An innovative approach to the characterization of Brownfield properties

摘要

Since the early 1990's the United States government has been developing and implementing public policies that advance the redevelopment of Brownfields. Recent Federal legislation called the "Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act" will significantly advance efforts to integrate environmental contamination mitigation and redevelopment. Past experience has demonstrated that successful redevelopment requires the collection, analysis and interpretation of environmental data in a timely and cost effective manner. This ability to define potential environmental liabilities allows developers and lenders to effectively use scarce cleanup resources, develop response strategies that integrate cleanup with redevelopment and support meaningful outreach to involved stakeholders. Recent advances in the science and technology of site characterization can lead to significant savings in time and money. Specifically the Triad Approach to site investigation has been shown to be an effective strategy for site assessments. The Triad Approach combines systematic up front planning with the use of a dynamic field investigation process the relies on the generation of real time data to allow in field decision making on sample location selection. This paper will describe the application of the Triad Approach to redevelopment of urban Greenways in the City of Trenton, New Jersey. The Triad Approach, applied through a partnership between the City of Trenton, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, New Jersey Institute of Technology and the US Environmental Protection Agency, demonstrated that this approach could accelerate the characterization of the 60-acre project area, which consists of 11 parcels. Environmental issues that were solved using the Triad Approach include the delineation of the extent of historic fill, determination of no further action for several areas of concern, detailed investigation of specific impacted areas and sufficient data to allow the city to make important decisions regarding remediation costs and property acquisition.