Risk Communication: Lessons Learned from Stakeholders in the United States

This manuscript describes risk communication in brownfields communities and features two case studies. The first case study highlights a former air force base, K. I. (Kevin Ingalls) Sawyer, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the Lake Superior basin. The base closed in 1995 and the re-branded town of K. I. Sawyer struggles to find its image and purpose as a community. The primarily low-income community was concerned about a plume of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in groundwater, potentially contaminated soil in their baseball fields, and lead paint on the interior and exterior of vacant residential brownfields. The second case study features the City of Benton Harbor, Michigan. Once a thriving harbor city, it currently is navigating a burden of multiple brownfields, vacant properties, and the aftermath of a lead water crisis. In 2016, lead-lined water service lines began to fail, releasing lead into drinking water, leading to community outrage and concern from 2019–2023. The city’s lead water crisis made national news. By 2023, the community felt the need to build their capacity to navigate conversations with local government and to obtain funding for community revitalization.