The Brownfield Redevelopment Success Story.

In the latest chapter of Roseland, he briefly mentions brownfields.  Being able to blog about this topic really excites me because I have had some awesome first-hand experience with brownfield remediation and redevelopment, which in many ways led me to SPEA in the first place.

Just in case you aren't familiar with brownfields, they are basically idle or abandoned properties that are polluted to the point that redevelopment can't happen until the pollution is remedied.

You know, like this awesomely creepy building.

States, as well as the EPA in many instances, provide funding in partnership with a private developer in order to remove pollution, or find ways to cap the pollution (like through a parking lot).  The remediation and much of the funding is mainly taken care of through the state departments, but the EPA also provides a lot of funding to states and brownfields.

So, back to the story.  When I was a junior in undergrad, I was required to complete a summer-long internship as part of my major requirements.  I ended up securing a last-minute internship with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, in their Brownfield Grant and Loan Unit, which has been functioning and helping remediate properties since 1992.  It was the summer of 2009, right after the economy basically went down the tubes, and the program was getting dangerously close to hitting the last million dollars available for a grant or loan (which is the minimum amount that can be applied for).  So, the coordinators of the program knew that come the next budget cycle, they'd need more money, or the program would most likely be cut.  Which is where I came in.  Another intern (who is, ironically, a second-year SPEON as well) and I were in charge of the Brownfield Redevelopment Success Story Project.  Basically, we worked with the five coordinators of the unit, did background research on many of the properties (by looking at variables like amount of jobs created, amount of land redeveloped, land values before and after remediation, standard equalized values of properties before and after, etc.), and then decided on roughly ten properties to feature in the project, based on our 'success' indicators.  I spent the last half of my internship conducting site visits and interviews.  I interviewed everyone from city managers to economic developers to private developers.

Fun fact: The Cooley Law School Stadium, where the Lansing Lugnuts (minor league baseball) play, is a former brownfield.

Once the interviews and site visits were over, we compiled what we had found, and, in conjunction with a research team from Eastern Michigan University, put together a document that they now give out to advertise the program (my name is in there and everything - it's pretty cool).    

My favorite part about the internship was seeing how these redeveloped properties impacted communities.  Not only do brownfields tend to be incredibly aesthetically unappealing, the land is unable to be developed, so it's a waste.  One redeveloped site I visited was a hardware, and I think it created 5 or 6 jobs.  That may seem like not a lot, but in a rural community with under 1,000 people living there, that is an amazing accomplishment.

My absolute favorite site that I visited is The Village at Grant Traverse Commons, located in Traverse City, MI.  Traverse City in and of itself is one of my favorite places in Michigan, but The Village is one of the coolest places.

The Village at Grand Traverse Commons

The Village is located on the grounds of the old Traverse City State Hospital, which closed in 1989.  The property was polluted with lead paint, among other pollutants.

At the time, they had redeveloped roughly half of the main building.  This is the half that had not been remediated yet.

The State, in partnership with a private development group, used existing infrastructure and transformed the buildings into a combination of commercial and residential areas.  There are awesome condominiums on the top two or three floors, and the bottom two floors consists of boutiques and art galleries.  There is even a restaurant where the morgue used to be.

As part of the redevelopment, the existing building was used.

So my internship was pretty awesome.

Brownfield redevelopment offers a great opportunity to invest in sustainability, and many places have done just that.  Green roof technology and sustainable infrastructure are easily incorporated into many redevelopment designs.  As we (hopefully) move toward a more sustainable future, it's important to remember the possibilities that exist with brownfield redevelopment.

Personal Project Update

For my personal project, expanding the recycling program at my old high school, I have definitely made some progress.  When going into the project, I knew that they only recycled paper products, and that was it.  I had the idea that I wanted to encourage them to expand the program to include plastic bottles, which seemed like the logical step because of the fact that all of the vending machines in the school sell drink products in plastic bottles. 

You know... Like these.

Or they could re-use them and make a house!

So that is the overall goal of my project.
I've spoken with the head of the recycle program (a teacher) a few times, and presented some ideas to him about why recycling plastic bottles is beneficial and also about how to go about doing that, and he seemed to really like the idea.  He said that he has been considering the expansion of the recycling program for some time, and would really like my help with it.  Going forward, I'm going to begin researching types of bins that would be feasible for the school to use, and we are going to also look into locations for the recycle bins. 

I'm not going to lie, these look awesome.  And I'd totally throw my bottles into them.

I'm also toying with the idea of suggesting a student-led Recycle Team that would help with the recycling.  Currently, the recycling is only happening at the high school, because he doesn't have the time to go over to the elementary schools and collect the bins.  I think something like that would be out of the scope of my Personal Project, because it would take a lot of time and planning, but I might still get his thoughts on something like that, because not only would it promote student involvement, but also education about recycling, and make it more feasible to expand recycling to the elementary schools.

Urban Heat... as pollution?

Interestingly enough, most of my classes this week seem to centralize around the theme of atmospheric change.  Something that relates really well to atmospheric change and has piqued my interest recently is the urban heat island effect.

Here's a fun little graphic to demonstrate my point.

The urban heat island effect (UHI) is essentially when the center of an urban area is significantly warmer than the adjacent rural areas.  As you can probably imagine, there are a myriad of sustainability issues that are impacted by UHI, including water and electrical use.  For example, an article I read for another class (the abstract is here) looks at the impact of the UHI effect on residential water use in Phoenix, Az.  They compile data into two log-linear models and find that variables like mean lot size, household income, mean age of housing, percentage of units with an evaporative cooler (an alternative to traditional air conditioning), and mean pool surface area.  The article points out that UHI has both indirect effects, due to the increased amount of energy being used, as well as direct effects, which include higher outdoor demand for water use (to fill those wonderful pools).  To put this into perspective, researchers found that for each 1,000 square foot increase in size of lot, the average water use increases by roughly 1.8 percent and a 1 degree Fahrenheit increase in temperature results in a roughly 290-gallon increase in water usage per single-family residence, which obviously has incredibly large impacts on the environment and sustainability that need to be addressed.  That's huge. 

Huge pool = higher water use.

So, how do we mitigate this effect?  Well, the authors provide a few suggestions, like heavier zoning regulations that specify lot size, or regulations on the size of outdoor swimming pools allowed.  They also include four suggestions that are specific to an urban planner:
1) Looking at a city's form and structure, ie. the alignment and planning of roads or the amount of space between buildings;
2) Use of materials used in building, especially taking into consideration thermal efficiency and reflective vs. absorptive surfaces;
3) Land cover, including the amount of natural land cover being affected by the building; and
4) The geographic and cultural context of the area in question, i.e. what natural resources are already present.

Phoenix, Az.  Really pretty, and really hot.

Something that they don't cover in this article very well is what to do to mitigate the problem in existing places.  I would have liked to learn about mitigation strategies being used on existing structures in order to downplay the negative effects of the UHI.      


Finally, one thing that really caught my eye at the end of the article is the fact that the authors point out that if heat were to be considered a pollution, it could be properly regulated.  I had never thought of heat being a type of pollution, so this struck me as odd.  I couldn't find anything about heat being a pollutant on the EPA website, but Wikipedia does have some more information.  Do you guys think that heat (human-made) should be considered a pollutant?


If you are more interested in the UHI effect (I'll be honest, I totally geeked out a little when I started learning about it), the EPA has some information on the subject.

Personal Project Progress

So, I did make the switch from encouraging free recycling within my city to encouraging recycling of more materials within my old school system, mainly due to the fact that the city is under contract with a waste company for the next few years.  It took me longer than I would've liked to get in touch with the person in charge of the recycling program - I never heard back from the Superintendent, and though I heard back right away from the High School Principal, I have yet to hear back from the actual teacher in charge of the program.  I've done some research on recycling programs, so I don't want to have to give up yet.

As of right now, I'm planning on continuing my research and hoping he gets back to me soon.

Superfunds - Closer Than You May Think

Chapter 6 of Roseland includes a graph of solid waste outputs for various sectors, one of which is Superfund waste.  The mention of Superfunds strikes pretty close to home for me, because about 10 miles away from my hometown is one of the most polluted and most costly Superfund sites in the United States.

Example of a Superfund clean up site.

The Velsicol Chemical Corp. Superfund site is located in the tiny town of St. Louis, Michigan.  From 1936 to 1978, Velsicol primarily produced various chemical compounds, including DDT and PBB.  To make matters worse, the main plant site is bordered on three sides by the Pine River, which eventually flows into the Saginaw Bay, a part of Lake Huron.  Naturally, the powers that be at Velsicol decided to dispose of their hazardous waste in what was clearly the only logical way: by dumping it into the river.  In 1982, the State of Michigan put into effect a no-consumption advisory for all species of fish within the Pine River.  Almost 30 years later, it is still in effect.

Former site of Velsicol Chemical Corp. in 2009.  A slurry wall and clay cap were  added to the site as part of a 1982 Consent Judgement between the EPA, State of Michigan, and Velsicol.

The river has been dredged many times, but pollution is still present in the riverbed.  According to a 2010 MDEQ report, DDT had migrated into the city's drinking water aquifer.  Cleanup is ongoing for this site, and the MDEQ report estimates that another $100 million to $500 million is still needed in order to complete cleanup of the site.

According to the EPA's website, there are 158 federally-recognized Superfund sites throughout the country.  This doesn't include the 1,000+ sites deemed to be Superfunds by states themselves.  If Roseland's graph is still true today, and Superfunds are the second-highest producers of solid waste, then it makes sense to shift from recycling waste to encouraging the elimination or reduction of waste in the first place.