Penobscot Bay Pilot (ME)

The idea of creating a parking lot off of a narrow residential street in Rockland has no immediate future after City Council scrapped the notion during a special Sept. 27 meeting. Giving that Brownfield site a future, however, is of immediate focus for those councilors and for the City. 

The property in question was once a junkyard, and after the derelict house was demolished, someone in Public Works suggested that the site could be paved and used for parking, according to City Manager Tom Luttrell.

Through the years, as various ideas for parking options for the area were considered, the Maine Department of Transportation began to devise a grant for the 9 - 15 Rockland Street location that would include design and construction.

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For the entire article, see

https://www.penbaypilot.com/article/rockland-council-nixes-park-and-ride-idea-turns-brownfield-remediation/152379

Posted October 6, 2021

Brownfield clean-up and offshore wind power is a great combination for New Jersey, as we learn in the Bottom Line with Jerry Keenan. 

Click here to listen to Jerry Keenan's message.

By Michael Turton, Highlands Current (NY)

A proposed zoning change could determine the future of the former Marathon Battery property, Cold Spring’s last remaining, significant tract of undeveloped, privately owned land. 

The property has sat idle for more than 40 years because of its long history of pollution, which began in 1952 when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built a 46,000-square-foot battery factory on the northern, 7-acre portion of the site. 

The Sonotone Corp., which operated the factory, purchased 5 additional acres at the southern end of the property in 1966, using it, in part, to dispose of toxic waste.

The Marathon Battery Corp. purchased the factory in 1969. The following year, the federal government sued Marathon to stop the discharge of toxic chemicals. 

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For the entire article, see

https://highlandscurrent.org/2021/09/17/zoning-change-could-shape-marathon-sites-future/

Posted September 20, 2021

By John Lippman

An abandoned and sprawling machine tool factory at the gateway to downtown, long a ghostly reminder of the region’s economic decline, will finally be demolished and the site remediated thanks to a new funding program from the state to clean up some of Vermont’s worst contaminated sites.

The 270,000-square-foot former Jones & Lamson Machine Co. building on Clinton Street, aka Route 11, once employed 1,500 factory workers and was the crown of Springfield’s manufacturing hub. It will be receiving an estimated $3.7 million administered through Vermont’s Brownfield Economic Revitalization Alliance program, said Bob Flint, executive director of the Springfield Regional Development Corp., which owns the 14-acre property.

“It’s an understatement to say this is just another brownfield site. This beats them all,” Flint said Thursday in front of the entrance of the Jones & Lamson factory, now overgrown with ivy, during an event to trumpet the state setting aside money from a $210 million budget surplus for brownfield cleanup. In attendance were Gov. Phil Scott and other state, federal and town officials.

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For the entire article, see

https://www.vnews.com/Springfield-gets-state-funding-to-demolish-and-clean-for-Jones-Lamson-brownfield-site-42502336

Posted September 20, 2021

Contact Information: EPA Press Office, press@epa.gov

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), published a draft of the first EPA-validated laboratory analytical method to test for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in eight different environmental media, including wastewater, surface water, groundwater, and soils. This method provides certainty and consistency and advances PFAS monitoring that is essential to protecting public health.

“This new testing method advances the science and our understanding of PFAS in the environment, so we can better protect people from exposure,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “This illustrates the progress we can make when working with federal partners in an all of government approach. I want to thank the Department of Defense for its leadership on this issue and for working with us to achieve this important milestone.”

A partnership between EPA and the Department of Defense’s Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program has produced draft Method 1633, a single-laboratory validated method to test for 40 PFAS compounds in wastewater, surface water, groundwater, soil, biosolids, sediment, landfill leachate, and fish tissue. Until now, regulated entities and environmental laboratories relied upon modified EPA methods or in-house laboratory standard operating procedures to analyze PFAS in these settings. With the support of the agency’s Council on PFAS, EPA and DoD will continue to collaborate to complete a multi-laboratory validation study of the method in 2022.

“This is one of many examples of strong EPA – DoD Collaboration on issues of national importance. Currently the Department is working with EPA, other federal agencies, academic institutions, and industry on over 130 PFAS-related research efforts, and we expect further progress in the future,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Environment and Energy Resilience Richard Kidd.

This draft method can be used in various applications, including National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits. The method will support NPDES implementation by providing a consistent PFAS method that has been tested in a wide variety of wastewaters and contains all the required quality control procedures for a Clean Water Act (CWA) method. While the method is not nationally required for CWA compliance monitoring until EPA has promulgated it through rulemaking, it is recommended now for use in individual permits.

Draft Method 1633 complements existing validated methods to test for PFAS in drinking water and non-potable water.

For more information on CWA Analytical Methods for PFAS, visit:

https://www.epa.gov/cwa-methods/cwa-analytical-methods-and-polyfluorinated-alkyl-substances-pfas.

For Frequent Questions about PFAS Methods for NPDES Permits, visit:
https://www.epa.gov/cwa-methods/frequent-questions-about-pfas-methods-npdes-permits. 

Background:
Draft Method 1633 complements existing Safe Drinking Water Act methods to test for 29 PFAS compounds in drinking water and a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act method for 24 PFAS compounds in non-potable water.

EPA publishes laboratory analytical methods (test procedures) that are used by industries, municipalities, researchers, regulatory authorities and other stakeholders to analyze the chemical, physical, and biological components of wastewater and other environmental samples. EPA regularly publishes methods for CWA compliance monitoring on its CWA Methods website. Doing so does not impose any national requirements to use the method. Only after EPA promulgates a CWA analytical method through rulemaking (at 40 CFR Part 136) does it become nationally required for use in NPDES permit applications and permits.

The work the agency is doing to provide new laboratory analytical methods reflects the work that the EPA Council on PFAS is undertaking to support federal, state, local, and Tribal efforts to protect all communities from the harmful impacts of PFAS contamination.

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Posted September 14, 2021

By Chris Martin, New England Real Estate Journal

The East Providence Waterfront Commission approved an ambitious development plan that will reclaim a brownfield, provide new housing including much needed affordable units as well as vital public access to the Seekonk River.

In Rumford along the Seekonk River and Omega Pond lies what will be East Point—a 27-acre site that will breathe new life into three long-dormant parcels. This site was last home to Ocean State Steel, which left the property in environmental ruins in 1994. The parcels have since been remediated, but what remained was a derelict eyesore on what some call one of the most beautiful stretches along the Seekonk River.

The development team behind East Point is Noble Development, led by Richard Baccari from Churchill and Banks and rounded out by Northeast Engineers on civil design, Union Studios on architectural design and Kevin Alverson on Landscape design. East Point will add 392 single and multi-family units in addition to apartments to the housing stock in East Providence.

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For the entire article, see

https://nerej.com/ocean-state-steel-s-brownfield-site-to-be-redeveloped-into-east-point-by-chris-martin

By Ashley Onyon, Amsterdam Recorder (NY)

The couple that holds a purchase option agreement for the former Nathan’s Waste and Paper Stock Co. on the South Side has submitted a Brownfield Cleanup Program application to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

The Common Council in April approved a six-month purchase option agreement for 111 Erie Terrace with Mary and Michael Keegan of Schenectady. The contract provides the husband and wife the exclusive right to purchase the property for $250 by exercising their option.

The deal was sought by city officials and the Keegans to provide the couple time to investigate the environmental condition of the brownfield site. The roughly two acre property was operated as Nathan’s Waste and Paper Stock, a junkyard, from 1971 to 1993. A pair of partially collapsed buildings currently stand at the site that has remained vacant since the closure of the junkyard.

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For the entire article, see

https://www.recordernews.com/news/local-news/191926

Posted August 5, 2021

Buffalo News (NY)

Mensch Capital Partners, the private group that has owned the Westwood Country Club property in Amherst for the past decade, is ready to start work on an environmental cleanup of the former golf course.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation is seeking public comment on a proposal that Mensch submitted under the Brownfield Cleanup Program. Previous investigations found metals in the soil, so the purpose of the new study is to determine the type and extent of any contamination in the soil, surface water or ground water of the 170-acre site.

Work will include installing and sampling soil borings, test pits and groundwater wells; testing surface water and sediments; and completing a radiation survey to see if anything is producing higher radiation levels.

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For the entire article, see

https://buffalonews.com/business/local/brownfield-cleanup-study-proposed-for-westwood-golf-course/article_1f3bc146-eb01-11eb-a4b7-4f500c7f3a40.html

Posted August 1, 2021

We talked about PFAS during the 2021 NSCW Hot Topics Panel and will try to keep updated data on the BCONE website for our members who are interested.

ITRC’s PFAS Team is pleased to announce the release of the updated PFAS-1 Technical and Regulatory Guidance Document. This update includes a brand new section on Surface Water Quality and significant revisions for Ecological Risk Assessment. Other sections of the document have also been selected for additional content, including information in Chemistry and Terminology, Best Management Practices for Firefighting Foams, Phase Partitioning, PFAS Uptake into Plants, Ecological Toxicology, and Site Characterization.

ACCESS THE UPDATED GUIDANCE DOCUMENT

The 400+ page document also includes case studies and stakeholder perspectives, discusses technical challenges in addressing PFAS, and provides additional references to relevant scientific literature. The ITRC PFAS team is continuing their work to develop more extensive updates and new content that will be published later this year.

Posted July 20, 2021

By Katie Blackley, WESA Public Radio (Pittsburgh, PA)

An “industrial wasteland.” That’s how Pittsburgh’s riverfronts were once described. More than 30 years ago, city officials and developers tried to imagine a greener, healthier future for the land along the Monongahela, Allegheny and Ohio rivers.

In many ways, they’ve succeeded — today, the Three Rivers Heritage trail spans 33 miles, with multiple planned extensions. The trails attract cyclists, runners and families, and are home to thousands of native plants and animals.

But the road to creating a clean, nature getaway from the city’s bustling urban communities was hard.

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For the entire story, see

https://www.wesa.fm/development-transportation/2021-07-13/brownfields-to-green-destinations-the-history-of-pittsburghs-riverfront-trails

Posted July 19, 2021