Situated just minutes from Waterbury’s downtown is an old, abandoned former factory complex. It dates back to the city’s manufacturing heyday. Companies churned out metal hoses there and other goods. The site has languished for decades. What remains is concrete, a brick warehouse, a smaller structure beside it and environmental contamination. In 2017, a redevelopment entity created by the city and the Waterbury Development Corporation (WDC) bought the property. It has invested nearly $3 million so far on cleanup. “They’re expensive to do, and things often move at a glacial pace,” Jim Nardozzi, the executive director of WDC, said of remediating sites like these, which are known as brownfields. Many investors don’t want to deal with environmental cleanup. But Nardozzi believes the site is well worth the cost. “It really is in the heart of the city, like in the heart of downtown,” Nardozzi said, peering out at the site behind a chain-link fence. “So to clean this up will really go far. We would love to get the site back on the tax rolls and not have it be such an eyesore.”

https://ctmirror.org/2026/03/09/ct-overhauls-environmental-cleanup-rules/