Center Assists in Response to Katrina Disaster

Researchers and outreach specialists at the Hazardous Substance Research Center/South & Southwest have participated in the response to last year's Gulf Coast hurricanes in a variety of ways. They include:

  • Preparation and distribution of an eight-page factsheet to help disaster victims take precautions in returning to their homes;

  • Assistance by the center's community outreach specialists to the City of New Orleans on recovery issues. Center staff members have helped the city apply for a recovery grant and make connections with neighborhood assns through participatory workshops;

  • Presentation of technical information at various recovery forums in the Gulf Coast region;

  • Participation by Center Co-Director John Pardue on the Environmental Task Force estabished by the Louisiana Recovery Authority;

  • Preparation of an analysis of the toxic and contaminant concerns generated by Hurricane Katrina. Center Co-Directors Danny Reible and John Pardue co-authored this essay in the National Academy of Engineering's Bridge Spring 2006 newsletter;

  • Preparation of an editorial on the consequences of Hurricane Katrina, with Reible and Pardue as co-authors, that appear in one of the summer 2006 issues of the ASCE Journal of Environmental Engineering;

  • Participation by the Center's co-directors in a November 2005 National Academies workshop that focused on the damage caused by Katrina to the hydrology, infrastructure, and contamination profile in Louisiana and the Gulf Coast; and

  • Participation by center-affiliated researchers in studies to characterize floodwaters as well as particulate and vapor levels in the City of New Orleans.


Use of Eminent Domain for Economic Development May Affect Brownfields Communities

A recent Supreme Court decision has expanded the power of local governments to take land through eminent domain, but the impact of this ruling on brownfields redevelopment is still far from certain.

Until recently, governments could only use eminent domain to take land for the following five purposes:

  • Direct government use of property;
  • Highways, roads, and other public facilities to which citizens have a right of access;
  • Railroads, utility lines, and other facilities operated by common carriers or those acting in the manner of common carriers;
  • Urban renewal plans to remedy the public nuisance created by blighted neighborhoods; and
  • Hawaiian land reform.

In June 2005, this list added a new category when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that a Connecticut city could take land with just compensation for "economic development." Traditionally, courts have ruled that the government cannot take the property of one private party and give it to another private party. In this case, however, the courts found that such a transfer of property is constitutionally allowable if "public use" is the governmentÕs ultimate purpose. The court justified the taking of the property because "the plan unquestionably serves a public purpose."

In response to this ruling, Congress, state legislatures, and local governments have introduced legislation to limit the use of eminent domain for economic development. Western states, in particular, have been active in these campaigns.

Most, if not all, brownfield projects are presented as economic development opportunties, so the Supreme Court ruling will have a direct impact on efforts to redevelop contaminated properties.

To learn more, you can download a factsheet published by TOSC on this topic.


Introduction to the Hazards of Vapor Intrusion

Vapor intrusion is the movement of chemical vapors from contaminated groundwater or soil into buildings, basements, or crawl spaces. These vapors come from pollutants such as buried wastes, leaking underground storage tanks, or buried hazardous waste drums that release volatile chemicals.

The migration of noxious or toxic chemicals has long been a concern, and the problem has become more pressing with the redevelopment of contaminated properties (brownfields) for productive purposes.

The South & Southwest TOSC program staff has prepared a factsheet describing this problem, showing what can be done to prevent it, and listing some resources for doing this work. The factsheet is downloadable from the HSRC/S&SW web site.


Environmental Contamination in Railyards

As part of the trend toward brownfields redevelopment, communities and businesses are evaluating more rail yards as they become part of larger redevelopment efforts or specific targets for redevelopment.

Rail yards are often sites with diverse types of contamination, and TOSC program staff prepared a fact sheet describing the most common sources of environmental contamination at these facilities.



Technical Outreach Services for Communities (TOSC) Program Update

In the last year, South & Southwest TOSC program has provided services to the following communities. Click on any of them to learn more about the problem being addressed and the assistance offered by TOSC:



Technical Assistance to Brownfields Communities (TAB) Program Update

In the last year, South & Southwest TAB program has provided services to the following communities. Click on any of them to learn more about the problem being addressed and the assistance offered by TAB:



TOSC Works with New Chicago Community in Memphis

In March 2005, TOSC staff met with EPA Region 4 representatives from the RCRA and Brownfields programs and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) to begin work on a federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) program project with the New Chicago Community Development Corporation in Memphis, Tennessee.

The New Chicago Community has been impacted by the discharge into Cypress Creek of industrial process wastewater containing pesticides and process intermediates. During this initial meeting, TOSC gathered information on the environmental testing that has been completed in the area downstream from the contamination site.

TOSC staff traveled to Memphis in April 2005 to attend a community meeting of the Vollentine-Evergreen Community Association. They met with key personnel of the communities and toured the area. While cancer was not cited as a major concern of residents, community members talked about health and safety problems related to discarded tires and other debris in the area. "There is a perception in the community that many studies have been done on the creek and other community problems in the past, but nothing has actually been implemented," said TOSC director Bob Schmitter.

TOSC requested several documents addressing health and environmental issues in the New Chicago Community and surrounding areas. Staff members have now reviewed several reports on cancer incidences and other health risks in the area, and have been in close contact with the federal RCRA office of EPA and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC). All data for Sub-Area V (the area encompassing New Chicago) has been reformatted as GIS points using maps from the 2001 document and database files provided by Velsicol.

Conversations with the leaders of the New Chicago Community say that environmental issues associated with the contaminated facility and Cypress Creek are a low priority issue. As a result, TOSC is reassessing its role as it pertains to the needs of the community and the objectives of the TOSC/RCRA program. TOSC hopes to facilitate a meeting in early 2006 with the community, EPA, the principal responsible party, and others to discuss the issues of importance to the New Chicago community, and how to proceed with assistance efforts.



Brownfield Sleuthing Tool Succeeds on Larger Stage

The South & Southwest TAB program's computer-based tool for identifying brownfields sites has been successfully used on a larger stage.

The tool combines GIS and neural network technology to identify and display brownfield sites through use of pre-existing data and, in so doing, target underutilized sites for redevelopment.

Last year, the developers of the tool at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) used it to identify with 85% success promising brownfield properties from a set of 25,000 land parcels in the Northside Drive Corridor of Atlanta, Georgia. This year, they used the tool to identify brownfields throughout the city of Atlanta, and its success rate was 87%.

Brownfields identification surveys normally require professionals to visit each parcel to establish if real or perceived contamination exists. The brownfields sleuthing tool can reduce cost and speed the process of surveying large areas of land.

The neural network software incorporated into the tool analyzes data too complex to be handled with traditional statistical methods. It is modeled on human information processing to make decisions in cases where much of the data is noisy, irrelevant and incomplete. GIS technology represents the information geographically and integrated it into a map with different layers of data.

In the demonstrations of the tool in the city of Atlanta, researchers at GTRI first surveyed 380 randomly selected sites and determined whether each was a brownfield. GTRI used 70% of the sites to "train" the neural network software to recognize brownfields characteristics. The tool's performance in making this identification was validated in the remaining 30% of the sites.

For more information on this tool, contact Ann Carpenter at GTRI at ann.carpenter@gtri.gatech.edu.



Web Resources for Community Cleanup and Redevelopment

The World Wide Web has a wealth of information for communities involved in environmental cleanup or redevelopment projects. Here is a sampling of resources:

  • EPA is sponsoring environmental justice grants for communities directly affected by Hurricane Katrina. Click here for information if you are in EPA Region 4 (Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, or Tennessee). Click here if your community is in Region 6 (Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma or Texas). The deadline for submitting proposals is April 30.

  • An online library of downloadable factsheets on environmental science and technology at Kansas State University.

  • The Western Region TOSC program has a summary of information and resources to help citizens understand the dangers of perchlorate contamination.

  • The national Brownfields 2006 conference will be held November 13-15 in Boston, Massachusetts. For more details, go to: http://www.brownfields2006.org/

  • EPA has established a web resource known as SMARTe. It is a free, web-based decision support system for developing and evaluating future reuse scenarios for potentially contaminated land.

  • EPA has created a new Spanish-language web site dedicated to providing information on different environmental issues and their effects among Hispanics residing in the U.S.

  • There will be a Brownfields Leadership Summit in Washington, DC, on April 27. The International Brownfields Summit is planned June 8-10 in Niagara Falls, NY.

  • EPA's 2006 Community Involvement Conference is scheduled June 27-30 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

  • EPA has a new public involvement policy. Read about it by clicking here.

  • The Sustainable Communities Network has downloadable materials called "Placemaking: Tools for Community Action." It is a starter kit for identifying currently available planning tools and assessing their appropriate for specific projects or issues.

If you have any resources to publish in this newsletter, please send them to mark.hodges@gtri.gatech.edu.
Please feel free to forward this newsletter on to your friends, family and colleagues.

To contact us for any more information, please see below.

Clean Communities E-Newsletter
Mark Hodges, Editor
GTRI/ITTL
Georgia Tech
Atlanta, GA  30332-0832
Email: mark.hodges@gtri.gatech.edu
Phone: 404.407.6987
All content is (C) Copyright 2006.