The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) partners with organizations and communities to help places reuse Superfund sites (the most contaminated form of brownfield). They give communities the tools and resources to help implement reuse visions with mutually beneficial outcomes.
Many Superfund sites have advantageous and desirable locations for any number of uses. Superfund sites across the country have been transformed into major shopping centers, business parks, residential subdivisions and recreational facilities. EPA supports a wide range of uses, and does not endorse any one use or organization over another. Here are five organizations that have partnered with EPA to support the reuse of Superfund sites:
Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA)
The Academy of Model Aeronautics helps communities reuse of Superfund sites as flying fields benefits EPA and model aeronautic enthusiasts. Academy member clubs help provide stewardship activities, such as mowing and maintaining the landscape surfaces and fences on the parts of Superfund sites that the Academy is using to help protect remedies in place at the site. EPA works with interested AMA clubs to determine whether remedies in place at sites can support aeromodeling activities to help secure new flying fields for AMA club members.
Pollinator Partnership (P2)
The Pollinator Partnership (P2) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California. P2 works to protect the health of managed and native pollinating animals vital to our North American ecosystems and agriculture. P2’s mission is to protect pollinators, critical to food and ecosystems, through conservation, education, and research. P2 offers a broad range of useful resources that can complement a wide range of future uses, such as farming and ranching, corporate lands and buildings, golf courses and public lands. P2’s resources also highlight policy documents and education opportunities.
Rails to Trails Conservancy (RTC)
The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. whose mission is to create a nationwide network of trails from former rail lines and connecting corridors to build healthier places for healthier people. RTC provides resources to find answers to technical questions or to guide you through the trail-building process by working at the community-level to facilitate and spread trail successes. This technical know-how has been applied to several Superfund sites that are now enjoying new trails that provide unique recreational opportunities that encourage healthy lifestyles.
The Trust for Public Land (TPL)
The Trust for Public Land is a national nonprofit organization that conserves land for people to enjoy as parks, gardens, historic sites, rural lands, and other natural places. The Trust for Public Land can help communities:
- Identify and raise funds for conservation from federal, state, local, and philanthropic sources;
- Structure, negotiate, and complete land transactions that create parks, playgrounds, and protected natural areas;
- Support park and greenspace creation through innovative research, planning, and spatial analysis (GIS);
- Help create parks and playgrounds on new or existing park sites, employing a participatory, community-based design process.
The Trust for Public Land is interested in exploring opportunities to collaborate with Superfund communities at any point in the cleanup process.
U.S. Soccer Foundation
The U.S. Soccer Foundation enhances, assists and grows the sport of soccer in the United States with a special emphasis on underserved communities, including communities with Superfund sites. The Foundation provides grants, field design and planning assistance, engineering services and sports equipment to communities that want to build soccer fields. These services provided by the Foundation have allowed for the successful establishment of soccer fields at several cleaned-up Superfund sites where EPA has determined that recreational use is appropriate.
Featured photo is Chisman Creek Park in Yorktown, Virginia (courtesy of EPA).
See Superfund Redevelopment Partnerships website for key contacts.
See recorded webinars to learn more about Superfund Redevelopment Partnerships.