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Final Progress Reports: Brown University: Community Engagement Core

Superfund Research Program

Community Engagement Core

Project Leader: Scott Frickel
Grant Number: P42ES013660
Funding Period: 2005-2021

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Final Progress Reports

Year:   2020  2014  2008 

The Community Outreach Core (COC) of Brown’s Superfund Basic Research Program supports communities that are dealing with toxic contamination in Rhode Island.  The COC’s outreach strategy involves intensive work with three community groups: Environmental Neighborhood Awareness Committee of Tiverton (ENACT), a community-based group fighting residential contamination; Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council (WRWC), a nonprofit watershed advocacy group that has a Superfund site within its purview; and the Environmental Justice League of Rhode Island (EJLRI), a new organization committed to environmental justice issues in the State of Rhode Island. The COC also participates in the Brownfields Environmental Equity stakeholder panel, led by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (RI DEM).

During this past year, the Core helped ENACT organize to resolve the residential contamination their community is facing. The COC arranged for a meeting with ENACT and a prominent environmental justice leader, Lois Gibbs, to meet with members of ENACT to brainstorm more effective strategies. After successfully pushing the Rhode Island state legislature last year to provide home equity loans to homeowners on contaminated properties, the COC is now working with state regulators, legislators, and agencies to implement and improve the program, by expanding it to refinancing first mortgages and streamlining loan application procedures.

With the WRWC, the Core attended EPA dialog meetings and hydrodynamic modeling meetings related to the Centredale Manor National Priorities List site. They have researched cleanup methods implemented at forty other Superfund sites with dioxin contaminated sediment and interviewed representatives from community organizations near these sites to learn about their experiences in working with the EPA and their level of satisfaction with remediation strategies. In addition to this work, they implemented an after-school pilot program in the spring of 2008 to educate junior-high school students about the Centredale Manor Superfund site and the general Superfund remediation process. The team has been in contact with multiple middle schools this fall, and is revising the curriculum for use in another Rhode Island school in early 2009.

In December 2007, Brown SBRP COC members helped found EJLRI, a group of Rhode Island citizens with deep roots in school-siting activism and lead and asthma advocacy. EJLRI’s mission is to promote environmental justice in Rhode Island through advocacy, education, networking, organizing, and research. The COC has and will continue to sit on its working committees, contribute technical assistance, and raise funds to support its operations.  Through the recent award of a SBRP Supplement and additional financial support, EJLRI was able to hire two staff people in November. Also this year, the COC participated in RI DEM’s stakeholder workgroup to help revise and implement a pilot policy, "Considering Environmental Justice in the Review of Investigation and Remediation of Contaminated Properties." The Core is also evaluating the effectiveness of the program’s first year.

COC strives to support grassroots community groups that are dealing with toxic contamination and are motivated to tackle environmental injustices. Their engagement with diverse stakeholders allows them to offer a broad skill-set to work to improve environmental health in Rhode Island and benefit all of their partners.

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