Engaging students in planning for superfund site remediation and redevelopment

摘要

Communities with contaminated lands are also often the most vulnerable to the impacts of a changing climate such as sea-level rise, increased temperatures, and extreme storms and hurricanes due to socio-economic and historic reasons - some of the very factors that enable the creation of these contaminated sites in these communities. In spite of, and arguably because of, this double exposure and impact, the ability of these communities to clean up and reuse their contaminated lands has not kept up with their need. Researchers have often attributed this discrepancy to a lack of technical capacity and human resource. To address this lack, since January 2018, students enrolled in planning-related courses offered by the University of West Florida Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences have engaged with stakeholders on the redevelopment of superfund sites located in Pensacola, FL under the auspices of the USEPA's College Underserved Community Partnership Program. The engagement centered on the reuse of two of these superfund sites for the betterment of the stakeholders' socio-economies and their biophysical environments. I focus in this paper on four examples of engaging with students in planning for superfund site remediation and redevelopment. The examples are of engaging with county staff; collaboratively engaging with city staff and a private firm; engaging with county commissioners; and engaging with a private firm between two superfund sites over the course of one year. I highlight the contextual, unique needs, of each stakeholder group yet emphasize the applicable lessons across all four examples. I also focus on best practices to develop plans and outlines for mutually beneficial products and outcomes for both students and stakeholder groups in the process of land revitalization.