Oac Minutes 11 14

Please Note: a conference call is planned for volunteer representatives from community and environmental organizations to talk about the Centers and to elicit ideas about how they might more actively participate in our process. Please get suggestions (names, associations, addresses, phone numbers and emails) to Jocelyn by February 1^st.

Center for Hazardous Substances in Urban Environments at Johns Hopkins University

Hedy Alavi, Ed Bouwer, Jennifer Browne, Larry Charles, Rebecca Clouse, Fred Ellerbusch, Elissa Harris, Kevin Hood, Mitch Lasat, Ralph Lightner, David Kluesner, Jim Murphy, Gbekelolouwa Oguntimein, Vincent Pitruzzello, Nancy Porter, Mary Rosso, Judy Shaw, Ira Whitman, Sedley Williams, Shari Wilson, Hal Yates, Nancy Zak

Ed Bouwer welcomed all to the second annual outreach meeting. Ed and Hedy highlighted the Center’s recent accomplishment by reviewing the Center’s second annual report.

Dan Watts, NJIT, offered greetings and a welcome to the campus on behalf of NJIT President and Vice President of Research and Development.

The EPA Headquarters Superfund program is undergoing reorganization - a name change will take place as well. Forty Superfund sites have been completed this year and the National Advisory Committee is scheduled to work on Mega Sites - target date for report submittal is March 2004. A focus of the report is Community Involvement and the importance of the program.

Environmental Health and National Community Involvement Conference will be the 3^rd week in June in Denver Colorado – Conference will focus on environmental health related issues.

Technical assistance grants are still available for community based organizations, however, performance measures must be indicated. The Technology Innovative Office established a Brownfields help desk.

Discussed the impact of projects as they relate to the community with an overall goal of institutionalizing community involvement. It was suggested that the TOSC proposal selection process should move toward involving community members.

Judith Shaw suggested creating an Environmental Advisory Group to meet annually to proactively identify forward thinking organizations and identify problems facing communities.

Larry Charles also recommended that a small team be formed to discuss community involvement and determine how community groups can identify resources that could be used to assist them.

Primary goals of the office are to protect the environment and create sustainable partnerships. Following a brief description of how funding of the Technical Assistance for Brownfields program has changed under the new law, she emphasized that the Office continues to value this program and that awards of the recently completed TAB competition should be announced soon.

The National Brownfields Conference will be held in St. Louis, Missouri next year.

Future opportunities – Link innovative technology to addressing Brownfields Initiatives as well as a perceived need of educating communities regarding institutional controls.

ORD Hazardous Substance Research Centers comprise a national program focusing on superfund related issues with the overall purpose of supporting the implementation of the superfund legislation. There are five regionally anchored HSRCs under five year grants.

Funding has kept steady at approximately $1 million/year per center with a research to outreach ratio of about 70:30.

Outreach Programs include TOSC, TAB and TOSNAC – to assist Native Americans communities across the nation.

The Ironbound Community Corporation is considered a grass roots organization that provides community services to approximately 50,000 people, mostly non-english speaking (Spanish and Portuguese) immigrants. While the Ironbound is considered by some as the most vibrant area of Newark, it is not without environmental health concerns that include rapid growth, dwindling open space, one of two most heavily dioxin contaminated sites in the nation, a solid waste incinerator, and the largest sewerage treatment facility in New Jersey.

The Ironbound Community Corporation is a multi-service organization that views environmental concerns central to their mission. Nancy discussed contaminants that exist in the area, the organization's fight for open space, and the recent success of reopening of Newark Riverbank Park. ICC has also led the charge to develop a Master Plan for the Ironbound area.

The group also discussed the vision of the Macedonia Historical Association, which is led by Dorothy Lipscomb from Camden (who was unable to attend the meeting). Her near term vision is to re-tree the Fettersville section of South Camden to enhance the neighborhood, increase civic engagement, and utilize trees for phyto-remediation. She clearly needs the attention of people that can provide resources for the community. A slide presentation was presented to provide a visual of the struggles in Camden, and a newsletter was distributed in her absence.

The group enthusiastically supported including community members in future meetings.

Ira Whitman noted that the biggest missing sector that should be part of the advisory process is the private sector. He noted that since Sarbanes-Oxley directed changes in corporate accounting, many companies will be looking at redevelopment opportunities for their mothballed sites and might also be willing to investigate community involvement. He suggested that this might be an opportunity to add corporate funding to community outreach and challenged the group to reach out to the private sector.

Judy Shaw noted that NJDEP has endorsed and NJIT as been active in promoting the use of the Triad Approach for site characterization and suggested that a presentation on the Approach be a feature of next year's meeting.

Larry Charles, Co-chair of the OAC, charged the group to prepare a short document (2 pages) that addresses the following two items:

A focus group will be formed to address this issue. Hedy will follow-up with a request for input and assistance with the preparation of the document.

The next meeting of the Outreach Advisory Committee will be hosted by University of Connecticut.