In Chattanooga, there are approximately 5,000 homes in brownfields, in neighborhoods such as Highland Park, City Council members were told on Tuesday. These were caused by houses being built on contaminated plots of land, including hazardous materials.
When asked if the people knew the hazards of this practice when it began, environmental consultant Troy Keith said that there was no real way people from over 100 years ago could be blamed.
He said, “I mean, this started in the 1880s, so just like the Romans used to put lead in wine, causing people to go crazy, there’s always been some anecdotal stuff. But putting the connection to drinking lead and poison did not happen until much later. So at some point they had to know (what companies were doing was hazardous for people’s health), but not in the 1800s.”
Councilman Darrin Ledford asked if these toxic materials could seep into other properties through “osmosis.” brownfield coordinator Dwan Austin and Mr. Keith said the answer to that question depended on the kind of hazardous material.
“Yeah that depends,” said Mr. Keith. “In the case of petroleum, that does migrate in both liquid and vapor phases. But lead also the easiest thing to avoid. It’s literally 'don’t eat the dirt.' You have to ingest it to be a problem. So we assess site for that kind of migration contamination as well.”
While the brownfields are currently known in eight local neighborhoods, there could be even more than that amount. Those neighborhoods are the only ones that have been tested at this time.
“Right now, it’s in the eight neighborhoods,” said Mr. Keith, “but it may not be limited to that. So it may step into Fort Wood or the other adjacent areas before the end (of our testing).”
A brownfield is, as Ms. Austin defined it, is “property in which the expansion, development, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence of a potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.”
Any area in a brownfield can feel negative effects from being inside it, with effects ranging from the economic to the ecological. brownfields can be anything from former dry cleaners, to old auto shops, to abandoned gas stations, to other such places that may be contaminated by chemicals.
The EPA funds the cleanup of these brownfield sites, and if they can find a company responsible for creating the contamination, they have the authority to force the company to reimburse the EPA.