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| Brownfields Weekly |
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September 27, 2001 THIS WEEK:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To publish articles and press releases in Brownfields Weekly, write
to the editors: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Phoenix Award Grand Prize Winner Announced
at Brownfields 2001 CHICAGO, IL - Announced on the final day of Brownfields 2001, the Grand Prize for excellence in brownfields redevelopment went to the Erie Front Street Complex in Erie, Pennsylvania. The Erie Front Street project was chosen from the pool of ten winning brownfields projects in each of the EPA's ten Regions. The ten Regional awardees were:
Europe Prepares for World Sustainability
Summit GENEVA, Switzerland (ENS) - Ministers from across Europe as well as North America yesterday agreed a joint statement on priorities for next September's World Sustainable Development Summit (WSSD), which will mark the 10th anniversary of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. Held in Geneva, the two-day meeting will be followed by a round of other regional preparatory meetings as the build-up to the Johannesburg conference gathers speed. Europe's input to the WSSD bears the hallmarks of earlier preparatory statements made by the European Union. These include a European Commission communication released in February and a set of conclusions adopted by EU environment ministers in June. A highlight of the Geneva meeting was the in-depth discussion on a European Union proposal for the WSSD to aim at devising a new "global pact" or "global deal" between North and South as well as other stakeholders. In a closing statement, Swiss foreign minister Joseph Deiss called for the Johannesburg conference to "take a major step in this direction." The ministerial statement itself focuses on six major priority areas: poverty eradication, sustainable management and conservation of the natural resource base, making globalization work for sustainable development, improving governance and democratic processes at all levels, financing sustainable development, and education, science and technology for decision making. Within these themes, "a large majority of countries" reaffirmed their desire to see entry into force of the Kyoto climate protocol by 2002. The statement also "encourages" countries to set goals and targets on environmental protection and improved eco-efficiency and resource productivity. Ministers committed themselves to "make globalization work for sustainable development benefiting all people and especially the world's poor." Expressing support for a new round of global trade negotiations, the statement calls for an enhancement of the "mutually supportive role of multilateral environmental agreements and the international trading system." It also encourages all developed countries to raise their overseas development aid to 0.7 percent of Gross National Product as soon as possible. A UN Economic Commission for Europe review of progress towards sustainable development in the European region was released at the Geneva meeting. The document concludes that "the intentions and actions taken to achieve integration of economic, social and environmental aspects are moving in the right direction, but ... sustainable development is only beginning to be put into practice." International Conference on Remediation
of Contaminated Sediments: To aid in the exchange of information on this important environmental and harbor management topic, Battelle-Geneva Research Centre and Azienda Multiservizi Ambientali Veneziana (AMAV) are organizing the International Conference on Remediation of Contaminated Sediments, to be held October 10-12, 2001, at the Palazzo del Cinema in Venice, Italy. Augusto Porta, of the Battelle-Geneva Research Centre, and Rob Hinchee, of Battelle-Columbus, will chair the Conference. Session chairs will be drawn from a variety of academic, government, and private-sector organizations. The Conference will be conducted in English, and all publications emanating from the Conference will be in English. Venice is a uniquely appropriate setting for this conference. The Lagoon of Venice has both an extensive problem with contaminated sediments and an aggressive interest in improving environmental quality. The sediments of the Lagoon are the object of important research activities concerning health and environmental risk assessments and remediation and containment technologies. For the complete International Conference on Remediation of Contaminated Sediments agenda and to register,click here. EPA's REACH IT: The Remediation Technology
Online Database If you need reliable information about remediation and characterization technologies, or want to know about sites where those technologies are being implemented, EPA REACH IT can help. EPA REACH IT, sponsored by EPA's Technology Innovation Office, is a new system that lets environmental professionals use the power of the Internet to search, view, download and print information about innovative remediation and characterization technologies. EPA REACH IT will give you information about more than 750 service providers that offer almost 1,300 remediation technologies and more than 150 characterization technologies. EPA REACH IT combines information from three established EPA databases, the Vendor Information System for Innovative Treatment Technologies (VISITT), the Vendor Field Analytical and Characterization Technologies System (Vendor FACTS), and the Innovative Treatment Technologies (ITT), to give users access to comprehensive information about treatment and characterization technologies and their applications. It combines information submitted by technology service providers about remediation and characterization technologies with information from EPA, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and state project managers about sites at which innovative technologies are being deployed. Those sources together provide you with up-to-date information, not only about technologies you can use to characterize or remediate a site, but also about sites at which those technologies are being used and the service providers that offer them. Visit EPA REACH IT at the link below: Economic Ressurection Begins In Rural
West Virginia Panhandle Located in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, 10 miles west of historic Harpers Ferry, the two adjacent cities of Ranson and Charlestown are the largest towns in rural Jefferson County, with a population of 6,012. Like most cities in the region, Charles Town and Ranson are industrial towns. Historically, their economies depended on a wide variety of industries -- tanneries, metal works, lumber mills, machine shops, railroads, and mining and manufacturing operations. As decades passed and the economy in the two towns changed, irresponsible companies vacated once-productive properties, leaving plenty of contamination behind throughout the entire transportation corridor. Now the area is rife with brownfields. This has deterred investment and significantly reduced the tax base. These perceptions and the liability that goes with it have discouraged land transactions and positive growth for many years. Underpopulated and surrounded by plenty of natural scenic beauty, Ranson and Charlestown want to actualize the economic potential that, until now, has gone unrealized. Selected as an EPA Pilot this past April -- with an additional $50,000 for greenspace initiatives -- plans are now unfolding to build toward the future of the towns, through brownfields. The Pilot's long-term objective is to redevelop this corridor into a commerce center that supports walking trails, a recreation area for the Boys and Girls Club of Jefferson County, professional office space, a business/technology park, and light industry. As part of this objective, the Pilot will foster land transactions and development through site assessments, reuse planning, and community involvement. Currently, plans are underway to establish a Commerce Corridor Reuse Committee and to seek the support of the EPA's Technical Assistance for Brownfields (TAB) program. The Commerce Corridor Committee will consist of both town Managers, as well as business and local government leaders and representatives from the offices of West Virginia's Senators. The EPA's TAB program, if accepted, will help Ranson and Charlestown leverage needed grant resources toward funding various phases of the Corridor project. |