Committee for a Better Arvin (CBA)

US ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE GRANT CITIZENS' GROUP
for the
BROWN & BRYANT SUPERFUND SITE
ARVIN, CALIFORNIA

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Brown & Bryant Site documents

Brown & Bryant Site history

Overview Background
G. Fred Lee & Associates

email Technical Advisor at [email protected]



Location of Brown & Bryant, Inc. Plant, Arvin, Kern Co., CA

What Is "CBA"?

CBA is the Committee for a Better Arvin, a non-profit community organization composed of Arvin, CA area residents interested in protecting environmental quality in the area. The mission of this organization includes responsible stewardship of the environment and watchful attention to local air, water, and land resource remediation activities being considered and undertaken. One of the issues of particular concern to CBA is the impact of chemical pollutants from the Brown & Bryant (B&B) Superfund Site on area air and domestic water supply water quality.

CBA was awarded a US EPA Technical Assistance Grant ("TAG") for the B&B Site, which enabled CBA to hire an independent technical advisor to review site investigation/remediation documents and on-going activities at the site for the public and from the public's perspective, to aid in public awareness, involvement, and understanding of technical matters regarding site investigation and remediation. CBA is being assisted in the TAG administration by the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment (CRPE), which is focused on �Providing Legal and Technical Assistance to the Grassroots Movement for Environmental Justice.� Also according to its website, �The Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment is a national environmental justice organization with offices in San Francisco and Delano, California. We provide legal, organizing, and technical assistance to grassroots groups in low-income communities and communities of color fighting environmental hazards. In our work, we strive to achieve these goals.�

In October 2011 CBA hired Dr. G. Fred Lee, President of G. Fred Lee & Associates of El Macero, CA, to serve as its TAG independent technical advisor on issues of the adequacy and technical validity of the US EPA investigation/remediation of the B&B Superfund site. Dr. Lee is being assisted in this effort by Dr. Anne Jones-Lee, his wife.

Technical Assistance Grant (TAG)
According to the Technical Assistance Grant (TAG) Fact Sheet on the US EPA Website
�Often, there are many technical issues at Superfund sites that are hard for people to understand. The EPA�s Technical Assistance Grant (TAG) program provides money to community groups so they can pay for technical advisors to interpret and explain technical reports, site conditions, and EPA�s proposed cleanup proposals and decisions.�

The TAG technical advisor also has the responsibility for providing technical assistance to the public in the area of a Superfund site in their review of the adequacy of site investigation and remediation to provide protection of public health and environmental quality. While the US EPA and other regulatory agencies work to achieve public health and environmental protection in Superfund site investigation/remediation, the agency has some constraints on its activities. A TAG advisor does not have those constraints on his/her review of the site investigation/ remediation and therefore can provide the public and decision-makers with a comprehensive disinterested review of public health and environmental protection issues.

As part of their role as TAG technical advisors and based on their public health and environmental quality experience and expertise, Drs. Lee and Jones-Lee have reviewed the information on the B&B site investigation as presented in US EPA reports on its website. They have provided, and continue to provide, written comments to CBA on technical aspects of documents and reports developed during the course of the B&B site evaluation, and on issues and aspects that needed to be more properly addressed for the protection of public health and environmental quality. The reports that Drs. Lee and Jones-Lee have developed for CBA concerning the B&B Site may be viewed and downloaded from this web site. As new reports are developed and activities undertaken in association with the investigation/remediation at the B&B Site, they will be reviewed by Drs. Lee and Jones-Lee, and summaries of key issues and other pertinent information will be posted on this website. Dr. Lee can be contacted to answer questions about the investigation/remediation of the B&B Superfund site at [email protected].

Additional information on environmental quality aspects of landfills, and on environmental quality aspects of hazardous chemical site management is available on Drs. G. Fred Lee and Anne Jones-Lee's website, http://www.gfredlee.com.

Information on Dr. Lee's academic background and professional expertise and experience, as well as downloadable copies of many of his professional writings are available on his website, http://www.gfredlee.com. He may also be contacted directly by email at [email protected].

Read about History of Brown & Bryant Site

See Brown & Bryant Site Documents

Learn More: Water Quality Impacts of Landfills and Hazardous Waste Sites