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Making the Program Faster, Fairer, and More Efficient (Continued)
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Developing Partnerships
To achieve success and promote public participation, EPA works with communities, local businesses, large corporations, and State, local, and Tribal governments in the form of partnerships.
EPA through its State and Tribal Enhanced Role Initiative developed a comprehensive plan to implement equitable sharing of Superfund program responsibilities with interested and capable States and Tribes, resulting in quicker cleanup of more sites. In Mississippi, EPA has entered into a pilot program partnering with a band of Choctaw Indians. The pilot supports Tribal efforts in building a greater Superfund capacity with respect to emergency preparedness and response. Through the pilot, the Tribe will learn how to effectively respond to oil and hazardous substance spills and perform environmental assessments at potential waste sites on Tribal lands.
At the Re-Solve, Inc. Superfund site in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, EPA has found an innovative way to promote local community involvement by implementing an important post-cleanup fish monitoring program. EPA created the Cornell Pond Annual Fishing Derby to help collect various fish species for PCB analysis as part of the long-term monitoring program. It also reminds local fishermen that a Massachusetts Department of Public Health fish advisory covering local waters is in effect. The annual fishing derby is just one of the creative ways that EPA works with partners and local communities to solve problems caused by hazardous waste.
The Superfund Jobs Training Initiative (Super JTI) is another example of an outreach initiative, creating local economic benefits from site cleanup in disadvantaged areas. SuperJTI, in conjunction with Brownfields Job Training and Development Demonstration Pilot Program, promotes the employment of trainees at cleanup projects.
At the NL Industries-Teracorp Superfund site in Granite city, Illinois, EPA worked with a diverse team of partners including DePaul University in Chicago, Belleville Area Community College, the Venice Lincoln Technical center, and the Army Corps of Engineers
to provide environmental job training in life skills, technical environmental practices, and a regulatory overview for 27 area residents. Soon after completing the training, 20 students were hired as recovery and field technicians, and for construction.
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Transforming an Abandoned Base to Help Native Americans in Alaska The Adak Naval Air Station near the western end of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, is a great example of innovative redevelopment of a former Superfund site that also serves Native Americans. Founded in the early 1940s, the air station on Adak Island served as a key operations and supply outpost for the U.S. military forces fighting the Japanese in World War II. The station continued to serve as a vital Naval base during the Cold War. With the end of the Cold War and subsequent downsizing of the military, the site was directed to close as a result of the Base Realignment and Closure Act in 1995 (BRAC). Over 40 years of operation led to large amounts of hazardous waste being deposited in several areas of the island. In the late 1980s, the Navy identified several areas of hazardous waste contamination and the site was put on the NPL in 1994. The Navy completed more than 20 removal actions, including the removal of hundreds of underground storage tanks. Since the cleanup, authority over the site has been transferred from the Navy to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Fish and Wildlife Service then traded a large part of the property to the Aleut Corporation, a native Alaskan-owned company whose mission is to promote economic redevelopment of the area. Some of the services the company is promoting include a multi-million dollar airport and port facilities that can support a wide variety of vessels including research ships, station work vessels, cruise ships, factory trawlers, and fishing boats. The Aleut Corporation is also promoting Adak as a tourist center inviting guests to experience the wildlife on the island while enjoying the benefits of accommodation and fine dinning on the former naval site. |
