E&EM doctoral student Mark Goedde and Professor Jonathan Deason participated in the Brownfields 2004 conference that was held in St. Louis, Missouri in September 2004.
Deason presented an invited paper entitled “Genesis of the Urban River Restoration Initiative” in a session on “Revitalizing Our Urban Rivers.” Participation in the session of more than 120 audience members indicated that this topic was one major interest among conference attendees.
In his presentation, Deason discussed the fact that many urban rivers in the United States and worldwide contain severely contaminated sediments that adversely affect aquatic life and limit recreational and economic uses of the rivers. Sources of the contamination include a wide variety of industrial operations, densely populated urban areas, agricultural activities, and even atmospheric deposition.
Additional difficulties commonly encountered in dealing with these problems include an inadequate level of understanding of the natural processes governing sediment dispersion and the bioavailability of contaminants contained in the sediments; technical difficulties associated with the characterization, contentment, removal and treatment of contaminated sediments; a confusing and frequently inadequate legal framework in which the issue is embedded; and, of course, a highly charged political atmosphere that affects practically every major environmental issue.
Graduate student Mark Goedde also attended “Brownfields 2004” to meet with various stakeholder groups in the Brownfields revitalization process. His dissertation entails the development of a decision model to assist the various stakeholder groups in prioritizing properties of interest and to better understand the issues facing other stakeholders.
Mr. Goedde attended specifically a “Transaction Forum” where persons interested in buying or selling Brownfields could view and share properties currently available for development. He also met with some of the leading developers of Brownfields concerning their priorities and concerns. As a special treat, Mr. Goedde was able to spend individual time with Mr. Mark Lamping, the President of the National League Champion St. Louis Cardinals baseball team. Mr. Lamping is re-developing a former Brownfields site into the Cardinals next baseball stadium which will open spring 2006.