Such analysis can account for 70 percent of the cost of an initial site investigation and 50 percent of the overall cleanup costs. Yet without this information, the communities can't explain to interested developers and lenders what the potential costs for environmental cleanup might be. So the prospective developers and lenders go elsewhere.
The Northeast HSRC is working with the community of Newark, New Jersey, as part of their Brownfields Pilot Project, to use state-of-the-art field screening technologies that can cost effectively provide the information needed. One technology, funded by the NHSRC and developed at Tufts University, uses an Army-surplus instrument that was developed for the Gulf War. It was designed to be transported in the field on the back of a jeep, making it an excellent tool for civilian field work. The unit has been found to perform as accurately and precisely as traditional techniques, but gives results almost immediately at a fraction of the cost. The unit is being applied to several individual Brownfields sites now; eventually, the researchers hope that it will be able to screen multiple sites at the same time.
For further information, contact:
Dr. Fred Ellerbusch
New Jersey Institute of Technology
138 Warren Street
University Heights
Newark, NJ 07102
Telephone: 973-596-6341
E-mail: fred.ellerbusch@njit.edu