WHAT'S NEW

ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT OFFICE BUILDING CONSTRUCTION FOR THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION, DENVER DIVISION OFFICE, DENVER, COLORADO

George Weber, Inc. Environmental (GWE) has begun a new project to develop a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Environmental Assessment (EA) for development of a new Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) facility in Denver, Colorado. GWE responsibilities include the scoping, community relations, and socioeconomic assessment portions of the effort.

Of note, the candidate site for the FBI facility is located within the decommissioned Stapleton International Airport. The site is a Brownfield redevelopment of national prominence, being the largest urban infill and the first urban airport redevelopment in the United States. The City of Denver has planned the redevelopment to be a model sustainable 'green' community, integrated with the surrounding neighborhoods and providing a source of employment, housing, and open space for the metropolitan area.

GWE is supporting Waterstone Environmental Hydrology and Engineering Inc., the prime contractor to the General Services Administration (GSA). Waterstone is a small woman owned business (SDB/8a) located in Boulder, Colorado.

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FEASIBILITY STUDY & RECORD OF DECISION VASQUEZ BOULEVARD/I-70 SUPERFUND SITE OPERABLE UNIT 3 ARGO SMELTER

George Weber, Inc. Environment (GWE) has begun a new project supporting development of a Feasibility Study and Record of Decision for the Vasquez Boulevard/I-70 Superfund Site (VB-I70), Operable Unit 3, Argo Smelter. GWE responsibilities include conducting the community relations portion of the project -- primarily identifying community leaders and other stakeholders in the site, contacting them regarding site issues and clean-up alternatives, and planning and facilitating the required public meeting. Waterstone Environmental Hydrology and Engineering Inc. is the prime contractor to the Region VIII EPA Superfund Program. This work continues and builds on GWE's previous projects assessing VB-I70 stakeholders and planning and facilitating meetings of the Working Group for the soils clean-up in residential neighborhoods throughout the entire VB-I70 site.

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DEVELOPING A COLLABORATIVE SOURCE WATER QUALITY MONITORING PROGRAM FOR THREE DRINKING WATER UTILITIES

George Weber, Inc. Environmental (GWE) completed a project in January 2007 that is helping the City of Greeley, Tri-District, and City of Fort Collins utilities develop a design and strategic implementation plan for a comprehensive collaborative water quality monitoring program of the Cache la Poudre River (CLP). The CLP is a significant source of raw water for these utilities that provide drinking water for most of the Urban North Front Range, Colorado.

The utilities reached agreement on the project and scope of work after meetings over a period of several months, several of which GWE helped organize and facilitate.

GWE began with a presumption that framed the currently independent and potential future collaborative CLP water quality monitoring programs as 'information systems' -- ones that develop, maintain, analyze, and use water quality data to support decision making by each of the three water utilities. GWE adapted and used a systems approach that Weber developed and applied in the past for understanding an existing information system, identifying the unmet needs of its users, and developing a preliminary design for a new or refined system and implementation plan for meeting users' needs.
(See Planning & Implementing Information Systems)

In general terms, the approach frames the information system of interest as a whole, and examines and characterizes the system components, processes, and relationships among them in order to develop an understanding of how the system works. System components include the context and organization within which the information system resides, and involved staff, hardware, software, and data. System processes encompass the activities of data development, maintenance, and analysis, and presentation and use of the information produced to accomplish specific functions and decision-making achieving the organizational mission.

Specific technical achievements of the Project include:

• Identifying, naming, and prioritizing numerous CLP water quality data sets of all three utilities;
• Developing an overview characterizing each general phase of CLP water quality data activity for each high priority data set developed by all three utilities (Tri-District 2, Greeley 7, Fort Collins 12);
• Mapping locations of sampling sites for each high priority data set, for each utility, as well as, comparatively for all three together;
• Developing a 'rough draft' matrix identifying all water quality parameters the three utilities are monitoring and the parameters each high priority data set is monitoring at general locations in the CLP source water area; and
• Developing additional analytical observations and questions to guide subsequent decision-making by the utilities.

Important general accomplishments of this first iteration Project include:

• Developing the characterization of the three currently separate programs sufficiently to potentially enable a scope of work for subsequent actions to develop a collaborative program to be more focused, definable, and manageable;
• Determining that minimum prerequisites (including NO significant barriers) are present for collaboration to occur among the three utilities; and
• Developing consensus among the three utilities on a general substantive scope for a collaborative Program, and strategies for its development, administration, and funding.

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ASSESSING AND FACILITATING STAKEHOLDERS IN VASQUEZ BOULEVARD-I70 SUPERFUND CLEAN-UP

George Weber, Inc. Environmental applied its 'stakeholder mobilization' approach to develop an assessment of stakeholders in the Vasquez Boulevard - Interstate 70 (VB-I70) Superfund Site Lead and Arsenic Clean-up for the Region VIII EPA CERCLA Program. Weber gave the final report and presentation to the EPA Superfund Program managers and supporting staff in May, 2005. In addition, George Weber, Inc. Environmental is continuing to plan and facilitate Working Group meetings for the VB-I70 Superfund Clean-up.

George Weber, Facilitating 7/14/05 VB-I70 Working Group Meeting

	Stakeholder Assessment Purpose
	VB-I70 Superfund Site Setting
	VB-I70 Superfund Site Clean-up Program Components
	Stakeholder Assessment: Findings and Analysis
	Stakeholder Assessment: Action Recommendations
	Summary Products

The purpose of the assessment was to:

• Identify influential community leaders and organizations in the varied communities within the Program Site that EPA had not identified already; and
• Develop a strategic action plan for obtaining the support and involvement of this community leadership in Program implementation in order to obtain full participation of Site residents, while avoiding existing and potential conflicts among the different communities and groups within the Site.

Tonya Hope, Cole Neighborhood & Northeast Denver Housing Center

A secondary purpose of the EPA Site Program Manager was for the assessment to provide an example of an analytical approach to involving stakeholders that could be used synergistically with the standard, largely descriptive, EPA Community Relations approach. He hoped to benefit other programs in this, and other communities, where EPA and others undertake efforts intended to improve environmental quality.

The VB-I70 Site is located in northeast Denver, and has been characterized as an Environmental Justice site because the community is predominantly low income, minority (Hispanic and Black), and disproportionately affected by environmental impacts from many sources including industry, other Superfund sites, and major transportation corridors.

EPA's VB-I70 Program is comprised of three components:

• Sampling the soil of residential properties for lead and arsenic to find out if the levels are high enough to affect residents' health, and particularly that of children;
• Removing and replacing soil and landscaping at all properties that have levels of arsenic and lead higher than the Program standard; and
• Educating neighborhood residents about the lead and arsenic health issues, evaluating lead hazards in the home, and testing young children to see if they have been exposed to lead and arsenic (i.e., Community Health Program).

EPA is working cooperatively with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, City of Denver, Northeast Denver Housing, and several neighborhood organizations in the planning on how to carry out the program.

Joan Hooker, Clayton Neighborhood Association and CEASE;
Gene Hook, Environmental Health Scientist, Department
of Environmental Health, City of Denver; Claudia Abernathy,
Attorney and former President, Clayton Neighborhood Association

The study identified primarily the perceptions of the stakeholders who participated in the assessment. The analysis identified:

• Potential 'barriers' to Program implementation (approximately 50);
• Positive perceptions about Program implementation (approximately 20);
• 'Actions' potentially addressing 'barriers' or otherwise improving Program implementation (approximately 54);
• Potentially influential stakeholders (44 organizations and 52 individuals identified); and
• Stakeholders perceived potentially to hold a position of leadership, centrality, and/or 'bridge' among other stakeholders in the Program (19 identified).

The analysis developed three sets of insights centering on:

• Barriers and actions: many issues have been fixed by the consultant working with the EPA Site Program Manager during the assessment process;

Stakeholders: assessment identified 15 organizational and 28 individual stakeholders to involve in addition to those the EPA Community Involvement Plan (CIP) and Community Health Program response identified, but representation in 'The Process' appears to have decreased; and Potential for continuing tension and conflict are present in the implementation process and likely will continue for seven significant sets of factors.

Victor Ketellapper, Region VIII EPA VB-I70 Superfund Site Manager

Jay Salas, Program Coordinator, Community Health Program, Department of Environmental Health, City of Denver

Weber provided the findings and presented the analysis to the EPA and State of Colorado Program Mangers and the staff of other agencies supporting the Program on May 26, 2005. The presentation and final report presents the alternatives he recommended in general summary form. Weber asked Program Managers to consider the strategic alternatives first, then the specific tactical alternatives. He informed them that the tactical recommendations could be supplemented and refined as appropriate once they made a decision regarding the strategic approach they preferred.

To request an electronic copy of the final report in PDF file format please click here.

Download Adobe® Reader®.

	Executive summary
	Final presentation
	Final presentation

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