Transcript for Soccer & Superfund: Partnership for New Goals Length: 13 Minutes Opening scene: Little league children are playing soccer on a field. Then cut to adults playing soccer. Voiceover (VO): Soccer is booming in popularity. More children are playing than ever before. So are adults. Soccer moms and dads are no longer just on the sidelines but taking to the fields themselves. This increased demand leads to a new problem: there are not enough fields. Cut to outdoor interview with Jeff Agoos, Professional Soccer player for the D.C. United and U.S. National Team Aggoos: Growing up there were always a lot of fields but they were not very good. So it was very difficult to find a good spot where you can get quality training. I think it is important to the development of the youth to have good fields to train on. Cut to outdoor interview with Bobby Convey, Professional Soccer player for the D.C. United. Images of Aggoos playing soccer. Convoy: It just shows how soccer is growing in the United States that we need to build more fields for more kids to play on. Images of Convey playing soccer; then images of DC United playing soccer in stadium. Cut to images of a generic Superfund site, with a large abandoned manufacturing facility in a large field. VO: One of the solutions to this problem may come as a surprise. Soccer fields can be built on cleaned up Superfund sites. Superfund sites? Sounds impossible. Cut to Chisman Creek scene then cut to images of children with coach practicing soccer moves. VO: But amazing things are happening at Superfund sites across the country. In fact, these children are playing soccer over a cleaned up site in Chisman Creek, Virginia. Cut to images of a factory emitting large amount of pollutants into air. VO: Many people still think of Superfund sites as permanent toxic wastelands in the middle of their communities. Cut to images of oil barrels, the cut to indoor interview with Larry Reed, EPA Superfund National Program Director Reed: Superfund program started just two decades ago. And at that time, there was a national reaction to some very high profile hazardous waste sites that were uncontrolled in the country. Sites we probably all have heard of such as Love Canal, Times Beach and of hundreds more that were becoming much more apparent to the public that something needed to be done to address these hazardous waste sites. Cut to images of a men in Hazmat suits in creek, then shots of a town’s Superfund site, bulldozers hauling off dirt. Reed: People were thinking that a hazardous waste site would forever stigmatize a site. Cut to image of a large contaminated field, then cut to constructed lake is formed on field. VO: But that perception is incorrect. Hundreds of toxic waste sites have been cleaned up so that they are now safe for human health and the environment. Shot of people on boats on lake. Then close up shots of lake. VO: Chisman Creek, near Norfolk, Virginia, was once contaminated with over half of million tons of metals such as arsenic and copper. Following an extensive cleanup, developed by the Environmental Protection Agency and implemented by the party found responsible for the contamination, local residents and business leaders came together and decided to use the area as a major recreation center. Cut to shots of Chisman soccer fields, memorial tree grove plaque, softball fields. VO: The community now enjoys the benefits of two lighted softball fields, a memorial tree grove and four soccer fields. Shot of softball team, yelling, “Team!” VO: This is only one of many examples. Graphic shot of US map with pinpointed Superfund Sites. Then picture shots of each Superfund site listed below. VO: Superfund sites are being reused all over the country in many different ways. In California, as the world headquarters of the Netscape Communications. In Ohio, as an ecological sanctuary. In Georgia, as a tourist welcome center. In Florida, as a critical maintenance and repair facility for the Dade County Rail System. In Colorado, as a shopping center. And in Texas, to bring new housing and new public services to a low income neighborhood. Shots of Jack Nichols golf range. VO: Jack Nichols has even designed a world class golf course over a cleaned up site in Montana. Areas that were once dangerous are now being cleaned up and turned into office parks, playing fields, industrial centers, shopping centers, residential areas, pasture land, schools and wetlands. Cut to images of an industrial center, a K-Mart, a house, pasture land, a school and a wetland. Then cut to graphic of US map. VO: There are nearly 200 such Superfund success stories in all areas of the county. But this is just the beginning. There are hundreds more Superfund sites around the country. Potentially, all these sites can be put some sort of productive use. Cut to shot of children playing soccer. VO: But it took a soccer dad and a referee, who also happened to work right next door to each other at EPA, to realize that many of these sites could be reused as soccer fields. Shot of outdoor interview of John Harris, Senior Advisor for Economics for U.S. EPA Harris: Well, I’ve been a soccer coach and soccer dad for a little over ten years. I’ve also been working for the Superfund Program for a little over ten years. And what I’ve realized is that many of our sites that we have cleaned up have gone on as unused. That they are fenced and there’s nothing is being done on those properties. And that many of them look like soccer fields. They are grass-covered areas that are flat but for goal posts and lines, would look exactly like a soccer field. Shot to soccer fields being redeveloped. Harris: I turned to the person who had an office next door to mine who was a soccer referee and asked him to look into how we might make some connections within the soccer community to see if they might be interested in supporting this idea. We very quickly got Herb Giobbi’s of the United States Soccer Foundation, and realized that we had a good partnership that would work and that would be a win-win situation that would work for us and for them. Cut to indoor interview with Herb Giobbi, U.S. Soccer Foundation. Giobbi: Our mission is to grow the sport of soccer across the country. With that mission, we try to affect as many youth and armatures, but especially youth, as we can all around this country. And our number one problem is the lack of playing fields. Shot of a site cleanup. VO: But how can you start with a Superfund cleanup and end up with a soccer field? Anonymous male voiceover: If we know that a site is going to be turned into a soccer field, we can make some very subtle changes in our engineering and dirt moving so that when we leave a site, and leave it cleaned up, not much more has to be done to make it into a soccer field. Another anonymous male voiceover: We have the premiere field design and engineering firm under contract with the United States Soccer Foundation. Our engineers and design folks can work with EPA engineers and show them how to move the earth during their cleanup process so the end result will be a relatively flat parcel of land that is a soccer field. Shot to youth playing soccer. VO: More soccer fields for less money. It’s an exciting accomplishment. But it’s only the beginning of what EPA and the Soccer Foundation are doing together. Another example of their partnership is site screening. Shot of open field, various shots of former Superfund sites, shots of youth playing soccer Male voiceover: We’ve done a study of cleaned up Superfund sites and found that about 40% of those sites are vacant, and in many cases with fences. We see an opportunity to find uses in these communities for these sites. These sites were often very important parts of the community, that’s who they got contaminated in the first place. We’ve made them safe. What’s important now, is that if we can work with partners, like the United States Soccer Foundation, to get them back into productive use in those communities. Cut to indoor interview with Herb Giobbi, U.S. Soccer Foundation. Giobbi: EPA is currently assessing clean sites across the country and they are categorizing them using various criteria: size of the parcel; where it’s located; general topography. They will give us that information and we will serve as the conduit to our soccer community and distribute that information throughout the soccer community across the nation. Our goal is to see if we can’t utilize these already cleaned sites and turn them into soccer fields. Cut to shot of meeting in progress VO: A third way the two are working together is through EPA’s Superfund Redevelopment Initiative Pilot program. Cut to various shots of youth playing soccer. Harris: EPA has a Pilot program where we have fifty pilots that have selected. What we are doing, is working with communities, usually offering them a cooperative agreement to help them to do planning for future use of the site. The Soccer Foundation will work with the communities that have expressed an interest in recreational use of sites to see if they can help those communities turn those sites into soccer fields. Cut to shot of Avtex Superfund site VO: The first use of the EPA’s Soccer Foundation Pilots is at the Avtex Fibers site in Front Royal, Virginia. The Avtex facility made synthetic fibers between 1940 and 1989, before it was closed by the Commonwealth of Virginia when PCBs from the plant contaminated the Shenandoah River. Cut to outdoor interview shot of Bonnie Gross, Remedial Project Manager for EPA Gross: Surrounding me you will see the result of our building demolition process. We are currently sorting, cleaning and screening this demolition debris, sequencing our work so that cleanups can happen efficiently and that reuse can happen as quickly as possible. This site has been slated for various kinds of uses. One of those reuses is recreational. The US Soccer Foundation has agreed to help the town of Front Royal develop soccer fields. We have twenty-five acres of land which will become the future soccer area for Front Royal. Cut to indoor interview with Herb Giobbi, U.S. Soccer Foundation. Giobbi: This will be the crown jewel of the Pilots. We have completed the conceptual designs. There’s going to be about 10 to 12 soccer fields of varying sizes for varying ages. We are quite excited about it and it’s moving along nicely in the process. Cut to various shots of youth playing soccer. VO: The partnership at the Avtex site shows what is possible when people work together toward a common goal or making something out of a Superfund site. But the bottom line for most people is are these sites safe? The answer is yes! When a Superfund site is cleaned up, it can be safely reused as a soccer field. Cut to indoor interview with John Harris Harris: EPA uses a lot of methods to clean up Superfund sites. We have a preference for treatment, which means we use a technology to destroy materials on site whenever we can. In other cases, we take particularly toxic materials and take them off site to another facility where they can be managed safely. In some cases, we leave low-level threats on site, contained. Cut to generic Superfund site. VO: While waste contaminant varies, depending on site characteristics, in all cases EPA follows a general approach of preventing waste from contaminating ground water and preventing anyone from coming into direct contact with the waste. Here’s one example of low-level waste is safely contained on site. Cut to computer graphic of low-level waste contaminant. VO: To prevent waste from contaminating groundwater, EPA may add a clay layer and synthetic liner at the base of the holding pit. To prevent anyone from coming into contact with the waste, EPA will often add a multi-layer cap. Here’s a magnification of one such section of a cap. Cut to computer image of cross section of a typical multi-layer cap. VO: A clay layer and synthetic liner, both impermeable to water, are applied to prevent rainwater from coming into contact with the waste. Then, a drainage layer and soil layers are added with grass planted on the surface. To ensure that waste remains in the containment structure, ground water wells may be installed and monitored on a regular basis. In the end, all waste has been successfully entombed on site. Cut to shots of soccer fields VO: The result is a relatively flat area that can be easily adapted for recreation reuse, such as a soccer field. Harris voiceover: EPA’s mission is to protect the human health and the environment and we take that mission very seriously. In fact, my daughter goes to a high school that is on a Superfund site. She plays on the soccer team. Her practice fields, her playing fields are both on a Superfund site. I know it’s safe. I wouldn’t let her play if it wasn’t. Cut to Carol Browner, Administrator, US EPA in a public announcement. Browner: What we are looking at here is truly a renaissance. A re-birth. A change in our thinking about how we deal with these contaminated, formally contaminated, Superfund toxic waste sites. Think about it, this land once an important productive part of this community then became a hazard in this community. But now it will become home to soccer fields where our kids will come and play a great sport, get healthy, and stay healthy. Cut to indoor interview with Herb Giobbi, U.S. Soccer Foundation. Giobbi: The message is that this is an ideal public/private partnership. What this shows is how the government can work with private entities, like the soccer foundation, and utilize their respective strengths and bring benefits to a local community. What we have set up is an absolutely ideal model that can be used not just for soccer, but for baseball, hockey, football, and really any other sport. Cut to images of respective sports mentioned above. Harris voiceover: EPA doesn’t have a preference to what kind of use a site is put to. It can be a governmental building, a commercial facility, a bank, a store, a library, a soccer field. That’s what a community can decide. That’s a local decision. Cut to indoor interview with Herb Giobbi, U.S. Soccer Foundation Harris: As a soccer dad, I sure like to see a lot of them be soccer fields. Cut to indoor interview with Herb Giobbi, U.S. Soccer Foundation Giobbi: We share the dream that EPA has, and that is to take all the Superfund sites and put as many recreational areas, especially soccer fields, on these sites as we can. END Closing info for more information.