Improving Environmental Health Through Quality Information

REPEAT THE QUESTION PLEASE!

Is lead found in things other than old peeling paint?

Some other sources of lead exposure are:

water that comes from lead pipes or lead soldered fittings

tobacco smoke

hobbies such as leaded glass ceramics

lead containing calcium supplements

The Brownfield initiative has been increasing in popularity in the least 4 to 5 years. What was started in the bigger city's as a means of revitalizing obsolete areas, has rapidly moved to the rural cities and counties. Redeveloping a Brownfield adds a great benefit to the local economy.

As the Brownfield area matures in the environmental industry, new techniques are introduced that refine the processes and allows the project to flow in an efficient manner. One of the phases of a Brownfield project that can be beneficial is upfront historical research. It can remove some of the potential unknowns during the investigative phase, thus reducing the focus of the investigation, which in turn helps to keep the final cost down.

One of the best research sources and the most popular is fire insurance maps. Depending upon the city, fire insurance maps are available in various years back to the late to mid 1800's. These maps identify operations at a site, the location of all buildings, and any chemicals that were flammable. The maps also identify aboveground and underground tanks. Another useful item on the maps is the method used to heat the building. Sources to obtain these maps are state and city libraries and sometimes university libraries.

A second source usually available at the library is city directories. These directories date back to the early 1900's and sometimes earlier. You can obtain the name of the company using the site relative to a year. Using the name of a company, a second section in the directory usually provides a short description of the type of business or operations at a particular site. Limitations with the city directories are that the information is general and addresses and street names sometimes change over time.

Aerial photographs are a good source to identify locations of buildings and structures at a site. These photographs date to the mid to late 1930s and vary in scale. The sources of these photographs vary, but these historical photographs have been found at property or tax assessor's offices, libraries, soil survey offices, department of transportation offices, etc. Limitations can include large scale missing photographs. It should be noted, that a majority of military properties in the earlier photographs are blacked out.

As the Brownfields process matures, other alternatives will become available to make the process more efficient. However, at this time, a step in the right direction is to do one's homework upfront. By obtaining all available historical information and evaluating it prior to an investigation or redevelopment of a site, the entire investigation phase and/or demolition will have less delays and potential change orders.

For more Brownfield information, call 1-800-400-9041

THINK ABOUT IT!

DID YOU KNOW?

There are certain unavoidable contaminants in our environment. They include heavy metals (i.e. lead, arsenic, cadmium, chlorinated organics (i.e. DDT, PCBs), nitrogenous compounds (i.e., nitrates, nitrites), food-borne molds and mycotoxins (i.e. aflatoxins, trichothecenes).