A Community-Based Future Land-Use Site Remediation Model for Lead-Contaminated Brownfield Sites. Franklin B. McLaughlin, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Site Remediation Program, Trenton NJ 08625-0413; and Judith Auer Shaw, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Science and Research, Trenton NJ 08625-0409
Abandoned contaminated industrial sites, which may number as many as 450,000 properties nationwide, typically exist within or border residential neighborhoods. These abandoned or "brownfield" sites pose a long-term health risk to urban residents and an economic liability for cities. Many of the brownfield sites in Trenton New Jersey (population 90,000) are contaminated with lead, which has been detected at elevated (>10 micrograms per deciliter) levels in some local schoolchildren. Unfortunately, there are limited public and private funds to restore these lead-contaminated abandoned sites. Conventional remediation technologies are cost-prohibitive and often do not consider nor are compatible with desired future land use(s). Furthermore, site cleanups in urban neighborhoods have largely ignored the concerns of the local residents who live with any residual risks, which depend on the type and extent of remediation and on the end use(s) of the site. By using monies provided in the Industrial Site Recovery Act of 1993 (NJSA 58:10B) for municipalities to catalog and cleanup brownfield sites, a new community-based future land-use site remediation model has been developed in the city of Trenton. The "Trenton Model" is a partnership made up of local residents, a non-profit community redevelopment organization (Isles, Inc.), and government agencies to facilitate neighborhood-based corrective measures for Trenton’s inventory of over 100 abandoned industrial sites. New Jersey’s environmental statutes mandate the utilization of risk assessment methodologies to guide site remediations, which typically involve cleanup technologies that mitigate important exposure pathways. The two cost-effective innovative lead cleanup technologies that are currently being tested in Trenton are phytoremediation, which utilizes plants to uptake metals from soils, and soil amendments, which chemically alters the form of the metal, reducing its bioavailability.