A public forest is home to dozens of barrels that have been leaking toxic materials for decades.

Parks officials in Louisville, Kentucky are taking the first steps to clean up a hazardous waste site in a public park locally known as ‘Gully of the Drums,’ reports James Bruggers in Inside Climate News. The city released a plan to take soil samples and dig trenches to assess the condition of the site.
As Bruggers explains, “The site sits about 700 feet from the notorious ‘Valley of the Drums,’ where some 17,000 hazardous waste drums were discovered in the late 1970s on farmland 17 miles south of downtown Louisville, which were removed in one of the first major federal Superfund cleanups in the United States.”
While the Valley was cleaned up by the EPA, the Gully site remained contaminated with 40 to 45 barrels of toxic waste. “The new study, if approved by the Louisville Metro Council, will involve taking soil samples near the visible drums as well as digging trenches to see whether unseen barrels or containers of toxic waste were also buried, and then testing the soil to see if that area has hazardous waste.”
Lauren Heberle, a professor at the University of Louisville, says the plan could do more to address contaminants like PFAS that were not tested for before, and should also test groundwater and a nearby creek.
FULL STORY: Louisville, Kentucky, Moves Toward Cleaning Up Its ‘Gully of the Drums’ After More Than Four Decades

New Florida Law Curbs HOA Power
The legislation seeks to cut down on ‘absurd’ citations for low-level violations.

New Tennessee Law Allows No-Cost Incentives for Affordable Housing
Local governments in the Volunteer State can now offer developers incentives like increased density, lower parking requirements, and priority permitting for affordable housing projects.

Planners’ Complicity in Excessive Traffic Deaths
Professor Wes Marshall’s provocatively-titled new book, "Killed by a Traffic Engineer," has stimulated fierce debates. Are his criticisms justified? Let’s examine the degree that traffic engineers contribute to avoidable traffic deaths.

Study: Housing Crisis is About Affordability, not Supply
New research shows that there is no overall shortage of housing units, but all U.S. metropolitan areas face a severe lack of affordable units for low-income renters.

Are Race-Based Lawsuits Affecting Community Lenders?
Shelterforce spoke with community lending leaders and experts about the current mood across the sector. What, if anything, are organizations doing to avoid becoming the next target of conservative activists?

New Park Promotes Community and Connectivity in Lewisville, Texas
The city of Lewisville just celebrated the opening of Glory Park/Parque la Gloria, helping to improve park access and the quality of life for residents.
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