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Example of areawide management units within the greater Fairbanks area.
Goals of the Areawide Management Strategy
- Increase the capacity for cost-effective and reasoned decision making;
- Analyze risk issues on a larger scale when appropriate;
- Better manage and track on the rehabilitation of regional groundwater;
- Increase the potential for more rapid redevelopment or reuse of the contaminated site.
Fairbanks International Airport (FIA) proposed areawide management area zone showing multiple contaminated sites and leaking underground storage tanks. These sites are to be managed in a more consolidated manner using the areawide approach.
The Areawide Management Process
The areawide management process begins in the DEC offices when it is determined that coordinating management efforts will improve the efficiency of site management. However, a successful areawide management approach requires the consistent active participation of stakeholders to create the true partnership necessary to realize economic benefits and accelerated site closures. Stakeholders are not limited to responsible parties, but include both other government entities such as the City and Borough planning departments, other state and/or federal agencies, adjacent businesses and other sections of the general public. Although every areawide project has different needs, the DEC may perform actions similar to the following:
- Delineate the areawide boundary and select management zones as appropriate;
- Outline specific areawide goals. Goals may be simple, such as coordinated monitoring efforts or complex, like performing large-scale risk assessment activities for a region;
- Gather information to establish a baseline characterization of the area and identify data gaps;
- Engage the stakeholders and responsible parties and summarize DEC needs and proposed methods of overall and individual site management, as well as their responsibilities associated with participating in the areawide management strategy;
- Identify and oversee the appropriate assessment or remedial activities conducted by responsible parties, as appropriate, to fill data gaps and create a conceptual site model for the sites and area. The coordination of efforts among multiple parties generally leads to realized cost savings and higher quality data;
- Coordinate the information collection and act as the central repository for information, and provide mechanisms to disseminate overall information to participating stakeholders;
- Identify both short and long-term management strategies and work with stakeholders to establish adequate timelines for completion.
Benefits of the Areawide Management Process
- Increased efficiency through a reduction of duplicative efforts;
- Increased communication with stakeholders and the affected community;
- Better identification and consideration of the cumulative effects of multiple sources of contamination;
- Increased consistency through common strategy and closure requirements;
- Better data management and accessibility.
Areawide versus the Site-Specific Approach
- Sites viewed in context with others, not individually;
- Data have better potential to be reused, eliminating costs associated with redundancy;
- Co-mingling issues more easily managed and resolved as a response to engaging in a larger perspective;
- Variability of scale allows new conclusions to be made based on observations of factors that might not be readily identifiable at the site scale.
Supporting Documents
- Accepted electronic data submittal formats - (PDF 85K)
- Spatial data accuracy standards - (PDF 141K)
- Where to acquire coordinates for a site location - (JPG 76K)
Site Summaries for Areawide Investigations
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