The Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine has been awarded a $500,000 Brownfields Grant to clean up the development site at Thompson’s Point in Portland, Maine!

The site for the new museum building was originally a rail yard for the Marine Central Railroad in the late 1800s, and was later home to a variety of industrial and commercial buildings Currently, the site is contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, PCBs, arsenic, and metals commingled with residual petroleum contamination. This grant will allow for the removal of these hazardous materials at the 1.12 acre site.

The Children’s Museum project was one of fourteen sites selected by the EPA throughout the state of Maine to share in a $6 million allocation of federal funding.

“The Museum is the recipient of a $500,000 brownfield remediation grant, and we’re thrilled… The EPA grant and other brownfield support from the City of Portland and Greater Portland Council of Governments will help us convert the post-industrial site into a healthy, vital space for children and families to learn and play together.”

— Suzanne Olson, Executive Director, Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine

Read more here.