Project Overview:
The City of Fort Valley has received funding from EPA Region 4 to undertake a planning project with the community to develop future land use recommendations for the 31-acre Woolfolk Chemical Corporation Superfund site. The City of Fort Valley has been working with E2 Inc., a Charlottesville, VA-based environmental consulting company, to help organize the six-month community planning process.
The purpose of the future land use planning project for the Woolfolk Chemical Corporation site is two-fold. First, the project will provide guidance to EPA and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) during the site’s remediation and inform the agencies’ long-term planning efforts to protect human health and the environment at the site.
EPA’s primary responsibility at Superfund sites is to protect human health and the environment. It is also EPA policy to consider reasonably anticipated future land uses during the selection, implementation, and long-term stewardship of remedies at Superfund sites to ensure that site remedies remain protective and that the remediation of Superfund sites allows for safe site reuse for commercial, residential, recreational, or other purposes. With forethought and effective planning, communities can return sites to productive use without jeopardizing the effectiveness of the remedy put into place to protect human health and the environment. Across the country, more than 300 Superfund sites have been returned to productive use, or have reuses planned for them. These sites are seeing new life as places of recreation, commerce, ecological habitat, housing, and agriculture. More than 30,000 jobs at these sites have generated more than $1.3 billion in annual income for their communities.
Second, the project provides an opportunity for the community to come together to learn about the site, discuss community preferences and priorities for the site’s potential future uses, and develop a site reuse report that can inform the community’s future plans and priorities. At the end of the process, Fort Valley’s City Council will be asked to review and incorporate the project’s findings.
The Woolfolk Restoration Alliance
The process is being managed by the Woolfolk Restoration Alliance, a community-based organization that will host three reuse planning meetings as part of its regular meeting schedule, and will also share project information and findings with the larger community at public meetings in Fall 2006. At the end of the process, the Alliance will provide the City of Fort Valley, EPA, and Georgia EPD with its future land use recommendations for the Woolfolk Chemical Corporation Superfund site.
Upcoming Meetings and Events
The Woolfolk Alliance Reuse Planning Committee met on December 12th, 2006 to discuss the draft reuse farmework for the Woolfolk site.
The next Woolfolk Alliance Reuse Planning Committee meeting will be held on February 19th, 2007 at Fort Valley City Hall, located at 204 West Church Street in Fort Valley, from 2:00-3:30PM.
The project's public meeting will be held on February 19th from 6:00-8:00 PM at the Central Union Baptist Church. This meeting will be for the community to hear about the plans that the Woolfolk Alliance Reuse Planning Committee have helped to develop for the site.
PUBLIC MEETING INFORMATION
Date:
February 19, 2007
Time:
6:00-8:00 PM
Location:
Central Union Baptist Church
501 Preston Street
Fort Valley, Georgia
Click here for directions to the Central Union Baptist Church
For more information, please contact:
Matt Robbie
E² Inc.
Tel: 434-975-6700 x 227
mrobbie@e2inc.com