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EPA Partners with Academy of Model Aeronautics to Provide New Opportunities for Superfund Sites

At Pepe Field in Boonton, NJ, Little Leaguers shag fly balls where underground waste once polluted soil and ground water.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has a new partner willing to support communities interested in flying model airplanes. On February 10, 2005, Joseph Beshar, a representative for the Academy of Model Aeronautics, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Michael Cook, the Director of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation. The Academy's member clubs will offer services at no cost to interested Superfund communities, such as mowing and maintaining the landscape surfaces and fences on the parts of Superfund sites that the Academy is using. EPA will provide publicly available information to the Academy about which Superfund sites have the physical characteristics that the Academy finds suitable for aeromodeling. EPA will also provide appropriate contact information for EPA, State, and local representatives for the sites.

This new partnership will benefit communities interested in offering model airplane activities and will support the Academy's mission of making aeromodeling the foremost hobby in the world through promotion, development, education about, and general advancement of modeling activities. The Academy asserts that Model Aviation is educational and career building and serves an alternative to other less beneficial activities practiced by today's youth. There are no physical barriers to aeromodeling – it is open to people of all ages, from juniors to senior citizens. In appropriate instances, Superfund sites may offer land for new recreational opportunities in communities at a time when open space is becoming harder to come by. The notion of using formerly contaminated waste sites does not trouble the Academy of Model Aeronautics – in the Academy's own words, "it's not the ground below, but the sky above."

For more information about this new partnership, see the attached Memorandum of Understanding and Questions and Answers. For more information about the Academy of Model Aeronautics, visit the Academy's Web site Exit Disclaimer.

Memorandum of Understanding (PDF) (2 pp, 55K, About PDF)

 

Academy of Model Aeronautics Questions and Answers

  1. What is the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between EPA and the Academy of Model Aeronautics and what is its purpose?
  2. What is the Academy of Model Aeronautics and what does it do?
  3. How do I know if it's safe to reuse a Superfund site for model aeronautics?
  4. Does EPA support uses other than model aeronautics?
  5. What makes a site appropriate for flying model airplanes?
  6. Why would communities want to work with the Academy?
  7. Does the Academy of Model Aeronautics have any responsibility for cleanup, operations and maintenance, or implementation or enforcement of institutional controls?
  8. Whom do I contact for more information?
  1. What is the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between EPA and the Academy of Model Aeronautics and what is its purpose?
    The MOU between the Academy and EPA is an alliance which links Superfund communities interested in hosting aeromodeling activities on their Superfund sites with the expertise and resources of the Academy.
  2. What is the Academy of Model Aeronautics and what does it do?
    The Academy of Model Aeronautics ("Academy") is a non-profit organization dedicated to making aeromodeling the foremost sport/hobby in the world through promotion, development, education about, and general advancement of modeling activities. The Academy's priorities include:
    • Representing the more than 170,000 members nationwide from every walk of life, economic background, and age group, who are interested in building and flying model airplanes;
    • Chartering more than 2,500 model airplane clubs across the country. The Academy offers its chartered clubs official contest sanction, insurance, and assistance in getting and keeping flying sites;
    • Organizing the annual National Aeromodeling Championships in Muncie, Indiana, the world's largest model airplane competition;
    • Sanctioning more than 3,000 model airplane competitions nationwide each year, and certifying official model flying records on a national and international level; and
    • Providing liaison between local chartered clubs and the Federal Aviation Administration, the Federal Communications Commission, and other government agencies, in addition to local governments, zoning boards, and parks departments.
  3. How do I know if it's safe to reuse a Superfund site for model aeronautics?
    Any reuse must be consistent with the selected remedy. If all contamination at a site is eliminated, the site is available for unrestricted use. At sites where protective measures are in place for wastes that remain safeguarded in underground containment areas after the cleanup, EPA ensures that the measures will provide adequate protection for the use anticipated for the site, and will restrict uses that might not be safe or might impair the protective measures. EPA will never compromise its standards of protection in order to support site reuse. For more information about appropriate future uses for your site, contact the site's remedial project manager.
  4. Does EPA support uses other than model aeronautics?
    Yes. EPA supports the appropriate reuse of Superfund sites. Appropriate site uses can be recreational facilities, such as golf courses, parks, ball fields, or aeromodeling sites; they can be industrial or commercial uses, such as factories and shopping malls; they can also be ecological resources, such as wildlife preserves and wetlands. How a site will be used is a local decision. However a site is used, the community benefits, because the property is again adding economic, social, or ecological value.
  5. What makes a site appropriate for flying model airplanes?
    Appropriate aeromodeling sites vary in size, starting with an area that is 120 yards per side without trees, boulders, fences, or steep ravines and going up to sites that are 120 acres or larger. EPA must evaluate the site and determine that conditions are safe for aeromodeling activities.
  6. Why would communities want to work with the Academy?
    To support members of the community who are interested in flying model airplanes. In addition, the Academy will help maintain sites by:
    • Mowing and maintaining the landscape surfaces on the portions of Superfund sites that the Academy is using; and
    • Maintaining fences on the portions of Superfund sites that the Academy is using.
    The Academy asserts that Model Aviation is educational and career building and serves an alternative to other less beneficial activities practiced by today's youth. There are no physical barriers to aeromodeling – it is open to people of all ages, from juniors to senior citizens. Appreciation for flying model airplanes has been shared by astronauts such as Hoot Gibson, Frank Borman, ad Buzz Aldren. In addition, the Academy says that Model Aviation is an educational sport and hobby which encourages early interest in research and development of future products. Paul MacCready, developer of the Gossamer Albatros, Chuck Yeager, the first to break the sound barrier, Burt Rutan designer of the Around the World Voyager and many, many others have sited model aviation as being a great value to the community and the nation.
  7. Does the Academy of Model Aeronautics have any responsibility for cleanup, operations and maintenance, or implementation or enforcement of institutional controls?
    No. While the Academy of Model Aeronautics may take over maintenance of some parts of the remedy in place at a site, the Academy is not legally responsible for any prior contamination on the site or for activities related to its remediation or maintenance.
  8. Whom do I contact for more information?
    For more information about the Academy of Model Aeronautics, contact Joseph Beshar, Flying Sites Coordinator for the Academy of Model Aeronautics at 201-261-1281.

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