Natural Approaches To Industrial Site Cleanup

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

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Submitted by Vanessa Kauffman <vkauffman@wildlifehc.org> Wildlife
Habitat Council
 
Wildlife Habitat Council Hosts Important Land Revitalization Conference
-- 
Releases Report On Natural Approaches To Industrial Site Cleanup
 
The Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC) will host a nationally and regionally
significant environmental conference on June 23-24 in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. The meeting will bring together, at the Hilton
Philadelphia City Avenue, the nation's 100 leading experts from
government, corporations, non-profits, academia and local communities to
develop an action plan for putting natural cleanup technologies into
widespread practice within EPA Regions 2 & 3. 

Bill Howard, WHC President, will speak about WHC's significant progress
to provide stakeholders with the best available resources for
successfully achieving their goals in the ecological re-use of
contaminated properties and brownfields. "Natural approaches to cleaning
up contaminated industrial sites can significantly reduce the cost of
the remediation project. But its impact extends well beyond immediate
cash saving by turning spent land into valuable assets that improve
local communities, economies and the environment at once," said Howard.

Secretary Kathleen A. McGinty, Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental
Protection (PADEP), will present the welcome from the State of
Pennsylvania and City of Philadelphia. In 2003, Secretary McGinty became
the first woman to head the state Department of Environmental
Protection, a 3,000-employee agency with a mission to protect
Pennsylvania's air, land and water from pollution and provide for the
health and safety of its citizens through a cleaner environment.
Secretary McGinty's emphasis is in creating approaches to environmental
problems that generate economic growth and encourage advanced technology
development in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania has been working for nine years to remediate and redevelop
contaminated properties using a variety of solutions and resources. Many
of the waterways in our cities and towns have been contaminated due to
the levels of industrial activities along the lakes, rivers and various
other water resources. The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental
Protection, Pennsylvania Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources,
Pennsylvania Dept. of Agriculture and Pennsylvania Infrastructure
Investment Authority joined together to establish Growing Greener in
1999 in an effort to preserve farmland and protect open space; eliminate
the maintenance backlog in State Parks; clean up abandoned mines and
restore watersheds; and provide new and upgraded water and sewer
systems. 

In five years, Growing Greener has supplied more than $148 million in
grant money for 1,290 projects in all 67 counties of Pennsylvania. The
grants have been used to create or restore wetlands, restore stream
buffer zones, eliminate causes of non-point source pollution, plug oil
and gas wells, reclaim abandoned mine lands, and restore aquatic life to
streams that were lifeless due to acid mine drainage. This
administration remains committed to making sure the financial help is
available for local organizations continue their efforts to cleanup
watersheds, enhance environmental protection and revitalize communities
across the state. This conference will allow participants to share and
gain knowledge and ideas to reestablish and preserve wildlife and their
environments in Pennsylvania and surrounding states.

Many state, local and national environmental leaders will speak during
the two-day conference, presenting case studies, methods and action
plans. Some of the opening session presenters include:

* Barry N. Breen, Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator, U.S. EPA,
Office of Solid, Waste and Emergency Response 
* Brad Campbell, Commissioner, NJDEP 
* Nicholas DiPasquale, Deputy Secretary Office of Air, Recycling and
Radiation Protection, PADEP 
* Abraham Ferdas, Director-Hazardous Site Cleanup Division, U.S. EPA
Region 3 
* Charles Johnson, Interstate Technology and Regulatory Council 
* Bob Springer, Director, Office of Solid Waste, U.S. EPA

Field trips led by the Pennsylvania Environmental Council and
Brownfields Redevelopment Office staff from the City of Philadelphia
will visit locales along the North Delaware waterfront and Schuylkill
River. Discussion will focus on the long-term vision for renewal in
converting industrial sites to useful urban landscape, emphasizing the
connection of green spaces and parkland corridors with new added trails
and recreational amenities.

This regional conference will aim to identify strategic methods
associated with the implementation of ecological enhancements on
contaminated lands based on the white paper, "Making the Case for
Ecological Enhancements." The white paper was prepared by a group of
nationally known experts, which incorporates known benefits of using
ecological enhancements, while relying on actual case studies to capture
the lessons learned so far. It also offers recommendations and the next
steps for increasing the number of success stories. A summary of the
white paper can also be found online at http://www.wildlifehc.org/brownfield_restoration.

As background, for the past three summers, WHC organized and hosted
meetings of industry, government and conservation organizations to
promote the inclusion of ecological enhancements as part of site
restoration programs in Superfund, RCRA Corrective Action and
Brownfields. Some key results of the conferences are the creation of an
Objectives and Action Agenda that presents a set of recommendations and
strategies to an assembled audience of key stakeholders in industry,
government and the conservation community on how to implement this
concept more efficiently. Moving to the regional level, WHC is promoting
on-the-ground measures and developing demonstration sites.

Also, WHC entered in cooperative agreements with EPA's OSWER and OUST to
implement the recommendations of the Objectives and Action Agenda. The
first regional conference outside Chicago was highly successful and
focused on the implementation of ecological enhancements at the local
level. In addition, the United States Department of Defense Office of
the Deputy Undersecretary for Installations and Environment (ODUSD I&E)
and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have joined
in support of this conference.

Visit the conference Web site at
http://www.wildlifehc.org/events/restoringgreenspace.cfm to read the
latest agenda or register. Contact greenspace@wildlifehc.org for
additional information.

The Wildlife Habitat Council is a nonprofit, non-lobbying organization
dedicated to increasing the quality and amount of wildlife habitat on
corporate, private and public lands. WHC devotes its resources to
building partnerships with corporations and conservation groups to
create solutions that balance the demands of economic growth with the
requirements of a healthy, bio-diverse and sustainable environment. More
than 2 million acres in 48 states, Puerto Rico and 16 other countries
are managed for wildlife through WHC-assisted projects.
www.wildlifehc.org 

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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