A brownfield is any real property that is abandoned, idled, or under utilized due to the presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant. The Presence of a brownfield can bring down property values; they can pose a threat public health and the quality of the environment, which Colorado takes very seriously. For years mining and agricultural practices are what stimulated Colorado’s economy but have left behind contaminated properties. This department established a Voluntary Cleanup Program to assist and promote the redevelopment of contaminated properties. This program has provided the state of Colorado with many positive environmental, economic, and social benefits. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment administered the Brownfield program in 1994 (“brownfield’s handbook”). This program was used to provide means for which sites not under any authority are to be cleaned up to usable condition. The program approves cleanup plans and provides letters of “no further Action,” signifying site closure (“brownfield’s handbook”). Interestingly these brownfield sites are usually small in size. 60% of the sites entering the states voluntary …show more content…
Cleaning up and reinvesting in these properties protects the environment, reduces blight, and takes development pressures off green spaces. The EPA works with local governments and provides grants that help fund redevelopment strategies to brownfield sites. These redevelopment projects help transform these sites into something useful that will benefit the community and the environment while encouraging the reuse of land by developing sites that are documented as contaminated. The EPA is not biased when it comes to choosing a site for redevelopment. As long as the site is defined as a brownfield by a local, state, or national government agency, that site will be approved for protective measures (“Brownfields in Region
The Lowry Landfill Superfund Site is located in Arapahoe County, Colorado, approximately 2 miles east of Aurora. It consists of approximately 507 acres of waste disposal area and is operated by Waste Management of Colorado, Inc. The land surrounding the site consists of native prairie grass and a wetland located along a local creek. Sections around the site are zoned for agricultural use including cattle grazing and non-irrigated wheat farms. 1 The area is home to numerous endangered species including the bald eagle and peregrine falcon. Due to the large amounts of wastes disposed on the site between 1965 and 1980, it became extremely contaminated with a variety of inorganic and organic contaminants. From 1984 to 1993, the EPA oversaw remedial investigation and feasibility studies that were performed by all responsible parties. Since its listing as a superfund site in 1984, multiple remedial actions have been performed in order to rehabilitate the site. These include clay barrier walls around the site, a groundwater collection system, a soil cover for the main landfill, as well as a landfill gas collection system. Groundwater that is collected on the site is treated at an onsite water treatment facility. In 2007, construction began on an onsite gas to energy plant that utilizes the methane produced by the landfill site. The electricity produced by the plant is enough to power 3000 households. 1 Today, use of land and groundwater on and near the site is still restricted by the state of Colorado.1
Conservation banking was modeled after the U.S. wetland mitigation banking system and the two programs share many similarities. However, unlike the wetland mitigation system, conservation offsets do not have a stated ‘no net loss’ goal, but instead have a species recovery goal. Both conservation and wetlands mitigation banks are privately or publicly owned lands which are protected and managed for its ecological value. By doing this, the bank sponsor generates habitat or wetland or stream credits to sell to developers or transportation departments who need to offset their impacts and comply with the legal requirements for the permitting of development or roadway projects. Both types of banks offer benefits to both the landowner that owns the natural resource and the developer that needs to purchase the credits. The landowner can take portions of their property that may have been considered unusable and turn it into an asset. The developer can streamline their permitting process by purchasing credits instead of implementing a mitigation plan themselves.
December 15, 1971.. Alternate Citation:. Public Law 92-195; 85 Stat. 649 (GPO). United States Government Accountability Office, “Bureau of Land Management”.
It all started back in 1989 when Home Savings of America announced to build a giant new community consisting of 3,050 homes, two schools, two hotels, two golf courses and 400,000 square feet of commercial and industrial areas on the 5,400-acre Ahmanson Ranch located at the eastern end of Ventura county, adjacent to Los Angeles County. Even though the Ahmanson Ranch has been owned by Home Savings of America since 1963, the nature remained undisturbed all these past years. The ranch has become one of the important habitats for barely surviving native organisms including threatened or endangered species. For this and other important reasons, an organization, Friends of Ahmanson Ranch, was formed to stop the development with the support from other environmental organizations, local legislatures, politicians and public. Almost seven years have passed since the beginning of this issue, but the conflict still remain unsolved. What is interesting about this issue is the diversity in the reason which the Friends of Ahmanson Ranch claims for protecting the Ahmanson Ranch from development. They point out a variety of reason, and they are not necessarily environmental opinion.
Removal of the mountaintops causes environmental impacts from blasting. The blasting has caused rocks to be deposited into valleys on the hillsides, burying almost 2,000 miles of streams which feed the Mississippi River. Slurry, the residue which is used to clean the coal can wash into groundwater and may contain arsenic, lead, manganese, iron, sodium, strontium, and sulfate. A recent research study is beginning to link these environmental impacts to the grave health concerns in the Appalachian communities. During most of the Mountaintop removal mining’s history coal industries have been able to obtain permits easily to operate, but once under the Obama administration Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) those permits now take more time to obtain. The permit process requires all applications to be reviewed before being given out to coal
Mountain Top Removal is an American tragedy, the process in which mining companies remove forests and topsoil then explode the mountain apart level by level to get to coal layer. It is estimated that the explosives are equivalent of the Hiroshima bomb. A lot of the mining waste is discarded into valleys and streams; the water runoff is high in silt, ion, and sulfur compounds, which in turn pollute water downstream. Even with chemical treatments, vegetation has a hard time growing on the infertile and highly acidic soil. Mountain top removal occurs in eastern Kentucky, southern West Virginia, southwest Virginia, and east Tennessee. Virtually 1.2 million acres of land has been surface mined and more than 500 mountains have been ruined by mountaintop removal mining.
The exchange of views whether a student should attend an HBCU or a PWI has been a topic of discussion for some time now. Whether you attend an HBCU or a PWI you go for one purpose and that purpose is to get your education. So who says because someone goes to a predominantly black school they will not get the same education a person gets that goes to a predominantly white school ? Or vice versa. Many people have some sort of idea that by attending a Predominantly White Institution(PWI) one will receive a higher level of education but that is not truly always the case. Most individuals are under the impression that simply because of your skin color you have to attend that type of school. That is the problem with this case just people see it as one should attend the college with individuals who are like you but not keeping one 's education in mind.
Dixon, Will. "Will Dixon's ECO 108 Site: Critical Analysis: The Case for Contamination." Will Dixon's ECO 108 Site: Critical Analysis: The Case for Contamination. Class Summary, Oct. 2010. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
The Superfund program, which was better known as just Superfund, is also known as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability act (CERLA) of 1980 was developed by the federal government as a way to preserve and protect the ecosystem and to clean up toxic, uncontrolled, abandoned hazardous waste sites. (Boorse & Wright, 2011, p.577). The Superfund program cleans up any hazardous waste, be it abandoned, accidentally spilled, or illegally dumped; any of which may pose a threat to future or current health or the environment. The Environmental Protection Agency works with the community, the responsible parties or the potential responsible party in identifying these hazardous waste sites in formulating plans to clean up these sites. Superfund provides laws and standards for the disposal and storage of such wastes. In addition, the Superfund program provides emergency financial support to existing environmental agencies to monitor removal of toxins, and to provide emergency cleanup services, provide monetary reparation to people who faced health or financial difficulties and concerns from toxic waste, and, if needed, to help enact emergency evacuation procedures. Superfund also provides for liability of persons responsible for releases of hazardous waste at these sites, and can establish a tax on the chemical and petroleum industries to make available for cleanup when no responsible party could be recognized. The National Priorities List, or NPL, is a list of the worst hazardous waste sites that have been identified by Superfund. (Boorse & Wright, 2011, p. 578). Any site on the NPL is eligible for cleanup using Superfund Trust money.
Blackrock, Iowa, April 12, 2014 – Owned by the parent company Raina Inc., the Carborundum plant in Blackrock, has made a major announcement on its pollution reduction strategy through its manager, Leslie Sludge, who appeared at the Blackrock City Council hearing on April 11. The manager of Blackrock Plant, Leslie Sludge, announced that the company had adopted a new initiative that is underway, in order to abate the high level of pollution caused by the plant. He also addressed the effects of the plant on the citizens of Blackrock, as well as the effects on the environment. Going by the words of Leslie Sludge, so far, the Blackrock Carborundum plant has utilized $5.3 million in efforts aimed at reducing the high level of pollution caused by the plant. In the new initiative to reduce the high level of pollution, the Blackrock Carborundum plant has already committed an additional $2 million. This will be used in pollution-control activities that are spread in the next three months. The plant anticipates that a large part of this money will be utilized on removal of noxious particles from the air and water waste.
The CERCLA established prohibitions and requirements concerning closed and abandoned hazardous waste sites, provided liability of persons responsible for releases of hazardous waste at these sites, and establish a trust fund to provide for cleanup when no responsible party could be identified. (U.S. EPA, 2010)
Over the years, past resources have quickly dwindling. Since then conservation has broadened beyond the use of natural resources, and has become a movement. Many critics of conservation believed it would stifle industrial development, however, the conservation movement has increased development over the years because it forced the need to find an alternative source of power. One of the main concepts of conservation is that it should be used to benefit the many not for the profit of the few, like big business that destroy large areas of wilderness without care for what they are destroying. Preserving wilderness areas will help with the conservation of America’s resources that are quickly dwindling. The resources we had years ago is much less due to the supply and demand of society today. Preserving certain areas will allow us to...
from local citizens will be needed. The main goal is to eradicate the species on site so there is no
...or lakes (Weber 2). When people just dump waste products instead of recycling, it is a misuse of the soil and can contribute to serious health conditions in animals, plants and humans.
Mines pose a threat to the environment. They can degrade soil and water quality if left untreated. The United States Environmental protection Agency (USEPA)'s Region 9 assessment of state data states that there are approximately 420,000 abandoned mines in the states of California, Arizona, and Nevada with 13,242 of them being considered "abandoned mines with potential environmental hazard" (arizona.edu, 2008).