The Tribal Response Program has developed an Inventory of Regulated Properties (IRP) compiled into a geographically referenced data base that includes information useful to Environmental Professionals conducting “all appropriate inquiry into the previous ownership and uses of the property consistent with good comercial or customary practice” as defined at 42 U.S.C. §9601(35)
(B). The IRP has data with hundreds of properties with varying levels of detail including potential Leaking Underground Storage Tanks (LUST) and Brownfield sites.
During the field season of 2010 the Response Program conducted a detailed driving survey and distressed properties were visually identified, photographed, collected GPS coordinates. Where warranted, a limited title search was conducted in the appropriate county courthouse to determine the current property owners. This information was compiled into a Microsoft Excel database and merged with information from Tribal and EPA records. We are planning to enter property specific data into the University of Kansas Brownfield Inventory Tool, which will facilitate the compilation of property specific data into the ACRES database.
Properties on the inventory were then ranked on a scale from 1-5 to represent a semi-quantitative measurement of likely contamination: 5 is known contamination; 3 an active business that is commonly associated with contamination; and 1 representing properties with a low probability of contamination. The rankings of 2 and 4 allow for some subjective coloring of the property implying an intermediate status. If the property is vacant then it was added to our Brownfield Inventory for further evaluation.
Out of the hundreds of properties on the IRP, we identified 31 which appeared vacant, and titled this subset our Brownfields Inventory. The Response Program then ranked the Brownfield Inventory and selected 17 priority sites that we believed would benefit from having a Phase I ESA with a subset of these likely needing a Phase II ESAs. Parties interested in viewing the inventory are encouraged to contact the Response Program.