Different approaches are necessary when community-based participatory research (CBPR) of environmental illness is initiated after an environmental disaster within a community. Often such events are viewed as golden scientific opportunities to do epidemiological studies. However, the authors believe that in such circumstances, community engagement and empowerment needs to be integrated into the public health service efforts in order for both those and any science to be successful, with special care being taken to address the immediate health needs of the community first, rather than the pressing needs to answer important scientific questions. The authors will demonstrate how they have simultaneously provided valuable public health service, embedded generalizable scientific knowledge, and built a successful foundation for supplemental CBPR through their on-going recovery work after the chlorine gas disaster in Graniteville, South Carolina.