The purpose of the consultation is to identify any current groundwater use in the Motorola 52nd Street Superfund Site area that might result in human exposure to site contaminants. The Arizona Department of Health Services previously evaluated well use in Operable Units 1 and 2 in 1992. This report updates the well use inventory for Operable Units 1 and 2 and provides an evaluation of potential groundwater exposure pathways in Operable Unit 3.

The W.R. Grace facility in Phoenix, Arizona, received vermiculite concentrate from the Libby, Montana, vermiculite mine. W.R. Grace Company has owned and operated the Arizona site since 1964. In 1964 W.R. Grace purchased the company that had previously occupied the site and, following the relocation of its vermiculite exfoliation furnace from Glendale, Arizona, began processing vermiculite concentrate and marketing it under the Zonolite® brand. The objective of this health consultation is to evaluate exposure pathways and potential health effects in those persons who, between 1964 and 2002, may have been exposed to Libby asbestos as a result of vermiculite concentrate processing activities and waste materials from the W.R. Grace exfoliation facility in Phoenix.

The objective of this health assessment is to provide an evaluation of current and future potential health risks that may result from exposure to residual organochlorine pesticides at Franklin Elementary School in Phoenix, Arizona. The school has been unoccupied for the past 10 years. The historic school building is being restored by the school district, which plans to reopen the building for use as an elementary school. Several organochlorine pesticides were discovered in the soil during routine environmental sampling done in conjunction with the renovation. In particular, chlordane and dieldrin, banned in the United States in the early 1980's, were present in concentrations above screening levels.

The purpose of the report is to evaluate environmental conditions and data at the site to determine whether a public health hazard exists as a result of exposure to contaminants in soils at the property. The City of Phoenix considers the site to be one of its highest priority brownfield projects due to its size, location, and threat to the public. Nearly the entire site is covered with solid waste including metal debris, tires, empty drums, construction debris, refuse, ceramics, empty alcoholic beverage bottles and cans, and human waste. A large pile of automobile fragments known as auto “fluff” is present on the southeast corner of the property. Contamination of soils at the site has occurred by disposal of auto fluff and transformer oils. The contaminants at the site include various metals and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

The purpose of this report is to document the evaluation of the public health effects of the air emissions from the Central Garden and Pet Supply Warehouse fire that was verbally provided during the response efforts to the fire event. The facility contained a variety of lawn and garden supplies including pesticides, herbicides, and pool maintenance chemicals. The fire also involved a portion of a pharmaceutical supply firm which contained medical supplies ranging from liquid and pill-form medicines to sterile syringes and other physical supplies.

The purpose of this health consultation is to evaluate the air monitoring conducted by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality at Mary McLeod Bethune School (Phoenix, AZ) and evaluate the potential impact on public health. The air monitoring data includes particulate matter and metals. The ADEQ’s primary objective of this air sampling is to provide an understanding of the hazardous air pollutants in the Phoenix area.

During the mid-part of the last decade, when the population growth rate was at its highest, the Phoenix area experienced rapid development and urban sprawl. The result has been an intensification of the Urban Heat Island effect. In this edition of Decades, author Sally Wittlinger discusses this uncomfortable consequence of urbanization.

In a rapidly growing desert metropolis such as Phoenix, the question of which water conservation measures and factors actually save water and which do not is an obviously important one. The water-related decisions made today and in the years to come will have lasting impact on the future of this area, including upon its sustainability. Estimates from the City of Phoenix suggest that, in non-SRP-areas, water demand will exceed water supply by the year 2025--absent droughts or intervention.

This report documents and analyzes the results of a multivariate regression analysis designed to estimate the effects on residential, single-family water consumption of a host of factors, particularly water conservation policies.

No American metropolis has been more loved or hated than Los Angeles. Witness how for 25 years Phoenix’s mantra has been “We are not L.A.” Unfortunately, that mantra has not produced an agenda for making Phoenix a better place. “Are nots” and “don’t wants” never turn into action, even when there is agreement on what that action should be. “We Are L.A.?,” the second issue in Morrison Institute’s policy briefing series Forum 411: Engaging Arizona’s Leaders, looks at how smog, congestion, and density have defined the two places. The briefing provides an overview of the two metro regions and how they compare on several important measures. The report not only challenges the myth that Phoenix has become too much “like L.A.,” but also proposes a new way of thinking about what it means to be Phoenix. “We Are L.A,?” argues that metro Phoenix must come up its own homegrown identity more powerful than simply “not L.A.”

Community policing — “a collaboration between the police and the community that identifies and solves community problems” — is not new to the City of Phoenix Police Department. They adopted this philosophy in the early 1990s. In 1995, they sought to expand community policing in Phoenix by applying for, and receiving, a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to implement the Comprehensive Communities Program (CCP) — a project designed to implement community policing in an urban neighborhood and demonstrate its potential.

This briefing paper summarizes the measures used in the CCP evaluation and briefly examines whether
results answer the question: Is community policing effective? More specifically, it focuses on whether the Comprehensive Communities Program resulted in outcomes desired by neighborhood residents. That is—Did crime go down? Do residents feel more safe? Does a formal partnership between the police and a neighborhood make a difference?