Environmental Assessment and GIS System Development of Brownfield Sites in Baltimore
EPA Agreement Number R828771-01
Investigators Dr. G. Chen (MSU), Dr. G.B. Oguntimein (MSU), Dr. S. Williams (MSU)
Introduction
     This report covers the activities carried out since the beginning of the project in October 2001. This research involves a multidisciplinary approach to environmental assessment of at-risk sites in the Baltimore metropolitan area. The objectives of the research project were (1) to work in collaboration with city, state and federal partners to collect, analyze, and document the data on the locations, usage history, risk factors, and potential for remediation of selected existing brownfield sites in Baltimore; (2) to develop a comprehensive Geographic Information System (GIS) inventory of environmental activities at these sites and conduct outreach activities that will provide community service, environmental education and information through the creation of partnership with stakeholders impacted by brownfields.
Activities Attempted

In order to achieve objective 1, Morgan State University team selected Park Heights community for their Brownfield Assessment project. The community is located in the northwest area of Baltimore City. The district area is bounded basically by Wabash Avenue (or CSX railroad) on west, Greenspring Avenue on east, Northern Parkway on north and Liberty Heights Avenue on south, with a US postal zip code 21215.
     The team has accomplished two main tasks: 1) Environmental Site Assessment on Three Brownfield sites in the area; 2) Economic Assessment on the community neighborhood. This information is useful for the baseline study of strategic planning of the Brownfield redevelopment. Environmental Assessment can reveal the potential risk of exposure to any hazardous environment. Basically, our research and assessment was conducted by the following activities and approaches:  1) Site visits and interviews with the residents; 2) Contacts to the community development incorporation - Park Reist Corridor Coalition (PRCC), Baltimore City Assessment Department; Baltimore archival information search; 3) Library and Internet search, as well as statistical analysis on the assessment results; 4) Baltimore City Hall visits to collect the information about historical assessment for the sites (City Hall database on Real Property). The summary results of analysis are given as follows:

 
The three Brownfield Sites were classified as (locations):

  • Site 1: 4701 Reisterstown Road

  • Site 2: 4700 block (even number side) on Reisterstown Road

  • Site 3: 4431 Reisterstown Road.
     The community is proposing to develop Site 1 as an in-house children playground and Site 2 as a miniature golf course. Our assessment results reveal the historical usage of the sites dated back more than 30 years ago. Through the Phase-I assessment and soil sampling analysis, we have concluded that there is no evidence on the contamination of these three sites.

  • Site 1: a former Gas Station that was closed 20 years ago. The gas tank was removed. A letter has been received from the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) issued under the Code of Maryland regulations (COMAR) with respect to the former Exxon gasoline station. The letter from the MDE confirms the removal of the tank.  In addition, the letter states that because of the low residual levels of petroleum contamination that remains, the site does not warrant additional investigation.  The levels do not present any threat to human health or the environment. 

  • Site 2: A former Larry’s Dodge Auto Dealership, together with B&B Glass and a few small-business companies, a Little League Park, and now idle and non-specific park area.

  • Site 3:  The area is about 15,125 ft2 and is bounded by Reisterstown Road, Wylie Avenue and about 60 yards from West Cold Spring Lane. According to the information collected from Baltimore City Surveys & Records Division – property location section and Enoch Pratt Free Library, there was a gas filling station operated by Gulf Oil Corporation between 1937 and 1952, while from 1968 to 1975, it was an auto sales lot operated by several different companies chronically. No information is available whether the underground storage tank has been removed.

The economic assessment on the Park Heights neighborhood indicates that both economy (business) and population are declining significantly in the area. The decline includes a more than 14% decrease in population in the community from Year 1990 to Year 1999 and many abandoned residential town homes. This decline will continue and even worsen for next few years if no redevelopment is implemented. Thus, it is important for the community to make a strategic plan of sustaining and attracting more business and population back to the community, through a better utilization of the idle land under the Brownfield site redevelopment scheme.
     As one of the outreach activities, the Morgan State University team has also embarked on a survey of auto body shops located in the Park Height Reisterstown corridor (PRC) with the objective of determining the environmental impact of the auto body operation. There are over twenty shops located in this area. From an initial survey of ten of these shops, 66.7% use low-volume, low-pressure spray (LVLP) guns, 33.3% of all the shops have spray booths, 77.7% use half face respirators, 11.1% use the whole face respirator and 11.1% use none. With respect to protective covering 11.1% use full protective wear, 22.2% use disposable plastic cover-alls and 66.7% used no protective wear but just everyday clothing. All the shops had good disposable practices with waste drum for different chemicals and frequent pick up of the waste.  The workers were observed to be working at odd postures of body parts, which might lead to musculoskeletal disorders such as carpal tunnel syndrome and other forms of cumulative trauma disorders. The workers who are not using respirators (11.1%) and protective clothing (66.6%) are at risk of health problems due to the inhalation of toxic chemicals contained in the paints.  A community wide awareness program on safety and health issues for the owners and the workers of the auto body shops could prove to be beneficial in minimizing the safety and health risks.  A short workshop program to disseminate information on ergonomically safe methods of working would also be beneficial. A detailed study and video analysis of the tasks need to be performed to recommend changes to the workstations so as to ensure workstations, which are free of or have minimum ergonomic hazards.  
     Upon the request of Mr. Henri Thompson Director of The Park – Reist Corridor Coalition (PRCC), the Morgan team also investigated into the illegal dumpsite problem with the Park Heights Community (PRC). There are over sixty illegal dumpsites in the PRC (Figure1). The impact of these sites on the environment includes degradation of property value and health concerns. Named as Site 4 in this report, one of the illegal dumpsites on Doll Avenue is adjacent to one of the potential brownfield sites. The site was covered completely with used tires, junk auto body and domestic wastes.  
     The team is working on the GIS system. ArcGIS 8 is used to create a GIS mapping of the Park Heights community, with GIS database and layers, query systems to display all assessment results on the GIS map. This GIS map will be a great presentation tool for the economic redevelopment activities of the community.

Figure 1. Illegal dumpsites in the Park-Heights –Reisterstown Road Corridor
Other Outreach Activities
     Two meetings were held by Morgan State University (MSU) team with Mr. Henri Thompson Director of The Park –Reist Corridor Coalition (PRCC) on 7/2/02 and 7/10/02. In attendance at the second meeting were representatives from Maryland Department of Environment Mr. Wallace Baker Director Office of Fair Practices and Mr. Donald Jackson Deputy Director Environmental Permits Services Center, at the PRCC office to discuss the survey of Autobody shops and identifying additional sites for further brownfield site evaluation in the Park-Reist area.  Because of the types of land use in the immediate past, it has been decided that plans should be made to conduct both Phase 1 and phase 2 studies.
  1. In the Phase 1 studies, EPA guidelines will be observed
  2. In the Phase 2 studies, EPA guidelines will be observed and include the following
  • Soil sampling (surface and subsurface) 0 - 15 cm
  • Soil analyses for relevant parameters based on recent land use
Clearinghouse for a Healthy Community - Morgan State University team was contacted by the above organization in East Baltimore to be of assistance in the investigation of certain environmental problems in the area. The major concern of the Community organization was environmental effects of exposure to various toxic and hazardous agents from a particle aggregating company located in the area.  We plan to participate and assist them to identify specific contaminants, with the aim of recommending cleanup measures. Present at the meeting on August 2, 2002 were representatives from the Outreach Program of the University of Maryland at Baltimore, Center for Hazardous Substances in Urban Environments.  In addition to concerns of health and environmental issues, a mutual interest was mentioned in the use of phytoremediation for site cleanup.  We plan to pursue this interest. The Morgan team also had a follow-up meeting in August with the outreach program group from University of Maryland at Baltimore to discuss the area of collaboration.
Dissemination of Research Findings
  1. A Paper, entitled “Environmental Impact and Economic Assessments of Brownfield Sites in Park Heights Baltimore”, was presented at the 2002 ASEE Conference in Montreal, Canada, June 2002.
  2. Another paper, entitled “Baseline study of Environmental Assessment on Park Heights Brownfield Sites and Economic Assessment on the Neighborhood Area”, has been accepted and will be presented at the 2002 Brownfields Conference, Charlotte, North Carolina, Nov. 13-15, 2002.
Future Activities

  • The environmental assessment of site 3 and illegal dumpsite (Site 4) will be completed. 

  • We will keep working with the PRCC on the auto body shop issue: the environmental impact assessment of the existing auto body shops to the community; technical assistance aimed at reducing the industrial wastes from the operation of the painting process; the feasibility study to relocate painting operation of all body shops to a central location at Site 4, as proposed by PRCC. 

  • The development of the GIS model for the brownfield sites will be completed to integrate our research findings into the GIS mapping. 

  • Continue collaborating with University of Maryland team on the East Baltimore Community’s Clearing House for a Healthy Community activity.