Brownfields Update for the Pacific Northwest

Created under the Superfund Law of 1980, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) is responsible for preventing toxic exposures, determining human health effects associated with exposures, and minimizing health risks. The purpose of the agency’s National Brownfield/Land Reuse Initiative is to increase consideration of public health issues in Brownfields redevelopment activities and decision-making. As part of that effort, the ATSDR is developing a public health-focused Brownfields manual for tribal leaders and environmental professionals working with the tribes in Alaska.

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), organized in 1985, is the non-regulatory entity created by the Superfund Act of 1980 to prevent toxic exposures, determine human health effects associated with exposures and minimize health risks. The ATSDR is one of 11 federal agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services and is administered by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

Brownfields have always been a focus of the ATSDR, which created a National Brownfield/Land Reuse Initiative to increase the consideration of public health in Brownfields-related activities and decision-making, such as the role of contaminant exposure in Brownfield site remediation activities and final site uses.

The ATSDR increased its presence in Region 10 with the opening of a field office in Alaska in mid-2008. The objective is to address the unique environmental health and environmental justice challenges of the many tribal communities in the state. These are related to mine waste, above ground leaking fuel storage tanks and other environmental contamination that can create human health risks.

An ATSDR project in the early development stages is a Brownfields manual for Alaskan tribal leaders and environmental professionals who work with the tribes. The manual will contain information on the role of the ATSDR in Brownfields mitigation, and on environmental health issues caused by Brownfields. The manual also will provide resources and guidance on how to address public health concerns in Brownfields redevelopment projects.

The publication is intended to be a resource for the 14 Alaska State Tribal Response Programs (STRP) and will be incorporated into the Alaska Brownfields Program Handbook compiled by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC). The ADEC Handbook provides guidance to the STRPs on how to build a program that achieves these four elements of a Brownfields response program:

• Timely survey and inventory of Brownfields sites.
• Oversight and enforcement authorities or other mechanisms and resources to ensure that a response action will protect human health and the environment.
• Mechanisms and resources to provide meaningful opportunities for public participation.
• Mechanisms for approval of a cleanup plan and verification and certification that cleanup is complete.

In addition to its work with the EPA regional offices, ATSDR pursues its Brownfields goals by working with local health agencies to fund Brownfields/ land reuse community health projects. These projects typically identify health issues prior to redevelopment and/or change in community health that site reuse and redevelopment can bring about.

Another ATSDR Brownfields-related product is the Brownfield/Land Reuse Site Tool, with which local health departments can catalogue Brownfields sites, perform cursory risk assessment calculations and provide the beginnings of a health assessment at Brownfield sites.

For more information about the ATSDR, its role in Brownfields redevelopment or the ATSDR Brownfields Manual for Alaska, contact Sonja Benson, 907-451-2156 or sonja.benson@alaska.gov.

And more –

The State of Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) will announce its DEC Brownfield Assessment (DBA) request period this week. It will be open until February 19, 2010. The DBA program is patterned after EPA’s Targeted Brownfield Assessment program in which the assessment is provided as a free service. To date, DEC has conducted approximately 70 assessments in areas all over Alaska.

Funding requests for new and renewing State & Tribal Response Programs are due to EPA in January 2010. The DEC is available to help Alaskan applicants with their grant proposals.

For more information about either of these programs, contact John Carnahan, 907-451-2166 or Sonja Benson, 907-451-2156.

At the Alaska Forum on the Environment (AFE) in Anchorage February 8-12, 2010, DEC will host the second Alaska State & Tribal Response Program-Brownfield workshop. This will be a one-day, closed event for participants in the Alaska Tribal Response Programs (TRPs). Presenters will include representatives from EPA, DEC and other agencies. DEC also will participate in regular AFE sessions with EPA and the Alaska TRPs.