Brownfields and Other Distressed Communities: Assessing Neighborhood Characteristics.

A new geographic information system (GIS) project at the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) is under way to link demographic, environmental, and health-outcome data for communities near Brownfields properties. (ATSDR defines brownfields as abandoned or dilapidated former industrial or commercial properties where the cost of expansion or redevelopment is prohibitive because of real, or perceived, environmental contamination,) The Brownfields Redevelopment Initiative is the realization of a federally organized commitment to help communities revitalize these properties. Future commercial or residential use of brownfields properties depends on assurances that levels of environmental contamination that might be present are not harmful to health. The coordination of economic policy, environmental regulation, and public-health interests is vital to this initiative. U.S. EPA and other federal agencies, including ATSDR, have committed to strengthening and improving their collaborative efforts on the Brownfields Initiative.

ATSDR is conducting this project in an effort to enhance state and local public-health involvement in three pilot states (Georgia, New York, and Oregon) to link the people, the places in which they live, and their health. For each of these states, ATSDR is using its geographic information system (GIS) to identify economically distressed census tracts eligible for the Brownfields Tax Incentive and to attempt to integrate information on economic development, environmental regulation, and populations potentially affected by redevelopment. Eligibility for the Brownfields Tax Incentive has many components. The principal agencies providing data on empowerment zones and enterprise communities, zoning, and boundaries for this project are the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and state and local planning agencies. High-poverty areas and adjoining industrial and commercial areas are identified with 1990 U.S. census data. ATSDR is working with U.S. EPA and coordinator s of local brownfields properties to identify assessment demonstration pilot sites that are eligible for the Brownfields Tax Incentive. The U.S. Department of Treasury is providing additional tax incentive advice.

On the population and public-health front, the GIS system is being used to evaluate two ATSDR projects conducted by the Multnomah County Health Department in Oregon and the Monroe County Health Department in New York. These health departments were funded to pilot the ATSDR Protocol for Initial Public Health Decisions at Brownfields Properties, which is a capacity-enhancing tool designed for use by local public-health departments, economic-development authorities, and property redevelopers.

The evaluation will indicate how incorporating available sources of demographic and environmental data into a GIS adds to the information that site assessors collect while following a protocol. In the future, the project will use a GIS to obtain, integrate, and analyze additional baseline information on neighborhood economic, social, environmental, and health indicators using data from the U.S. Bureau of the Census, vital records, and environmental and public-health agencies.

At the federal level, the ATSDR GIS model will make it possible to compare state activities involving economic development, environmental regulation, and public health. On the state level, the model is intended to benefit brownfields and other distressed neighborhoods through more cost-effective comprehensive and targeted planning of community development, social services, and public-health services. (Source: Hazardous Substances and Public Health, Vol. 10, No. 2, 2000.)