Brooklyn, as any regular reader of this site knows, is home to a fast-growing, increasingly influential tech community. It is also home to two Superfund sites: in other words, places so contaminated with hazardous substances that they’ve received special designation from the Environmental Protection Agency.

So how do those two attributes intersect? Enter Public Lab, a community science nonprofit that brings together residents interested in addressing environmental issues and experts who help them carry out environmental investigations.

Public Lab was founded in response to the catastrophic 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, in which volunteers used aerial mapping to photograph areas that were barred to journalists. Since then, the group has launched chapters worldwide, and one of its most active has been here in New York City.

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE