Washington
Putting people to work
The City of Tacoma and its partners have found a way to clean up their community while training people from low-income neighborhoods for in-demand careers in the environmental sciences.
Working with Clover Park Technical College, the Metropolitan Development Council and the Tacoma-Pierce County Employment and Training Consortium, the city aims to see 60 residents of Pierce County who reside in brownfields-impacted areas trained in the handling and removal of hazardous substances from soil and water. Paying for the training is a $141,764 Brownfields Job Training Grant from EPA.
Clover Park Technical College, which has completed three classes already with the grant monies and is starting the fourth and final class, reports 39 graduates so far have found employment. Most are making around $13.20 an hour, says Peter Guzman, the city's brownfields project manager.
Eleven program graduates are pursuing an associate's degree in environmental science, says Christine Campbell, the college's Work First training and employment coordinator. Some of these students have said they wouldn't have pursued a college degree if it hadn't been for this program, Campbell adds.
"An unexpected gratification was having people go onto the two-year degree program," she says.
Brownfields Job Training Grants (www.epa.gov/brownfields/job.htm) provide grantees with up to $200,000 over two years. The grants aim to bring together community groups, job training organizations, educators, labor groups, lenders and developers to address the issue of providing environmental employment and training for residents in communities impacted by brownfields. EPA awards 10 to 12 job training grants annually. In fact, the 2008 recipients are expected to be announced within the month.
Nationwide, 4,023 people since 1998 have completed environmental job training programs supported by the grant monies. Of that number, 2,571 people are employed in their new fields, according to EPA. That's a 63.9 percent job placement rate. However, those numbers don't reflect graduates who are working temporary jobs, which often is the case in the industry, or those who chose to pursue a degree after completing the training. So EPA officials suspect the job placement percentage rate is higher.
In Tacoma, the 2006 grant is the city's second Brownfields Job Training Grant. In 2000, it received a $200,000 grant and participated in the Brownfields Job Training and Development Demonstration Pilot. With that grant, 86 people completed the training and 60 found employment in their new fields, Guzman says.
The Tacoma program has become popular. Only 25 students are accepted for each class, and there's a waiting list. The 11-week program includes courses in HAZWOPER, spill response, pathogens, environmental chemistry, sampling, soils, watershed analysis and hydrology. Participants receive certificates in HAZWOPER, blood-borne pathogens and spill response. Students then are tracked for at least one year and placed in environmental jobs through cooperative agreements with local employers.
Guzman believes the jobs training program has a broad impact on the Tacoma community. The program is giving people from low-income backgrounds a new job skill that will be in demand in the future. Participants also are becoming more aware of their environment and the neighborhoods they live in.
"Plus, we're cleaning up our city," he adds.
Back to Top
Oregon
Expect the unexpected
If there's one lesson to be learned from the cleanup of the former Chiloquin Mill Site in this small town in southern Oregon, it's that no matter how well a site is assessed, once cleanup actions begin, new information will be unearthed and unexpected surprises will surface.
"And sometimes they're really big ones," warns Katie Robertson, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) cleanup project manager.
The unexpected surprise in the Chiloquin Mill Site came by way of dioxins. During the project's assessment phase in 2003, soil in the vicinity of a pentachlorophenol (PCP)-contaminated area was tested for dioxins. Low levels were removed as part of the cleanup activities.
However, confirmation samples collected during the 2005 cleanup from the small excavation significantly exceeded the generic risk-based concentrations for residential and occupational use, Robertson says. Dioxins went from being a minor contaminant of concern to the primary risk driver for the cleanup.
This added a year on to the project, not to mention additional money project officials did not have. The project cost $1.6 million at its completion.
The project has left a lasting impression with Robertson. "I feel like everything else I do will pale in comparison," she jokes only half-heartedly.
The Chiloquin Forest Products mill property, which sits on 26 acres along the Sprague River in Klamath County, has a long history. The Chiloquin Lumber & Box Co. built a box factory on the site's northern portion in 1918 and later added a lumber mill on the southern portion. Historic operations included lumber milling and finishing, chemical storage, equipment maintenance and vehicle fueling. The last owner of the mill filed for bankruptcy in 1991, and the county eventually foreclosed on the property in 1998.
Long on DEQ's radar, the site was assessed in 2002. Soil that was primarily impacted by petroleum hydrocarbons was found around the former repair shop, chemical shed, mill building and kiln foundation. The soil around the former mill also was impacted by PCP from wood treating. Sampling defined the extent of PCP contamination and identified only a small area on the mill site where soil was impacted by dioxins.
Cleanup on the mill site began in April 2005. Asbestos-contaminated material (ACM) was removed from the boiler house and it was demolished. About 360 tons of petroleum-contaminated soil and 530 tons of PCP-contaminated soil were transported to off-site landfills. As part of PCP excavation activities, a small volume of dioxin-contaminated soil also was removed.
With the surprise discovery of the additional dioxins that followed, DEQ officials knew they had to sample adjacent land--including school and residential properties--for dioxin. DEQ declared the site an Orphan site in January 2006 to access funds needed to perform this additional assessment. In May 2006, dioxin concentrations were found to be highest in surface soil in the area of the former PCP excavation.
Once again, due to a lack of funding, DEQ had to seek other options. It requested EPA implement a Time Critical Remedial Action on the site in January 2007. The EPA Removal Program began work last summer, removing vegetation, breaking up asphalt pavement and concrete foundations, spreading a minimum of one foot of soil over 16.1 acres of the site, spreading wood waste along the northern and western portions of the cap and installing a gate and rock barrier to limit site access.
DEQ issued a Conditional No Further Action letter for the site in December 2007, with the conditions consisting of a prohibition on groundwater withdrawal for drinking-water purposes and maintaining the engineered cap over contamination that remains in place on portions of the site.
Today, community members and the city hope to form a redevelopment district to take over ownership of the property. From various community meetings, the city and the nonprofit group Chiloquin Visions in Progress have produced a conceptual drawing of the site's future. It includes hiking trails, wildlife viewing areas and an amphitheater that utilizes the river as its backdrop. The site will include retail space for outdoor and environmentally oriented businesses. There's space allocated for softball fields for the nearby high school, as well as a small portion for residential development. And because the site is located within the Klamath Tribes' former reservation lands, the tribes also would like space for a museum or even an aquatic center.
Town leaders hope to use the now cleaned up site to create jobs and draw visitors to the economically distressed community; they want it to become a resource residents can enjoy.
"There is a resource there for the community that can spark some revitalization," says Brett Fisher, executive director of Chiloquin VIP. "It could be a nice little treasure up here."
And perhaps that's the best surprise of all.
Back to Top
Idaho
Grant monies target former landfills
When the tiny town of Bellevue, Idaho, took ownership of close to 13 acres next to the Big Wood River, the plan was to treat the former pastureland as open space. The broad swath of land fit the city’s goal of keeping development away from the flowing river and extending green space and natural habitat along the river’s popular pathway.
But one question remains: What possible contamination lurks below the ground?
“We don’t have any idea what was put in there,” says Tom Blanchard, city administrator of the 2,500-population town just 20 miles south of Ketchum and Sun Valley.
The former owner told Blanchard the land served as a dump in the 1930s and 1940s before being plowed and farmed for 10 years in the 1950s. Later it was sold and left vacant.
“We don’t have the technical expertise to do a legitimate study,” Blanchard says. “We’ve got backhoes and can dig a ditch, but how do you evaluate it?”
That’s why Bellevue, with help from the Wood River Land Trust, is pursuing an environmental site assessment with help from the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). The assessment will answer questions about the environmental condition of the site. The city has applied to DEQ for the assessment, made possible by a new $200,000 EPA grant administered by the department and aimed at assessing publicly owned former dump sites.
With environmental site evaluations costing upwards of $100,000, securing this grant would make a big difference in the tiny town, where people have rallied around the river to see that it’s protected from further development and contamination.
The grant money to evaluate former dump and landfill properties became available in October, so applications such as Bellevue’s have just begun flowing in to DEQ.
Unregulated dumpsites and landfills were common in Idaho until the mid 1980s, says Aaron Scheff, DEQ’s Brownfields Response Program manager. While the state has a handle on regulated sites, the number of potential former sites is daunting.
“Obviously, if there were no regulations, they didn’t have to report their existence or whether they were properly closed,” Scheff says.
The possibility of contamination can keep cities and counties from developing publicly owned land that might otherwise spur economic development or help preserve precious open space.
“There’s the liability issue,” Scheff says. “If there's something there and it’s traveling off site, the city or county already owns the liability.”
Not only can this new EPA grant help cities and counties move forward on brownfield projects sitting in limbo, it also can help them move faster. Cities and counties applying for an EPA assessment grant are likely in for at least one year of waiting as the paperwork is processed and details are finalized. With this grant, DEQ handles all the paperwork, oversees the funding and helps facilitate the project.
“If an application were submitted today, we would be able to handle a complete package, from record search to collection of samples to risk evaluation and, if needed, cleanup cost estimates by the end of summer,” Scheff says.
Applications are being collected and ranked on a first come, first served basis, and will be accepted until funding runs out. To get an application, go to www.deq.idaho.gov/Applications/Brownfields/AssessmentForm.pdf. Or contact Scheff at 208-373-0420 or aaron.scheff@deq.idaho.gov.
Back to Top
Alaska
Brownfields in the spotlight at forum
A who's who of Alaska's top brownfields experts will gather during the 10th annual Alaska Forum on the Environment.
The Alaska Forum on the Environment (AFE), Feb. 11-15, is one of Alaska’s largest annual events, drawing more than 1,300 participants who represent all levels of federal, state, municipal and tribal governments, as well as educators, researchers, students, nonprofit groups and private business. AFE also attracts many nationally recognized speakers and presents the latest research information on Alaska's environment. It will include seven keynote events and more than 80 breakout sessions featuring as many as 160 presenters. Exhibitor tables sponsored by businesses, organizations and agencies also will be set up Feb. 11-13.
February 13th will be packed with informative brownfields sessions featuring the state's top experts. On that day, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation's (DEC) brownfield staff will be making presentations in coordination with EPA's brownfield program staff and brownfield staff from the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council.
"AFE is one of the few opportunities in Alaska where you find all those with an interest in Alaska brownfield issues in one place at the same time, including DEC, EPA, tribal environmental program managers and most brownfield grant recipients," says John Carnahan, DEC brownfield coordinator. "All have knowledge and experience that will benefit those interested in bettering their understanding of brownfield issues."
The conference is small and personal enough that you can find whomever you seek, Carnahan adds. "You can't beat the face-to-face interaction," he says. "One can often accomplish a great deal over a cup of coffee."
Some of the topics to be discussed during the Feb. 13 sessions include:
- EPA brownfields cleanup tools and funding
- Proposed revisions to Alaska Contaminated Site Regulations
- The DEC brownfields program and its current projects
- Examples of coordinating efforts by regional tribal consortia and local IGAP environmental directors
- Vapor intrusion
- The Triad Approach to site management
- The Amchitka Island Nuclear Test Site monitoring program
DEC officials also welcome visitors to bring their questions, ideas and concerns to its exhibitor table on Feb. 12. On that day, DEC officials plan to spend some time talking with current State and Tribal Response Program grant recipients, as well as anyone considering applying for the grants in the future.
"AFE provides an excellent venue to network, ask questions and educate yourself," Carnahan says. "Hopefully, it will also inspire you into taking action, which is what we're really after."
The Alaska Forum on the Environment will be held at the Anchorage Egan Convention Center. For more information, go to akforum.com/index.htm.
Back to Top
News and Events
Jan. 24 :: Brownfields Networking Meeting, 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. in the Port of Portland Commission Room, 121 N.W. Everett, Portland. Eric Hovee, a principal of E.D. Hovee and Company in Vancouver, Wash., will present a lesson in marketing and economic development impact analysis for brownfield sites.
May 5-7 :: National Brownfields Conference at the Cobo Convention Center in Detroit. This conference, drawing more than 6,000 people, is the largest, most comprehensive conference in that nation that focuses on the cleaning up and redeveloping of abandoned, underutilized and potentially contaminated properties. This year's event will include more than 150 sessions and more than 200 exhibitors. Visit www.brownfields2008.org.
Just a reminder that applications for the 2008 State and Tribal Response Program grants are due Jan. 31. See proposal guidelines at www.epa.gov/brownfields/state_tribal.htm.
Public financing often is essential for encouraging the assessment and cleanup of brownfields. Increasingly, states are stepping in to assist communities and the private sector in bridging the financing gap associated with brownfields redevelopment. A report is available featuring highlights of more than 50 different state programs supporting brownfields financing. More information at www.epa.gov/brownfields/partners/bf_fin_state.htm.
|
