes, without harming them, but the federal government deemed the building a wildlife hazard and it needs to be removed.
In addition to chemicals and wildlife, Thibodeau said the empty, decaying building is likely riddled with asbestos, mold and lead paint.
“We’re very fortunate to have been awarded this grant as any sort of Brownfield cleanup is expensive,” she said.
The remediation work will begin in October, Stanicki said.
Once remediated, the land will be available for the airport to use for potential freight or warehouse needs, which it outlined in its latest master plan, according to council documents. While the airport already has cargo operations, Thibodeau said the airport would eventually like to build a cargo warehouse to help diversify business.