Publishing brownfields information

While extensive information on remediated properties is in the public domain, it can be very hard to access. To address this difficulty, a web accessible database is in its final stage of development with funding from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. A. Scott Weber, director of UB’s Center for Integrated Waste Management and professor of civil, structural, and environmental engineering, heads a team with co-PI Douglas Flewelling from the National Center for Geographic Information Analysis and professor of geography.

Data are being formed from such cleanup programs as the NYS Superfund and the NYS Voluntary Cleanup programs. Site information includes location, history, contact information for involved persons, contaminants and their concentrations, remediation goals/standards, remedy if chosen, whether institutional and/or engineering controls have been implemented, and current use of the property. Users are able to query data via the web and represent these data visually through a graphical information system interface.

Examples of how the database will be used include access to information for transferability to future sites, knowledge of which remedies have been applied for specific contaminants, contact persons associated with those remedies, evaluating the background levels for contaminants throughout New York State, information on contaminant cleanup goals, the effectiveness of engineering controls, and evaluating how many sites have been made productive.

"This database and its accessibility is something the public is very excited about," says Weber. "In conversation after conversation there has been one consistent theme—‘we need it now and we need it fast.’" Ultimately, the database will serve as a powerful tool for further UB research on how to remediate contaminated sites into productive ones.