Cross Program Land Revitalization Results Team
Lefthand Watershed Land and Water Revitalization Team, Region 8
Kathryn Hernandez, Sabrina Forrest, Kathie Atencio, Stan Christensen, Peter Monahan, Steven Way and Hays Griswold; Andrew Archuleta (U.S. Forest Service); Angus Campbell (CO Dept. of Public Health and Environment); Joe Ryan (University of Colorado); Alice Wood (Lefthand Watershed Coordinator)
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Revitalization in communities affected by mining practices can be a complex and costly cauldron’s stew of controversy. The Lefthand Watershed in Boulder County, Colorado, supplies drinking water to more than 14,000 people, and invites heavy recreational use. It has been heavily impacted by historic mining, and contains more than 230 mine openings and 186 tailings piles in a rugged topography of about 85 square miles.

The Lefthand Watershed cross-program revitalization effort is a significant national success for 2005. The Revitalization Team’s accomplishments include revitalizing greater than 50 acres of land for recreational use and environmental education, working with more than nine programs from federal and state agencies, developing a scientifically robust and innovative baseline database for water quality and contaminated lands, and collaborating with dedicated civil servants and self-empowered citizens.

Key state and federal programs worked together in field sampling with training and oversight provided by the EPA Region 8 laboratory. Sound science was designed into the effort up front and proved to be a key element for successful collaborative decision-making. The community, agencies, and programs also worked together in public education and participation efforts. Well-attended community meetings solicited input regarding sampling design and remediation alternatives from across the various programs. Community members and water district personnel assisted in all sampling, outreach, and education.

The Lefthand Watershed inter-agency effort is included in a national guidance manual that illustrates how collaborative efforts and program integration can lead to revitalization success. It is expected to be a working model for other large-scale cooperative efforts throughout the region and the country.

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Planting the Seeds for Revitalization Team
Land Use/Reuse Assessment Team, Region 3
Patricia Corbett, Kristeen Gaffney, Deborah Goldblum, Bonnie Gross, Jill Lowe and Mark Stephens; Maria Williams (VA Dept. of Environmental Quality)
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The Land Use/Reuse Assessment Team last year undertook a cross-program effort to collect quantifiable data to measure progress toward EPA’s goal of returning formerly contaminated sites to long-term sustainable and productive use. As a result of the Team’s efforts, Region 3 has a baseline against which future progress can be measured, as well as a source of information that can be used in communicating revitalization accomplishments in its cleanup programs. More importantly, EPA now has a model that can be used throughout the Agency to gather similar information nationally.

A significant outcome of the project was showing that a region could collect and report quantifiable cross-program information on land use at cleanup sites. EPA also can report program-specific results – for example, almost 20 percent of RCRA facilities have been reused. In addition, by involving the EPA and state project managers in the task of reporting actual land use, the region is integrating revitalization into the daily work of the cleanup programs.

The project addressed 511 sites consisting of Region 3’s RCRA Corrective Action’s high priority facilities, Superfund NPL sites, and Federal Facilities. The project also identified a list of vacant sites, which were mapped in GIS. The cleanup programs are using this information to develop strategies to facilitate reuse of this universe of underutilized facilities.

The team drafted a comprehensive final report, which will be broadly distributed through the web. The report includes data analysis, combined and program-specific results, lessons learned, suggested improvements, and recommendations. Collection of this kind of information across the regions will provide a powerful message on the importance of revitalization and communicating the Agency’s message.