Land use controls (LUCs) are legal restrictions that protect the public from exposure to residual contamination at brownfields. LUCs are designed to limit land use that might interfere with the containment of residual contamination after completion of a cleanup. For example, an LUC may prohibit excavation past a certain depth to avoid disturbing contaminated soil. LUCs are typically used in tandem with containment caps. In many cases, the parking lot on a redeveloped brownfield may double as a containment cap that has restrictions against excavation and requirements for periodic monitoring.

The key difficulty with LUCs is accurately tracking the restriction on land use and getting that information to the right people at the right time. Changes in owners and tenants can cause LUCs to be lost over time, thus threatening a breach of containment that would expose the public to hazardous residuals. This article explains how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has tasked Computer Sciences Corporation and the International City/County Management Association to develop a National Land Use Control Web Ring to make it easier to find land use restriction information.

Many federal, state, and local government agencies maintain Web-accessible LUC tracking databases. However, because there are so many different LUC tracking databases scattered across the Web, property-specific restrictions are difficult to find. There is a great need to bring land use control information together in one readily accessible location. Creating a centralized national database for all land use restrictions has drawbacks. People responsible for the databases already in existence balk at having to participate in a centralized national database that may belong to some federal agency. Hence, EPA is funding the creation of the National Land Use Control Web Ring. But, one might ask, what the heck is a Web Ring? A Web ring is an Internet navigation tool that brings similar content pages from diverse Web sites into one location for quick access.

The National Land Use Control Web Ring (the Web Ring) currently being constructed is designed to provide a quick connect to all Web-accessible LUC tracking databases, as well as other LUC-related Web pages (e.g., LUC research papers, critiques, and instruments). Although the Web Ring brings all these resources together, it does not integrate them; they maintain their independence. The Web Ring also does not provide for automatic data exchange between tracking systems on the ring. The heart of the Web Ring is a small, interactive Web Ring logo, located in an unobtrusive place on the LUC-related pages of Web Ring members’ Web sites:

Clicking on this logo will open up a small window with an interactive navigation tool (below) in a new browser. The old browser would remain open where the user left it.

A second click on any of these member site menu items would immediately send the new browser to that member’s LUC-related page or LUC tracking database. In this way, EPA hopes that the Web Ring will help to fulfill the objective of land use controls – to get the right information to the right people at the right time – so that public health will be protected at brownfields.

The Web Ring is scheduled to go live on June 5, 2004. If you have any questions about the Web Ring, please direct them to Stephen Merrill Smith of Computer Sciences Corporation at 703-461-2377.