EPA’s Brownfields Data, Covered With Crud?

Approximately 450,000 polluted industrial sites called brownfields are spread across the United States, mapped above on a government database. Screenshot: U.S. EPA EnviroAtlas for Brownfields.

Reporter’s Toolbox: EPA’s Brownfields Data, Covered With Crud?

By Joseph A. Davis

Many U.S. industrial sites can’t be redeveloped because they are polluted. They are called “brownfields” — not toxic enough to be Superfund sites but not clean enough to build something new.

There are about 1,340 Superfund sites. There are some 450,000 brownfield sites.

 

The data does exist,

but it is hard to get your

hands on and decipher.

 

A number that high begs for a database (and the environmental journalism it could produce). The data does exist, but it is hard to get your hands on and decipher.

The good news is that the Trump EPA has not (yet) destroyed its brownfields program. The EPA gives grants (not that many) to help localities prepare some sites for development. Even GOP congressfolk like money going to their districts.

 

Where the data comes from

The brownfields database is called ACRES (Assessment, Cleanup and Redevelopment Exchange System). The best way to access and explore it is via the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s EnviroAtlas viewer.

Problem is: EnviroAtlas is not that user-friendly.

Bare-metal coders and data journalists can actually download the raw data, if they are hard core enough (start here or here). There are actually two datasets: one a flat-file grid and the other a geodata.kml file that you need Google Maps or ArcGIS to look at.

 

How to use the data smartly

Another way to see the data is on the EPA’s Envirofacts app. Brownfields is one of the layers, but it gets lost among many others.

Another, perhaps easier way to see the data is via EPA’s online app “Cleanups in My Community.” Narrow it down to brownfields. You can (and may want to) narrow it geographically to your state or local area.

Data hounds should know that brownfields data can cover not only the sites themselves, but the several study and grant programs that have been available over the years. You need to know the programs to know what you want.

Another EPA database that may give perspective on brownfields is the Facility Registry Service. Theoretically, at least, brownfield sites are included — and it may help link pollution to polluters.

If you really want such data, it’s worth talking to your state environmental agency. Helpfulness will vary from state to state. Some states have their own brownfield programs, even if they don’t use the term.

Especially with this rickety data, journalists should make it a point to groundtruth everything. Visit the site. Talk to the EPA regional office. Talk to state cleanup agencies. Talk to developers. Talk to neighbors. Talk to municipal planners.

Joseph A. Davis is a freelance writer/editor in Washington, D.C. who has been writing about the environment since 1976. He writes SEJournal Online's TipSheet, Reporter's Toolbox and Issue Backgrounder, and curates SEJ's weekday news headlines service EJToday and @EJTodayNews. Davis also directs SEJ's Freedom of Information Project and writes the WatchDog opinion column.

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* From the weekly news magazine SEJournal Online, Vol. 11, No. 2. Content from each new issue of SEJournal Online is available to the public via the SEJournal Online main page. Subscribe to the e-newsletter here. And see past issues of the SEJournal archived here.