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| Brownfields Weekly |
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August 16, 2001 IN THIS ISSUE:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brownfields Weekly is always looking for unique industry perspectives. Contact the editors if you'd like to write for us: If you enjoy Brownfields Weekly, please forward this issue to a freind or colleague. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Private Citizens, Public Agencies Create Bright Future for Houston's East End In the East End neighborhood of Houston, Texas, for 17 years the Westheimer Rigging and Hauling Company’s old staging area sat vacant and contaminated -- 3.1 prime city acres saddled with low levels of hydrocarbons and metals in the groundwater and soil. John Goldberg, the owner of the Westheimer Rigging property, undoubtedly would have sold it ... if he could remember that he owned it in the first place. Unfortunately, John had developed Alzheimer’s Disease. As his disease progressed, it fell upon his daughter Rochelle to sell it. Hindered by the site's remediation needs, and knowing nothing about the subject, she attended a local environmental seminar. There, she learned about the City’s brownfields program. At the same time, East End neighborhood residents had been gathering to solve a growing neighborhood problem: new senior citizen housing. The neighborhood's senior population had grown so much that many neighborhood families were limited to a single income -- because one member had to stay home to care for an elderly parent. The neighborhood's seniors had no other care options. So East End residents and neighborhood leaders at the local Latino Learning Center (LLC) began their site search. Finding the Westheimer property to be the ideal location, and with Mr. Goldberg's daughter now prepared to sell, the new senior housing project officially got its start. Better yet, more help for the project was on the way. Private, Public Agencies Rally for Neighborhood's Greater Good Latino Learning Center representatives applied to the City of Houston’s nationally-recognized Brownfields Redevelopment Program -- a program that has revitalized over 975 acres of city brownfields and created more than 2,372 new jobs to date -- to fund a Phase II ESA at the site. Houston's Brownfields Program agreed to have its environmental services consultant perform over $12,000 in site assessment services, at no cost to Westheimer or the LLC. By April of 1998, Westheimer received an official Certificate of Completion, after entering the property into the Texas Voluntary Cleanup Program in March of the same year. Once remediation was complete, the Latino Learning Center got help from Houston’s Land Redevelopment Committee (LRC). The LRC successfully leveraged over $80,000 in pro bono legal services to help the Latino Learning Center negotiate the property’s purchase. The new property owners began construction on half of the property in September 1999 on 117 Eastwood, to be the neighborhood's new 65-unit senior housing complex. Once again, another agency came through for the LLC. They were granted $3.8 million from HUD’s Section 202, which provides both construction and permanent financing for low income senior citizen apartments. The positive community response continued as 31 different Houston-area companies volunteered their time and money to help return the property to productive use. The project created 5 full-time jobs for community residents and 65 units of affordable housing for the neighborhood’s elderly (now at 100% occupancy). During construction, 150 jobs were created, with 50% of them set aside for local residents only. In October 2000, construction on the East End’s new senior housing center was completed. The center was named The Goldberg Senior Housing Project, in honor of the property’s former owner. The other half of the property, once development there is complete, will bring even more prosperity to the East End. The LLC plans to build a Seniors' Day and Health Care Center, as well as a 5,500 square-foot multi-service community center where job training, food service, recreational facilities, and a computer laboratory will be available. The planned community center brings an even brighter future to the neighborhood. It will give over 140 East End residents the chance to continue their education, in English-as-a-Second-Language, Math, Science and Computer Science. For more information on the Houston Brownfields Redevelopment Program, e-mail Coordinator Dawn Moses here. --N. Harper and Dawn Moses for Brownfields Weekly.
$1M in Penalties Levied Against Philip Services Corp SEATTLE, WA - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) levied more than $1 million in total penalties against Philip Services Corp. of Chicago for repeatedly mismanaging dangerous wastes at its four Puget Sound-area facilities. Philip Services does business in Washington as Burlington Environmental Inc. It operates plants in Kent, Tacoma and Seattle's Georgetown neighborhood that store, transfer and treat hazardous wastes. The firm also runs a laboratory in Renton that analyzes the waste being handled in its operations. Its customers include hundreds of businesses and local government entities, such as the EPA and U.S. Department of Defense. EPA determined that Philip Services failed to fulfill the conditions of its "corrective action" permit, which requires the company to undertake cleanup actions at its Seattle-Georgetown plant. The company is investigating the extent of benzene and solvent contamination resulting from past activities at the Georgetown facility. Contamination under the community has reached an underground aquifer that drains to the Lower Duwamish waterway. EPA is overseeing the investigation and cleanup of the contaminant plume. Philip Services' failure to comply with stipulated cleanup requirements dates back several years, and EPA's $774,000 penalty takes into account the length of time the company was out of compliance. The Department of Ecology's actions are based on other repeated violations at the company's Kent, Renton and Tacoma facilities. Ecology found Incompatible wastes stored too close together; waste materials improperly stored in areas not allowed under the company's permit; waste stored longer than legally allowed; some employees not properly trained to handle dangerous waste; and emergency response plans were inadequate or not being followed. Ecology fined the Kent facility $114,000 and the Tacoma plant $66,000 for the violations. The agency also levied $50,000 in penalties for problems at Philip's Renton laboratory. Under EPA rules, Albright said Philip Services risks having its facilities barred from receiving wastes. The goal is to avoid creating new Superfund cleanup sites by sending dangerous wastes only to facilities that are environmentally sound. Ecology is concerned that an increasing number of waste handlers across the state are not complying with environmental requirements for managing waste. One company recently closed and abandoned its plants, forcing taxpayers and customers to pay cleanup costs. The agency is working on a program to ensure that firms operate safely and, if they decide to suspend their operations, pay the full cost of closure and cleanup. "Our intent is not to drive this or any company out of business," Sorlie said. "Our goal is to maintain an even playing field that protects the environment. Philip Services needs to follow the same regulations that apply to all waste-handling companies." He added that Ecology and EPA have met with company representatives to discuss the recurring compliance problems. Philip has made a commitment, he said, to work with the agencies to keep similar violations from occurring in the future. Under federal law, Philip Services has 30 days to file a written answer to EPA's complaint. Under state law, the company has 30 days to appeal Ecology's action to the state Pollution Control Hearings Board. NY EPA Begins Final Steps to Clean Up Gloversville Tannery NEW YORK, NY - EPA began demolition of a contaminated building at the site of the former Independent Leather Manufacturing Co. in Gloversville, New York, finishing a large portion of the Agency's cleanup work at the site. The main building is one of two on the site that are contaminated with chemicals used in the leather tanning process. EPA is demolishing the building because it is structurally unsound, making it unsafe to clean up the basement where the contamination is located. The site will be commercially redeveloped under New York State's Brownfields program. "This site has a lot of potential. It's in an idyllic location and the contamination at the site is relatively easy to address. Once we remove the contamination, this site could be put to use -- so this cleanup is a real boost to both the environment and the local economy." said Paul Kahn, EPA's On-Scene Coordinator for the site, who is overseeing the cleanup. EPA will disassemble the building in sections, taking care to recycle valuable pine beams and flooring. Debris from the building will then be recycled or properly disposed of. The entire demolition process will take about 20 days. A second building on the site is being cleaned at the same time EPA is demolishing the main building. This second building will not be demolished because it is structurally sound and readily accessible for safe cleaning. EPA has been at work at the site since April 2001. City officials became alarmed this year when a heavy snowfall caused a partial roof collapse that threatened to release chemicals abandoned in the building by the former owner. The Agency has done extensive sampling and consolidated and secured more than 350 containers of chemicals and contaminated soil from the basement of both buildings. The Superfund cleanup for the entire site will have an estimated price tag of about $1.3 million, and should be completed by October 2001.
"Brownfields: Greening Up?" at CUED's Annual Conference - Sept. 9-12 The premier conference for economic development professionals across the U.S., the Honorable John Street, Mayor of Philadelphia, will be in attendance at the general session of the Council for Urban Economic Development's 2001 Annual Conference, September 9-12 at the Philadelphia Loews Hotel. The Conference's "Brownfields: Greening Up?" session track will showcase recent examples of the latest techniques, updated laws and creative thinking being applied to brownfield issues -- and how well-conceived brownfield projects result in job creation, tax revenues, neighborhood revitalization, conservation and green space. Other Conference tracks of interest include "Arts, Culture and Sports as Revitalization Strategies," "Main Streets: The Strip Mall Antidote," and "Smart Growth - Defining the Boundaries" among may others. For a complete listing of CUED's conference session tracks and to register online for the conference, visit:
New Remediation Technology: Do Nothing? Scientists and engineers agree that there are times in dealing with remediation of contaminated areas when it's best to let Nature work her magic without human intervention. This approach is called natural attenuation. Natural attenuation, however, isn't a synonym for doing nothing. It may be the most efficient, least costly approach when the contamination poses no threat to human health and the environment. However, this approach requires rigorous monitoring to ensure that natural processes are, indeed, reducing contaminant concentration, toxicity, or mobility. It also requires diligence in protecting the contaminated site from development that could affect -- or be affected by -- natural remediation. At BrownfieldsTech.org, you can find out much more on using monitored natural attenuation for site remediation -- including a detailed description of the process, decision matrices, a discussion of its limitations and applicability, and links to other brownfield industry sites with more information on the process. BrownfieldsTech.org: |