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| Brownfields Weekly |
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December 6, 2001 THIS WEEK:
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Information Library -- case studies, articles, books, white papers
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ICMA to Research Stakeholder Communication in Brownfields Scenarios WASHINGTON, D.C. - The International City/County Management Association (ICMA) is seeking applications from local governments and community groups interested in participating in its research study, "Local Government and Community Engagement in Brownfields Redevelopment." Through a cooperative grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, ICMA will work with selected communities in the areas of brownfields redevelopment and land use planning to document local government policies and practices in conducting community outreach and education. The study will focus on the multifaceted issues of brownfields redevelopment and the specific techniques local governments use to engage and inform community members. In addition, ICMA will work with community groups to determine the most effective methods that can be used by local governments to engage communities in land use planning. ICMA will publish a final report that desribes the research collected. The report will discuss the activities of both the local government and community groups and share the methods used in developing successful brownfields redevelopment projects. The research will focus on the community’s perception of the local government’s community involvement process, as well as local government’s perception of the community’s participation. In this way, the research will document best practices and barriers to successful communication between local governments and the citizens they serve. Visit the following link for an application to participate in the study (this link will open a Word document): http://icma.org/documents/lgcomm.doc To learn more about ICMA’s Local Government and Community Engagement in Brownfields Redevelopment research study or to request an application to participate in the study, contact Riti Dhesi at rdhesi@icma.org or (202) 962-3657.
Major Cleanup of Hudson River Will Proceed WASHINGTON, D.C. - "We are going ahead with this important cleanup," said EPA Administrator Christie Whitman, as she announced the EPA will proceed with a major cleanup of the Hudson River. It will be one of the largest dredging projects in U.S. history. EPA has forwarded the Record of Decision (ROD) to the State of New York for its three-week review of the dredging project that will remove PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) from the river. Before PCBs were banned by the federal government in 1977, the General Electric Co. disposed of over 1 million pounds of PCBs into the Hudson River. The PCBs were deposited over a 30-year period from two General Electric plants in Fort Edward and Hudson Falls, New York, which manufactured electric capacitors. The cleanup is expected to cost GE, which opposes the dredging project, an estimated $500 million. A 200-mile portion of the Hudson River was declared a Superfund site in 1984 because of the widespread PCB contamination. PCBs bio-accumulate in fish and pose potential cancer and other health risks to people who eat the fish. The Record of Decision was sent to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) for its review. It calls for dredging an estimated 2.65 million cubic yards from a 40-mile section of the river to remove approximately 150 thousand pounds of PCBs. Administrator Whitman has asked Jane Kenny, the new EPA Administrator for Region 2, to recommend by early January, the format, structure and timing of this public process. The recommended process will begin as soon as the ROD is issued, and will allow a full airing of the proposals.
EPA Launches New eCommerce Portal for Environmental Reporting EPA has established a single portal on the Web for all environmental data entering the agency. The Central Data Exchange (CDX) offers companies, states and other entities that provide data to EPA a faster, easier and a more secure reporting option. The portal also includes built-in data quality checks, web forms, standard file formats and a common, user friendly approach to reporting data across vastly different environmental programs such as the Toxic Release Inventory, the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule and the Air Emissions Inventory. A cornerstone of EPA's e-government initiative, CDX aids the agency's overall systems modernization effort and saves money by reducing redundant infrastructure. CDX currently accepts data for certain air, water, waste and toxic programs and will gradually expand to support all agency environmental reporting by 2004. Though the current focus is electronic, CDX will eventually incorporate a facility for the agency's paper data collections. Visit EPA's Central Data Exchange
at:
Rutgers is First University to Voluntarily Audit Under New Agreement NEW YORK, New York - Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, has taken advantage of the EPA's innovative self-audit policy and agreed to do a comprehensive environmental audit of its five major campuses and off-campus facilities. The agreement is the first of its kind between EPA and a college or university, and comes as EPA continues its national initiative to help institutions of higher education comply with environmental regulations. EPA Acting Regional Administrator William J. Muszynski said, "We are very gratified that Rutgers -- the largest university system in New Jersey -- is the first in the country to take us up on our offer, and we look forward to seeing the results of its audit." EPA's Region 2 office started the colleges and universities initiative because it found that many such institutions were not aware of their responsibilities under various environmental laws. As part of the initiative, EPA informed colleges and universities of the benefits of the audit policy, under which facilities can investigate and disclose violations to EPA and, if a number of qualifications are met, receive a partial or, in some cases, 100% reduction in financial penalties. EPA also held workshops to help schools comply, provided them with information about their duties under the law (with no risk to the institution of financial penalties) and warned them that official EPA inspections of their facilities -- with the risk of financial penalties -- were imminent if they did not perform an audit. In advance of performing an audit, Rutgers approached EPA and requested an agreement laying out the details of the audit and the University's responsibilities. If Rutgers discloses violations in accordance with the agreement and EPA's audit policy, the University will not face gravity-based (punitive) penalties. Rutgers may face economic benefit-based penalties, however, which are based on how much money the institution may have saved by not complying with a particular environmental regulation. Rutgers plans to share its inspection protocols and what it has learned by conducting this internal audit with other colleges and universities throughout the nation.
Small Florida City to Rid Itself of 23 Brownfields Fortunate for a prime location, Opa-locka is located minutes away from Miami International Airport, providing great opportunity for trade and commerce, as well as a geographically attractive location for interested developers. But the types of businesses that have flourished in Opa-locka have typically included automobile junkyards and scrap metal and demolition debris recovery facilities. The nature of the city's economy has created environmental concerns, not to mention stalling growth of other businesses and industries. With a population of 16,000, Opa-locka's mean annual income is $15,099 -- the lowest in the county. Governor Jeb Bush has designated Opa-locka, located in the Miami-Dade County Enterprise Zone, as a "Front Porch Community" for its recent revitalization efforts. But perceived and real contamination continue to pose barriers to its complete redevelopment. To combat these barriers, the City of Opa-locka received an EPA Brownfields Pilot grant, as well as $50,000 in additional funding for greenspace. For the city's identified brownfields, the Opa-locka Pilot has categorized 23 potential brownfields sites within the 4.5 mile city limits into high, medium, and low priority. The high- and medium-priority sites will first be assessed, then the cleanup and redevelopment of the brownfields sites cleanup will begin. Opa-locka's greenspace component is a 4.5-acre, abandoned site in the Nile Garden section of the city. Surrounded by residences, offices, and educational and religious centers, the site was formerly a commercial nursery. A Phase I assessment previously conducted at the site indicates that hazardous materials -- such as herbicides and pesticides -- may be present onsite. The Pilot plans to work with the community to redevelop the future greenspace site into a recreational park, with basketball courts and a soccer field. The greenspace funding will provide for a Phase II assessment and, depending upon the results, may be used for redevelopment planning and geographic information system (GIS) simulation. |