Browsing environmental news sources so you don't have to. Contact Laura Barnes (lbarnes@istc.illinois.edu) with questions, comments, and suggestions.
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Chinese scientists have developed a sponge made from carbon nanotubes that can absorb 180 times its own weight in organic pollutants.
The material, which could be used to clean up oil spills, is expected to perform nine times better than current materials, and can be reused simply after being squeezed.
2010 Environmental Monitoring and Data Quality Workshop
April 12-16, 2010, Louisville, KY • The Brown Hotel
www.regonline.com/2010emdqworkshop to register or for more information
EMDQworkshop@geologics.com
The DoD Environmental Data Quality Workgroup is pleased to announce the 7th annual DoD Environmental Monitoring & Data Quality Workshop, which includes technical training sessions, technical presentations, a plenary session featuring distinguished speakers, a Q&A forum, component meetings, a poster session, an update on the DoD ELAP, and networking opportunities with members of the environmental community. This workshop is open to all interested environmental professionals involved with DoD sites or projects including representatives from the DoD services, other federal agencies, state, local, and tribal governments, academia, and the private sector.
Possible training categories for this workshop include:
Call for Papers
Abstracts for technical presentations and posters are being solicited in the following areas (Deadline January 15, 2010):
New podcast from U.S. EPA Region 2 to mark the 30th anniversary of Love Canal.
Read the full story in the New York Times.
Across 400 acres in Brooklyn that served as landfills — parcels that are still listed as toxic waste sites – 33,000 trees and shrubs and a variety of grasses are taking root.
There is much potential to reduce the nation’s greenhouse gases through recycling, waste reduction, smart growth, and by reusing formerly contaminated sites including brownfields.
EPA’s report Opportunities to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions through Materials and Land Management Practices finds that 42 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are influenced by materials management policies. This includes the impacts from extracting raw materials, food processing, and manufacturing, transporting, and disposing of products. Another 16 to 20 percent of emissions are associated with land management policies. That includes emissions from passenger transportation, construction, and from lost vegetation when greenfields are cleared for development. In addition, the equivalent of 13 percent of U.S. emissions is absorbed by soil and vegetation and can also be protected or enhanced through land management policies.
Some of the materials and land management activities that have the potential to decrease emissions include:
The report suggests that land management and materials management approaches should be part of the nation’s toolbox to meet the target of an 83 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
More information on the report: http://www.epa.gov/oswer/publication.htm
Read the full story in Environmental Protection.
Ohio EPA has developed an incentive for brownfield cleanups, by partnering with private insurance companies that will offer discounted environmental insurance to parties undertaking a voluntary cleanup in Ohio.
Read the full story in the Chicago Tribune.
A motorist zipping along Veterans Memorial Tollway near Lemont might not think twice if a certain large bug with enormous green eyes gets splattered on his windshield, but Dan Soluk would be heartbroken.
The demise of even one Hine’s emerald dragonfly is of grave concern to Soluk, a biologist whose life’s work is studying the endangered species.
Only a few thousand adult Hine’s emerald dragonflies are believed to inhabit Illinois each summer, and many of them live about 100 feet below the deck of the tollway bridge spanning the Des Plaines River Valley.
Tollway users may care to know that every time they drive through a tollbooth they are helping support a wide-ranging scientific endeavor to catch, count and cultivate the 2 1/2 -inch Somatochlora hineana. That research pays the mortgage on what tollway officials jokingly refer to as “dragonfly condos” — unique breeding areas designed to replicate the insect’s habitat and propagate the species.
Read the full story in Scientific American.
Is pulling up invasive kudzu worth the effort? What about sprucing up a degraded stream channel? Restoring damaged ecosystems has long been an act of faith on the part of nature-lovers, but now a new study provides the strongest evidence to date that the practice is not only good for biodiversity, but also for humanity.
Eighty Chicagoans will receive critical job training funded by an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant, EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson announced today at a Chicago press conference. These workers will be trained for various environmental jobs, including the clean-up of so-called “brownfields,” which may be contaminated by hazardous chemicals or pollutants, turning sites from rundown eyesores to revitalized, productive properties. Workers will also be trained to weatherize buildings, lowering energy costs and reducing wasteful energy usage.
“The Recovery Act is not only helping to train individuals for good jobs in their communities, it’s helping them rebuild a lasting foundation for prosperity. By restoring undeveloped lots through the Brownfields program, or weatherizing buildings to lower energy costs, these workers will generate new economic possibilities, bringing new opportunities and jobs here,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “EPA is providing solutions in these challenging economic times, and making clear that – in Chicago or anywhere else in the country – protecting our health and our environment is a great way to rebuild our economy.”
OAI, Inc., a Chicago non-profit, will receive a $499,047 grant to train 80 workers for green jobs. The grant is provided through EPA’s Brownfields Job Training Program. OAI plans to place at least 75% of its graduates in environmental technician jobs. OAI will work with an Employer Advisory Council, including the Community and Economic Development Association of Cook County, the Chicago Southland Economic Development Corporation, and DNR Construction, Inc., to place graduates in environmental jobs.
EPA established the Brownfields Job Training Program to help residents take advantage of jobs created by the assessment and cleanup of brownfields and to ensure the communities reap the benefits from brownfields redevelopment. The target areas for this grant include the 9th and 24th wards in Chicago’s South Side and seven south-Chicago suburban communities, according to OAI. After evaluating the local labor market, the City of Chicago identified a need to fill a growing number of positions in weatherization and site clean up.
Brownfields are sites where expansion, redevelopment, or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant, including mine-scarred lands or sites contaminated by petroleum or the manufacture and distribution of illegal drugs. EPA’s Brownfields Program encourages redevelopment of America’s estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated waste sites.
EPA expects to announce additional brownfields and job training grants across the country in the coming days.
President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 on February 17, 2009, and has directed that the Recovery Act be implemented with unprecedented transparency and accountability. To that end, the American people can see how every dollar is being invested at Recovery.gov.
Additional information on EPA Region 5 brownfields activities is available at http://www.epa.gov/r5brownfields.
Information on ARRA brownfields job training grants and other EPA Brownfields activities under the Recovery Act: http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/eparecovery/index.htm
Information on brownfields job training grants: http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/job.htm
Read the full story in Environmental Protection.
The Sustainable Remediation Forum (SURF) on July 14 issued the first comprehensive, independent assessment of sustainable remediation — a movement to encourage environmental cleanups that minimize carbon emissions, conserve fossil fuels, and still remove potentially dangerous contaminants from soil and water.
The Sustainable Remediation Forum White Paper is being published in a special summer 2009 issue of Remediation Journal.
Via Techdirect.
Petroleum Brownfields Web Site. EPA’s new petroleum brownfields web site is designed to make information more accessible for those working to foster the cleanup and reuse of petroleum-impacted properties. It provides easy access to information that both new users and those familiar with brownfields will find useful. For instance, the Web site provides access to: “how to” guides, ways to find petroleum brownfields sites, assessment and cleanup information, financial guides and EPA Brownfields program and grants information, public/private partnership information, and sustainability and petroleum brownfields. More information at http://www.epa.gov/oust/petroleumbrownfields/ .
Petroleum Brownfields: Developing Inventories (EPA 510-R-09-002). This publication is intended as a tool to help states, tribes, EPA Brownfields Assessment grant recipients, and others develop an inventory of relatively low-risk, petroleum-contaminated brownfield properties. The publication has three sections. Section I identifies petroleum brownfields inventories as a tool for building and promoting a brownfields program. Section II outlines considerations for building an inventory, and Section III discusses best practices from stakeholders that have implemented a petroleum brownfields inventory (May 2009, 34 pages). View or download at http://www.epa.gov/oust/pubs/pbfdevelopinventories.pdf .
HowStuffWorks.com has an excellent podcast on brownfield bioremediation. Links to their Stuff You Should Know podcasts (via iTunes) are available here. Interesting, entertaining stuff.
Read the full story in the New Tork Times.
The Superfund program, established nearly 30 years ago to clean up the nation’s most contaminated industrial sites, has been underfinanced since a tax expired in 1995.
Read the full story in the Peoria Journal Star.
Just in time for Earth Day, some very goopy earth is finally moving on one of the area’s most long-awaited environmental projects.
Overall, 200 acres of muck and silt may be dredged from Lower Peoria Lake to create three islands in the Illinois River. The effort begins with one 21-acre island north of the McClugage Bridge.
Read the full story in the Chicago Tribune.
The long-idled site of the U.S. Steel South Works was buzzing with activity once again Wednesday as 300,000 workers, nurses, cleaners, guards and a few gigolos took up residence on the city’s southern lakefront.
The assembled toilers were busy bees, indeed—five-banded Italian honey bees, to be precise. A Chicago wine and mead maker brought them here to make honey for his mead, which many call “honey wine.”
Read the full post at Treehugger.
In Japan, they don’t just let factories rust away. Matt Frei of the BBC visits one where they used to make steel cable, but with demand down, they have converted much of it to grow hydroponic lettuce, with the former steelworkers tending the tender shoots. “The company expects the solution will save the business and help it survive the downturn.”
Read the full story in Environmental Protection.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced Jan. 27 that it worked with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection on the reference material, which enables high-quality measurements to assist remediation efforts.
Read the full story in Discover Magazine.
A legacy of the Argonne National Laboratory’s early foray into atomic energy lies buried here on its campus, about 25 miles southwest of Chicago. Although solid wastes from all sorts of experiments have been sealed in a landfill, certain liquids, mostly chlorinated solvents, still taint the water that runs under the site. The ongoing attempt to remove these contaminants occupies an enormous experimental facility that covers four acres and looks like a forest.
The abandoned corner gas station can look toward a new life with an action plan that focuses on cleaning up brownfields sites contaminated with petroleum. EPA’s plan, Petroleum Brownfields Action Plan: Promoting Revitalization and Sustainability, describes specific actions, new tools, and opportunities for expanding partnerships to foster the reuse of sites. The petroleum brownfields program focuses on assessing, cleaning up, and reusing petroleum-contaminated brownfields sites.
In a novel approach to return land to productive use, EPA has identified thousands of properties that could potentially host solar, wind or biomass energy production facilities. EPA pinpointed these energy assets using Google Earth and has listed each property’s attributes for energy redevelopment.
“EPA is putting renewable energy production on the virtual map,” said EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson. “Our new interactive Website encourages states and energy companies to put previously contaminated properties back to work.”
EPA worked with the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory to collect information on renewable energy availability across the country, and merged it with EPA’s data from several land cleanup programs. In addition, EPA applied screening criteria including distance from power lines, closeness to roads, and site acreage to identify sites that are good candidates for hosting renewable energy production facilities.
In producing the interactive state maps, EPA used information on properties from several land cleanup programs, including abandoned mine lands and lands under EPA’s Superfund, Brownfields, and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act programs.
These properties have varying levels of historic contamination. Contamination at some of these properties has already been addressed, while the level of contamination at others is still to be fully investigated. It is likely that some of the brownfields properties have little historic contamination. The appropriate steps to address the contamination at these properties will vary from site to site, depending on the nature of the contamination and intended reuse.
The properties offer a number of attractive features for the development of renewable energy facilities including:
Information about renewable energy development potential on contaminated lands:
http://www.epa.gov/renewableenergyland
Read the full story in Technology Review.
Last spring, on a research vessel cruising through the North Sea, Swiss scientists examined tiny vials of bacteria mixed with seawater for hints of fluorescent light. By analyzing how brightly the bacteria glowed, and with which colors, they were able to diagnose and characterize the early aftermath of an oil spill.
While researching something else this morning, I discovered that it’s been 30 years since Love Canal, NY was evacuated and declared a Federal disaster area. Around the first of the month, there was some coverage by the Associated Press and other media outlets. Here’s a sample:
For some historical perspective, see:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is providing more than $500,000 in technical assistance for 16 Brownfields Sustainability Pilots. Assistance will support sustainable activities such as the reuse and recycling of construction and demolition materials, green building and infrastructure design, energy efficiency, water conservation, renewable energy development, and native landscaping.
“Brownfields redevelopment and sustainable reuse can go hand in hand,” said Susan Bodine, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. “These pilots will demonstrate best practices that can be used by other communities across the country.”
EPA will work with communities to incorporate sustainable redevelopment into the planning, design, and implementation of their brownfields projects. Each pilot project will receive between $20,000 and $50,000 in assistance. Pilot examples include:
Brownfields are sites where expansion, redevelopment, or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. In January 2002, President Bush signed the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act, which increased funding, expanded authority, and provided liability protection to help communities revitalize brownfields. EPA provides grants, technical assistance and training to support local brownfields efforts.
For more information on the Brownfields Sustainability Pilots, go to epa.gov/brownfields/sustain_plts/index.htm
Read the full story at EcoGeek.
Osaka Japan housed a baseball stadium that few people cared to visit. In 2003, the stadium was shut down, but with its prime location near the Namba Train Station, folks knew it was a waste not to convert the building and utilize it for something that would indeed turn a profit. The Nankai Electric Railway, owner of the site, worked with architecture company Jerde to create a unique, artistic and practical application for the building. Jerde came up with turning the 8.33 acres of urban concrete into a productive office and retail complex that features 2.2 acres of lush gardens that welcome visitors in from the street.
Read the full story in Environmental Protection.
Wetlands are complex reactors that facilitate numerous chemical and biological reactions, and these reactions can be exploited to remove pollutants. Today, engineers are able to design wetland systems that can clean up landfill leachate onsite.
The Green Remediation: Incorporating Sustainable Environmental Practices into Remediation of Contaminated Sites technology primer was developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation (OSRTI). As part of its mission to protect human health and the environment, the U.S. EPA is dedicated to developing and promoting innovative cleanup strategies that restore contaminated sites to productive use, reduce associated costs, and promote environmental stewardship. The practice of “green remediation” uses strategies to consider all environmental effects of remedy implementation for contaminated sites and incorporates options to maximize the net environmental benefit of cleanup actions.
Read the full story in Environmental Protection.
Restoring landfill sites by turning them into greenspace, such as woodland, parkland, or farmland is now possible, new research shows.
Read the full story at News.com.
Propelled by a servo-actuated two-link tails and flapping pectoral fins, a new breed of robofish programmed to swim in schools may soon be used to track oil spills or wildlife such as whales, according to researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Read the full story in Technology Review.
A thin membrane made from a web of nanowires might become a promising tool for cleaning up oil spills and removing toxic contaminants from groundwater. When dipped into a mixture of water and oil, the 50-micrometer-thick membrane absorbs the oil, swelling to 20 times its weight.
Read the full story in the New York Times.
Fort Bragg, Calif., might use a novel “bioremediation” approach to clean up the lingering pollutant that infests the site of a former lumber mill in the town.
Read the full story in the Madison-St.Clair Record.
Six years after state and local leaders unveiled a plan to clean up 840 acres of refinery pollution and attract all sorts of industry, those in charge of the project have gone away but the pollution has not.
The cleanup of the former American Oil Company refinery collapsed in 2004, after soil samples revealed contaminants that had not showed up in previous samples.
Communities in 43 states will share more than $74 million in brownfields grants to help revitalize former industrial and commercial sites, turning them from problem properties to productive community use. The grants, awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, also go to two tribes and two U.S. Territories.
Thirteen communities in 10 states will share more than $2.5 million in job training grants geared toward cleaning up contaminated properties and turning them into productive community assets. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, under its Brownfields Initiative, is awarding grants of up to $200,000 each to non-profit organizations, local governments, a university, and a tribe. The grants will teach environmental assessment and cleanup job skills to individuals living in low-income areas near brownfields sites in Alabama, California, Louisiana, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Washington.
Read the full story in Environmental Protection.
Just outside the city limits of Tel Aviv, Israel, a transformation is taking place. Hiriya, once a waste landfill, is quickly becoming the largest and most advanced environmental center in the country. Today Hiriya is the base for a waste sorting and recycling center as well as a green energy center. Not very long ago, the site was a dump. With innovative thinking and a desire to give back to the community, what was once a waste of space will soon be part of expansive Ayalon Park.
Read the full story in Environmental Protection.
A containment system collects dense non-aqueous phase liquid contaminants from a closed industrial site
Read the full story in Environmental Protection.
Purdue University researchers are collaborating with Chrysler LLC in a project to use poplar trees to eliminate pollutants from a contaminated site in north-central Indiana.
The researchers plan to plant transgenic poplars at the site, a former oil storage facility near Kokomo, Ind., this summer. In a laboratory setting, the transgenic trees have been shown to be capable of absorbing trichloroethylene (TCE) and other pollutants before processing them into harmless byproducts.
This current working paper reports the first successfully implemented field pilot study in the management strategy of arsenic in crop production and for sustainable environment. The final report on the overall arsenic issue in agriculture will be released in the near future. The remediation measures mentioned in this report are also applicable and useful as adaptive measures in coping with changing agriculture practice and responses to climate change.
Read the full story in the Bay City Times.
Recent changes to Michigan brownfield laws may awaken sleeping giants in Essexville and other smaller communities.
Up until the changes became law in late December, only 100 so-called “core communities” could take advantage of tools that allow developers to be reimbursed for cleaning up or demolishing old industrial properties -Â called brownfields.
Now, every community in Michigan can use tax incentives to redevelop such properties, including places like Essexville, which wasn’t among the 100 communities covered under the old law.
Read the full story in Environmental Factor.
After two days of sharing the excitement of their science and recounting the accomplishments of the Superfund Basic Research Program (SBRP), on December 5 attendees at the twenty-year anniversary celebration (see Spotlight story) were confronted with the mass of unfinished business still to address and the challenges the program is sure to face in the future.
The Office of Science (SC), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), hereby announces interest in receiving applications for research grants in the Environmental Remediation Sciences Program (ERSP). The Environmental Remediation Sciences Division (ERSD) within the Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) is tasked with developing the fundamental scientific basis for understanding the fate and transport of contaminants in the subsurface. This task is guided by the ERSD long term performance measure to provide (by 2015) sufficient scientific understanding such that DOE sites would be able to incorporate physical, chemical and biological processes into decision making for environmental remediation and long-term stewardship.
In order to meet this measure the ERSD funds basic research to investigate the key processes affecting the mobility of subsurface contaminants found at DOE sites. The goal of this solicitation is to support innovative, fundamental research investigating the coupled physical, chemical, and biological processes affecting the transport of subsurface contaminants at DOE sites. Applications should address hypothesis-driven research to define and/or understand the key physical, chemical, and biological processes influencing the form and mobility of DOE contaminants in the subsurface. Research projects should aim to provide the scientific basis for the development of new remediation concepts, or strategies for the long term stewardship of contaminated sites across the DOE complex. Applications should address the applicability of the proposed research to understanding DOE relevant, field-scale, contaminant transport processes.
Read the full story from Environmental Protection.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) engineers have designed the first simple process for manufacturing materials that strongly repel oils. The material, which can be applied as a flexible surface coating, could have applications in aviation, space travel and hazardous waste cleanup, university officials said on Dec. 6.
The purpose of this manual is to enhance coordination across U.S. EPA, State, and local waste and water programs to streamline requirements, satisfy multiple objectives, tap into a variety of funding sources, and implement restoration activities more efficiently, with a goal of showing measurable results.
The manual provides a road map to conducting cross-programmatic watershed assessments and cleanups in watersheds with both water and waste program issues and presents innovative tools to enhance program integration. Finally, the manual provides guidance on integrating assessment and cleanup activities to optimize available tools and resources and thus help restore contaminated waters and sediments efficiently and effectively.
Read the full story in E: The Environmental Magazine.
Southeast False Creek in Vancouver, British Columbia, will be the site of the 2010 Olympic Village and a model neighborhood for sustainable urban planning. Once a bleak industrial scar on the city landscape, the neighborhood now has the potential to be one of the most sustainable communities in one of the greenest cities in the world.
Read the full story in the News-Gazette.
Some of the best soil in the world washes into the Illinois River every day, where it clogs shipping and recreational channels.
Elsewhere in Illinois, developers pay good money to have soil dug out and moved by trucks to their sites.
It isn’t easy to dredge river mud onto barges, then take it where it’s needed to cover a landfill or create a park, but that’s exactly what scientists from Champaign are having done.
Black, heavy earth from the bottom of Lower Peoria Lake, a widening of the Illinois River, is now drying on top of the clay liner of the closed Pekin Landfill.
When the trucks dump it, water doesn’t run out. It maintains its shape, and it’s possible to walk on it – if you don’t mind ruining your Keds.
Mud from the same source is growing grasses and weeds at a future Chicago lakefront park that was formerly the U.S. Steel South Works plant on the South Side.
John Marlin, who oversees the project as a senior scientist at the Illinois Department of Natural Resources’ Waste Management and Research Center in Champaign, said he can’t see any downside to the work.
Purpose. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) is announcing a new funding opportunity to support individual research projects as part of the Superfund Basic Research and Training Program (SBRP).
The objective for this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to enhance our understanding of the basic structural and functional properties of biological populations that are involved in the bioremediation of hazardous substances by integrating or adapting innovative nanotechnology based tools for sensing, detecting, and elucidating processes at the molecular and nano-scale. Mechanism of Support. This FOA will utilize the NIH Research Project Grant (R01) award mechanism.
Funds Available and Anticipated Number of Awards. The NIEHS intends to commit a total of $2 million to fund six to eight grants that will be awarded in Fiscal Year 2009. An applicant may request up to 3 years of support. Awards issued under this FOA are contingent upon the availability of funds and the submission of a sufficient number of meritorious applications.
Eligible Institutions/Organizations. You may submit (an) application(s) if your organization is an accredited domestic institution of higher education.
Eligible Project Directors/Principal Investigators (PDs/PIs). Individuals with the skills, knowledge, and resources necessary to carry out the proposed research are invited to work with their institution/organization to develop an application for support. Individuals from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups as well as individuals with disabilities are always encouraged to apply for NIH support.
Number of Applications. Applicants may submit more than one application, provided each application is scientifically distinct.
Renewals and Resubmissions. Neither competing renewals (formerly competing continuation) nor resubmissions will be accepted for this R01. At this time, it is not known if this FOA will be reissued.
Number of PDs/PIs. More than one PD/PI, or multiple PDs/PIs, may be designated on the application.
Application Materials. See Section IV.1 for application materials.
General Information. For general information on SF424 (R and R) Application and Electronic Submission, see these Web sites:
Hearing Impaired. Telecommunications for the hearing impaired is available at: TTY 301-451-0088. Special submission date: February 15, 2008. Initial merit review convened by NIEHS.
Read the full post at Scientific Blogging.
Copper is an essential trace element found in many living organisms, but at high levels it is potentially harmful and when discharged at high concentration into natural water resources could pose a serious environmental threat to marine ecosystems. Various industries produce waste water containing dissolved copper(II) ions, including those that carry out metal cleaning and plating, paper pulp, paper board mills, and wood pulp production sites and the fertilizer industry.
Various relatively sophisticated processes including copper salt precipitation, ion exchange, electrolysis, and adsorption on expensive activated carbon filters are used to remove copper ions from waste water.
But a new paper says that peanut husks, one of the biggest food industry waste products, could be used to extract those environmentally damaging copper ions from waste water. Writing in the International Journal of Environment and Pollution, the researchers describe how this readily available waste material can be used to extract toxic copper ions from waste water. The discovery offers a useful alternative to simple disposal of this ubiquitous food industry waste product.
The Blacksmith Institute, a U.S.-based environmental group, has announced the launch of the Global Pollution Remediation Fund, which will dedicate $400 million to combating toxic pollution in the developing world.
The announcement was made after a Rockefeller Foundation-sponsored conference in Bellagio, Italy, where representatives from governmental agencies of the United States, Germany, China, Russia, Mozambique, Kenya, and the Philippines, as well as the World Bank, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, Green Cross Switzerland, and Blacksmith weighed in on the proposed fund. The consortium agreed that the international community must act immediately to deal with legacy industrial, military, and mining pollution in the world’s poorer countries; “legacy” refers to residual pollution from activities no longer taking place, such as defunct industrial or mining operations. Representatives also agreed to the basic protocols for the fund’s inception and management.
Read the full story in the Chicago Tribune.
Mayor Richard Daley took an hourlong boat ride on the Chicago River in fall 1997 and came back with a vision of improving the riverfront in the city’s neighborhoods.
Just about that time, Thomas DiPiazza, an ally of Daley’s, also took an interest in the riverfront, buying a highly contaminated piece of land that was slated to become a public park under the mayor’s plan.
Nearly 10 years later, the park still has not opened, but DiPiazza’s real estate investment has paid off handsomely, according to a Tribune investigation.
Read the full story in Environmental Protection.
On Oct. 1, EPA released a report that documents treatment technology applications at more than 1,900 soil and groundwater cleanup projects at National Priorities List (NPL) sites.
The status of more than 1,200 projects included in the previous annual status report is updated, and information about 192 new projects derived from records of decision (ROD) signed from 2002 through 2005 is added. The report also includes a special section about on-site containment remedies.
Report of the NICOLE Workshop: Redevelopment of Sites – the Industrial Perspective.
The restructuring of European economies, including the migration of manufacturing to Asia, has resulted in many underused, derelict and contaminated industrial sites. At the same time land demand, principally lead by housing, has made many of these urban sites into attractive assets. The owners of these sites would like to realize the value of these assets and at the same time avoid any future risk of liability.
This NICOLE report summarizes the papers delivered at this meeting along with a discussion based on the points raised during the meeting. The workshop reviewed: Drivers for redevelopment of sites for government municipality industry redevelopers; Management of liability; Case studies; and Tools and communication (August 2007, 34 pages).
View or download at http://www.nicole.org/publicati
European Brownfield Revitalisation Agenda.
There are many examples of good practice that have produced positive results from brownfield site project redevelopment across Europe. Much of this information is a result of individual EU funded projects but these have not necessarily been brought together to build up a body of collective experience.
There is an opportunity to bring together best practices and the various tools that have been developed to create the best opportunities for an integrated approach for the future redevelopment of Brownfield sites. Policy makers and developers should be supported through a conduit of best practice, the collation of information, and a network of specialists with practical experience in the field. The main objective of the EUBRA Agenda is to support policy makers and program managers in setting priorities in future national and international funding programs (Summer 2007, 24 pages).
View or download at http://www.sv-ertel.de/eubra
