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Baltimore City Becomes Part of an Important Federal Partnership The City of Baltimore is the first locality to sign on to an important partnership agreement with key federal agencies, known as the Mid-Atlantic Federal Partners for the Environment (MAFPE). The MAFPE agreement supports the principles of “Smart Growth” and urban redevelopment outlined in Baltimore’s “Digital Harbor” initiative. The signing ceremony held in September, 2002 at The Living Classrooms Foundation included representatives from the federal agencies involved - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Commerce/Economic Development Administration, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, the Natural Resource Conservation Service, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In Baltimore, the effort to bring the agreement to fruition has been led by the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC) on behalf of the Mayor’s Office. Mayor Martin O’Malley commented, “Baltimore is again at the forefront of urban redevelopment, as the first city to receive the support of ten federal agencies and the State of Maryland, who are joining together in the MAFPE agreement. Our Digital Harbor campaign to re-position the city’s economy for future growth now has a powerful ally, supporter, and potential source of funds through this unique and forward-looking federal partnership.” Harriet Tregoning, Special Secretary of the Governor’s Office of Smart Growth and a co-signer of the agreement, sees the partnership as furthering the goals of the state’s Smart Growth program. She added, “We are very pleased that this group of federal agencies has come together and agreed to support the city’s Digital Harbor initiative. They have recognized a key tenet of Smart Growth - that growth is going to occur, but that government can do a lot to make sure that most of the growth is channeled to cities, where it can do the most good, as well as avoid the detrimental effects of sprawl.” The Maryland Department of the Environment is also a signatory to the agreement. The agreement calls for support of ambitious redevelopment plans slated for brownfields and under-utilized waterfront sites, including the Carroll Camden Industrial Area and Harbor Point. BDC President M. J. “Jay” Brodie stressed, “Projects like Carroll Camden and Harbor Point involve park and waterfront improvements that are integral to the overall redevelopment plan. These are projects that are ripe for assistance through this unique agreement.” For more information, go to http://www.baltimoredevelopment.com/bdc/about/pr2002.shtml and click on the press release for Wednesday, September 25. To learn more about the partnership, contact Joann Logan or Evans Paull at 410-837-9305 or visit the brownfields section of the BDC web site at: http://www.baltimoredevelopment.com/bdc/initiatives/brownfields_intro.shtml New EPA Enforcement and Compliance History Web Site Up and Running A new EPA web site, Enforcement & Compliance History Online (http://www.epa.gov/echo), contains searchable compliance and enforcement information on some 800,000 facilities in the United States. Facilities regulated under the following environmental statutes are included in the database: Clean Air Act (CAA) Stationary Source Program, Clean Water Act (CWA), National Pollutant Elimination Discharge System (NPDES), and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). This information was publicly available before, but was not in a searchable web format. Now EPA has integrated the data in a much more user-friendly fashion. Information on the compliance history of regulated facilities can be accessed after entering ZIP code or city and state. The site then lists inspection, permit, violation, enforcement action, and penalty information over the past 2 years for all the facilities in the specified location. A 60-day comment period on ECHO commenced on its release date of November 20, and runs until January 21, 2003. During this time, the EPA is soliciting public commentary about ECHO’s ease of operation as well as the pertinence and accuracy of its information. Comment on ECHO can be made at http://www.epa.gov/echo/comments.html Stewardship Commitment for Contaminated Sites Inconsistent Among States Thousands of brownfields and other contaminated sites are being returned to beneficial uses as a result of state programs, yet many of these sites lack adequate measures to protect site users from any contamination that may be left, according to a new report by the Environmental Law Institute. States have cleaned up more than 29,000 sites since the first program began in 1976, but they fail to ensure long-term stewardship. “An Analysis of State Superfund Programs: 50-State Study, 2001 Update” reveals gaps in state programs for assuring that public health and safety will be protected from residual contamination over the long term. For more than a decade, ELI has examined cleanup programs throughout the 50 states, the District and Puerto Rico, issuing six reports that outline state statutes, program organizations, staffing, funding, expenditures, cleanup standards, and cleanup activities. The 2001 Update, the seventh installment in a series of studies funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, highlights states’ increased use of long-term stewardship and institutional controls. Such controls are of growing importance due to the increasing use of remedies in voluntary and brownfields cleanup programs that allow residual contamination to remain on restricted sites. States and the federal government use institutional controls, or legal and administrative measures, to protect the public from harmful exposure to leftover hazardous substances. Forty-three states and the District use such measures at some or all of their sites, but implementation is inconsistent. “Some states don’t use institutional controls at all sites where they are needed, “ said John Pendergrass, ELI senior attorney and director of the Center for State, Local, and Regional Environmental Programs. “Colorado requires institutional controls at sites cleaned up under state mandate, but makes them optional for voluntary cleanup program participants. On the other hand, Indiana, Missouri, West Virginia, and Wyoming use institutional controls in their voluntary programs, but not for mandatory cleanups.” Overall, the 2001 Update found that for fiscal year 2000, states completed 4, 500 cleanups of sites not on the National Priority List. An additional 15,700 non-NPL cleanups are ongoing. The study found that states cleaned up about the same number of sites in 2000 as in 1997, while spending $505.6 million, $59.5 million (10%) less than three years earlier. For more information about the study, or ELI’s Center for State, Local, and Regional Environmental Programs, please contact John Pendergrass at 202-939-3846 or visit http://www.eli.org. Brownfields Metamorphosis - From Abandoned Properties to Cultural Celebrations One of the objectives of the Brownfields Pilot Program is to enable a community to “take back the land” and make it not only useful and productive, but something to call their own - a space of structure that is unique to their community. Though economic revitalization is the cornerstone of the Brownfields Program, more and more communities are looking to redevelop brownfields properties to represent and preserve their history and culture. Several brownfields communities are in the process of constructing new buildings or renovating old buildings as museums and cultural and educational community centers. Many communities also have efforts underway to restore and preserve historic districts. All of the Brownfields Pilots participating in culture-oriented redevelopment target economically distressed communities where former industrial sites have been passed over for redevelopment because of the stigma of environmental contamination. In the City of Tacoma, Washington, a 1.6-acre brownfield site is being transformed into the Museum of Glass. The museum will spotlight an internationally acclaimed local glass artist, Dale Chihuly, as well as glass artists from around the world. In 1996, the City of Tacoma was awarded a $200,000 Brownfields Assessment Pilot grant to help encourage economic growth and redevelopment of the downtown area, focusing its efforts on the western side of the Thea Foss Waterway. This area includes a 1.5-mile inlet of the Commencement Bay that was originally developed as an industrial zone, housing numerous mill and maritime activities and serving as a terminal for Northern Pacific Railroad. During the last few decades, this area lost most of its industry, leaving abandoned buildings, contaminated properties, and high unemployment. Almost half of the area residents live below the poverty line. The Pilot conducted assessments at the site and facilitated the purchase of the property with a provision that the new owners conduct cleanup using city funds. In 1996, the City of Tacoma completed the $1.3 million cleanup. Ground was broken in September 2002, and the museum is planning a July 2002 opening. The $58 million museum is being constructed with all private funding. In addition, the City of Tacoma is providing $8 million for construction of a parking garage, a rooftop public plaza, and esplanade. The city, state, and Federal Highway Administration will provide $4.8 million for a pedestrian walkway - the planned “Chihuly Bridge of Glass” - to link the area to downtown Tacoma. The walkway will complement the Museum of Glass with large exhibits and displays of unique glass artwork donated by Dale Chihuly and the Glass Museum, valued at nearly $10 million. The Museum of Glass will be the cornerstone for future waterway projects in downtown Tacoma. Historic Buckley Field Artic Training Center Restored through Cooperative Effort in Echo Lake Mountain Park One of Colorado’s notable scenic and historic areas, Echo Lake Mountain Park, was cleared of an environmental hazard this summer through a cooperative, multi-agency effort. In the shadow of Mt. Evans, workers investigated and remediated two World War II-era dumpsites within the park. Echo Lake Park is located 11 miles southwest of Idaho Springs and 47 miles west of Denver. The work was jointly carried out the by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), the City and County of Denver, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). A site investigation completed in 1996 indicated that the dumpsites contained potentially hazardous substances and suspected contaminated soil. “We appreciate the thorough effort by all agencies involved to investigate and remediate this site. Our work has reestablished the quality of the natural environment,” said A.J. Tripp-Addison, Denver Mountain Parks Superintendent. Echo Lake Mountain Park is operated by the City and County of Denver, and is a popular recreational area for hiking and day trips. Forgotten by time, the dumpsites were once part of the Buckley Field Arctic Training Center, which was used for training U.S. Air Corps personnel in 1943 and 1944. The abandoned dumpsites consisted of two open dump areas, totaling less than one acre, located several hundred yards down slope from a picnic area within the park. Although located in a heavily forested area, the sites remained easily accessible to hikers. For this reason, CDPHE asked that the Corps request funding to clean up the area using the Defense Environmental Restoration Program for Formerly Used Defense sites. The field work took place from June 10 through September 10,2002 and consisted of site mobilization and preparation; compaction and removal of trash, debris, and suspected contaminated soils; sampling and analysis, loading and hauling materials to the landfill; grading and backfilling; seeding; and site tear down and demobilization. Sample results indicate that all residual soil contaminants in the dumpsites now fall below the level of concern based on State of Colorado soil cleanup criteria, or they correlate with area background levels. The agencies involved consider the cleanup of these historic dumpsites a success. For more information on the Buckley Field Arctic Training Center environmental restoration, please contact Ed LaRock, CDPHE Environmental Protection Specialist at (303) 692-3324. Return to Brownfields Spotlight Archives To update your user profile, click here. |
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