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June 20, 2002 THIS WEEK:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brownfields Weekly welcomes your organization's press releases, industry conference announcements, and brownfields project updates. Click here to contact the Editors. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- House Bill Would Authorize $60M for
EDA Brownfields WASHINGTON, D.C. - Representatives Jack Quinn (R-NY) and Marty Meehan (D-MA), co-chairs of the Northeast Midwest House Coalition, joined together with Representatives John McHugh (R-NY), Bill Pascrell (D-NJ), Dale Kildee (D-MI), and Rob Simmons (R-CT) to introduce the Brownfields Site Redevelopment Act on June 6th. The new Brownfields Bill, H.R. 4894, would authorize $60 million for the Economic Development Agency (EDA) in the Department of Commerce to establish a grants program for brownfields-related economic development activities. EDA currently funds brownfields out of its general authorization, but brownfields must compete with other EDA activities for this funding. The bill, a companion to Senate Bill 1079, would also permit the Secretary of Commerce in and the EPA Administrator to include other pollutants and contaminants, like petroleum, lead and asbestos, in the definition of brownfields. EDA funding can currently be used for remediation of these contaminants. The bill has the endorsements of the National Association of Realtors, the National Association of Counties, the National Business Incubator Association, and the National League of Cities. Superfund Removal of Buried Bombs
Completed LITTLE VALLEY, New Jersey - The EPA has completed the removal and disposal of the buried bombs, fuzes and related material from World War II it uncovered at the 70 acre Washington Township Ordnance site. The site was operated by United Wallpaper Factories, Inc. for the manufacture of incendiary bombs during World War II. Unused and discarded ordnance were buried at the site and several hundred burned bomb canisters and fuzes have been found there over the years. Fort Monmouth ordnance experts and the US Army Corps of Engineers personnel visually inspected the site in the summer of 2000, in response to a request from Morris County Emergency Services, and did not find ordnance that contained explosives. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) alerted EPA, which investigated the site in 2000 using geophysical techniques to survey the area for metal anomalies related to ordnance items. EPA began the cleanup of the site late last year under its federal Superfund authority. During its operations, EPA restricted public access to the site, which was frequented by hunters, hikers, dirt- bike riders and equestrians. The site consists of an active chemical manufacturer, a residence, and undeveloped land. Discarded ordnance was identified at all three properties; however, the greatest concentration of ordnance was in remote locations on the parcel of undeveloped land, mostly open fields and woodlands. EPA utilized the services of Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) specialists to address the buried ordnance at the site. The work included identifying, removing, and disposing of any ordnance-type material. Trenches and burial pits containing a large quantity of ordnance items were discovered in the wooded undeveloped area of the site. Soil was excavated from these trenches and pits and screened to recover fuzes and bombs. Any ordnance material discovered on the surface or buried below was removed and secured on-site for detonation and/or disposal. The specialty firm detonated any UXO on the site property rather than attempt to remove live shells. Inert ordnance materials were recycled as ordnance related scrap at appropriate off-site facilities. The total number of ordnance items recovered included: 22,766 empty M-69 bomb casings, over 650,000 inert fuzes, 4 inert M-2 rockets, 267 live M-69 bombs, 99 M-50 live bombs, 730 live fuzes and 31 M-1 fuze primers. All of the live ordnance found, a total of 1,127 items, were destroyed in a series of 19 detonations. Following the removal of ordnance material, the area was reevaluated to ensure that a major threat to the public health and safety has been addressed. All areas disturbed during the investigation and cleanup work were restored. Attend The Air & Waste Management
Association's The Air & Waste Management Association (A&WMA) invites you to beautiful Baltimore, Maryland for their 95th Annual Conference and Exhibition, June 23 - June 27, 2002. Rallying around the theme of "Cooperation for a Better Environment," come to A&WMA 2002 to meet with your colleagues, learn about the latest technical advances, see informative exhibits, and have a good time! Among other world-class environmental experts in attendance will be Keynote Speaker Linda Fisher, U.S. EPA Deputy Director. Conference plenary tracks will cover environmental and health responses to emergencies, energy and the environment, the 2002 Critical Review: "Visibilty: Science and Regulation," and a "Hot Issues" special session. For more information on this conference, please visit: http://www.awma.org/ACE2002. Study: Smart Growth Limits Auto Use SAN FRANCISCO, California (ENS) - A new study suggests that better urban design can reduce auto use and relieve the traffic congestion and pollution that come with it. The researchers' analysis of the San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago metropolitan areas found a direct link between the amount people drive and city attributes like neighborhood density, transit access, and pedestrian and bicycle friendliness. According to the authors, those attributes measure an area's "location efficiency" - the more efficient the location, the less people drive. "We now have empirical evidence that smart growth works," said David Goldstein, a coauthor of the study and director of the energy program at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). "This study shows that people who live in more convenient communities are less dependent on cars. These communities are not only more convenient, they're also more livable because they tend to have cleaner air and water and more protected open space." The study examined auto ownership and driving patterns in almost 3,000 neighborhoods in the three metropolitan areas. The authors used the results to construct mathematical models that allow the average number of autos owned and miles driven to be calculated for a household of any given income and size, as long as the neighborhood's density, transit access and pedestrian friendliness are known. The authors said their findings offer intriguing suggestions for how to design cities to reduce dependence on driving, traffic congestion, energy use, and air and water pollution. "Over the years, sprawl development has forced us to drive more and more," said John Holtzclaw, the study's lead author and consultant to the NRDC. "Not surprisingly, smarter, more convenient cities resemble the pedestrian and transit oriented cities of our grandparents, which were built before the car dominated our zoning laws and transportation projects." The study, "Location Efficiency: Neighborhood and Socio-Economic Characteristics Determine Auto Ownership and Use - Studies in Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco," appeared in the March 2002 issue of the journal "Transportation Planning and Technology." Two Brownfields Become Award-Winning
Ballfields On June 4, a ribbon-cutting was held at Went Field Park to celebrate its restoration and expansion. This restoration is the largest community-based project in the city and one of the largest in the country. The successful outcome of the multi-stakeholder process in the restoration and expansion of Went Field Park in Bridgeport, Connecticut was also recently recognized by the USEPA New England under its annual Environmental Merit Awards program. The Went Field Park Restoration and Expansion project involved the assessment, acquisition and cleanup of two brownfields properties adjacent to an existing six acre park. The park is the only open space for the 39,000 residents of this predominantly low income neighborhood. The brownfields redevelopment allowed for expansion of the park to meet the numerous needs of the community. The blighted buildings located on the two brownfields properties had attracted unwanted criminal activities creating a major safety concern at the park. The existing park was over utilized by competing athletic groups and the small children's playground was in disrepair. Nearby Bassick High School, one of the only schools in the nation without adjoining athletic facilities, relied on the small site for all its outdoor sports activities. The $4.4 million project expanded the park from 6 to 10 acres, created new playground facilities, added a community plaza and walking track, upgraded the existing softball fields and basketball courts, and added a new training complex for Bassick High School - including football, softball and track & field facilities. The City of Bridgeport was one of the first communities in the nation to implement the SBR Process. The City engaged Vita Nuova to conduct numerous community meetings, design workshops and develop integrated programs that would build consensus around the reuse plan and foster long-term ownership in the process. The Park City Brownfields Redevelopment Partnership, the non-profit group to receive the Merit Award, was created to coordinate the resources of private, non-profit and community stakeholders to support the betterment of Bridgeport's neighborhoods and transfer this model developed at Went Field to other neighborhoods across Bridgeport. For more information on the Went Field Park Restoration and Expansion project, please visit: http://www.epa.gov/region1/brownfields/success/bridgeport.htm. |