Environmental Justice

A healthy community requires that the air we breathe and the ground our children run and play on are safe and clean. Our community is rich with the history of manufacturing, but also bears scars from our industrial past. NVP’s Environmental Justice Committee is working to connect with residents living near toxic sites about what actions they might take to make their neighborhoods safer.

Environmental waste cleanup in the Naugatuck Valley region of Connecticut has focused on restoring soil contamination, remediating former industrial sites, and reducing long-term public health risks through coordinated efforts by state agencies, local municipalities, and community organizations. Cleanup projects prioritize contaminated riverbanks, abandoned mills, and brownfield properties where legacy pollutants such as heavy metals, petroleum hydrocarbons, and PCBs pose threats to soil and groundwater; a mix of methods—excavation, monitored natural attenuation, capping, and in-situ treatment—are selected based on site-specific conditions. Funding and oversight from the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, federal programs, and municipal partnerships have enabled targeted interventions that also support economic redevelopment and public access improvements like trails and riverfront parks. Ongoing monitoring, community engagement, and preventive strategies are essential to ensure that remediation gains are sustained and that future industrial activity follows stricter environmental controls to protect the Valley’s ecosystems and residents.

What we’ve accomplished together:

Secured national “pilot” status for the Valley and more than $800,000 in funding to start the redevelopment of toxic industrial sites.

Lobbied for the city of Waterbury to put up signs informing the community of the danger of these toxic spaces, protecting the children who play there and the unsheltered individuals who call these spaces home.

NVP is currently working toward the final steps of passing an ordinance requiring that all contaminated sites in the city of Waterbury be marked. This process has been delayed by authorities, but we will continue to fight alongside community members until it is completed.