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Neighborhood to be tested for pollution

• An Albany group will be testing a South Albany neighborhood for environmental pollution.

Joshua Brown

ALBANY — An Albany nonprofit organization is one of two in the Southeast to receive federal funding for the 2007 grant year to combat environmental damage, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced this week.

Albany Tools for Change was granted $95,902 in mid-2007 to fight environmental damage near Alice Coachman Elementary School on West Oakridge Drive near South Slappey Boulevard.

The organization is now in the process of planning how to test the area for health hazards and pollution, Tools for Change Project Manager Rebecca Reid said Tuesday.

Because there are several petroleum storage “tank farms,” a diesel hauling company and old industrial waste sites, Reid said the organization was concerned about hazardous materials contaminating the environment.

“The first testing we will probably do is going to be the air,” she said. “We will be having dialogue sessions in which members of the community will express to us things they know and ... from there we will move to testing the ground and testing the air.”

The grant will allow TFC to find out “what the problem is, what the solution is and what’s the next step,” Reid said.

Most of the awards by EPA are “level 1” grants because the program that administers the funding, the Community Action for a Renewed Environment, was established in 2005, EPA spokeswoman Davina Marraccini said.

Level 1 grants cover a two-year period of planning how to combat environmental pollution and usually are around $100,000, she said. Level 2 grants are $200,000-$300,000 andare designed to help initiate the plan.

“The first two years is finding out what the problem is — prioritizing the plan and finding out how you’re going to attack it,” Reid said.

Marraccini said applicants can be pretty diverse, from a local government entity to any nonprofit group seeking to better the environment. The grant is “very competitive,” she said, and no region is guaranteed to receive any funding.

Albany is in the Southeast region, which includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, the Carolinas and Tennessee.

Neighborhood residents who want to get involved in the process can call (229) 432-7266 for information about volunteering.

“The really unique thing about this grant (is that it) allows communities to look at all pollution holistically, instead of focusing on (just) land or air or water pollution,” Reid said.

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