Recreation: Community Health and Wellness
There are many factors that influence the health of a community such as access to medical care, healthy food options, and community spaces that encourage healthy activities. EPA can help communities think about the future use of space for any number of purposes by performing a health and wellness assessment.
Parks and open space improve our physical and psychological health, strengthen our communities, and make our cities and neighborhoods more attractive places to live and work. Recreation opportunities located on Superfund sites include parks, playgrounds, trails, picnic areas, bird watching, sports fields, fishing ponds, model airplane flying fields, snow tubing, ice rinks and golf courses, to name a few.
Additional Resources
- Recreational Uses at Superfund Sites Handout (PDF)(3 pp,1.5 MB): This fact sheet highlights recent recreational reuse success stories from around the country.
- Webinar – Reusing Superfund Sites for Recreational Purposes: This webinar takes an in-depth look at several Superfund sites in recreational reuse. It also discusses SRI tools and resources available to support communities interested in pursuing recreational reuse opportunities.
- Webinar – Aligning Remedies with Reuse: From Superfund Sites to Soccer Fields: This webinar focuses on soccer field reuses at Superfund sites nationwide and discusses available SRI tools and resources to support sports field reuse opportunities.
- Technical Reuse Reports: SRI also publishes detailed technical information on how Superfund sites have been safely reused for various purposes, including for recreational purposes, while ensuring that the protectiveness of site remedies is maintained.
- Pilot Framework for Integrating Community Health and Wellness into the Superfund Reuse Assessment Process (PDF) (46 pp, 13 MB, About PDF)
This report summarizes a pilot framework for integrating health, prevention and wellness considerations during the Superfund reuse assessment process, and for facilitating identification of possible reasonably anticipated future land uses (RAFLUs).
Recreation Reuse Examples
Camilla Wood Preserving Company (Georgia) -soccer fields
GE-Pittsfield/Housatonic River (Massachusetts) - sports fields, running track, and equipment storage
Olmsted County Sanitary Landfill (Minnesota) - model airplane flying field
Times Beach (Missouri) - trails, hiking, biking, picnic tables