The town of Great Barrington, Massachusetts has received a $500,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up dry-cleaning chemicals from underneath a shuttered business.
The funds will go to removing tetrachloroethylene from the former Reid Cleaners site, now a vacant storefront at 218 Main Street. Assistant town manager and director of planning and community development Chris Rembold says the chemicals leaked out of underground tanks over decades before the business closed in the early 2000s.
“In order to clean that up, we have to dig up all of that contaminated soil that is still there and we also have to treat the groundwater that is below the site that is impacted,” he explained.
The town took over the property in 2019 after the former owners failed to pay taxes on the site.
