Brownfields and Contaminated Lands
Brownfields are former industrial sites that are vacant or
underutilised because of environmental cleanup fears. In real terms they
are properties which owners keep off the market, municipalities won’t
take through eminent domain, and bankers avoid making loans on because of
cleanup liability fear.
Policies should be adopted for the returning of
abandoned or under-used sites to productive prosperous use and the
investigation and cleanup of environmental contamination and the
redevelopment of contaminated properties.
Brownfield
redevelopment means new building on former industrial and transport sites,
or complete renovation of existing plant for non-industrial use. Until
recently, this was usually for the service sector: many offices, some
shops, hotels and conference centres.
Subdivision of old industrial plant, for new industrial users, is
not brownfield redevelopment. Brownfield
residential redevelopment is a new pattern, in regions with relative land
shortage. Usually, it implies a suburban style of development on a
cleared site, but with higher density than true suburban housing.
Brownfields
cleanup projects can play a central role in urban and rural revitalization
and offer alternatives to new, greenfields developments. For many years, brownfields programs focused on cleanup of
older industrial sites without consideration of the broader growth goals
of the community or region. Today, however, brownfields are being seen as
key components of state growth management initiatives. There is a
compelling economic case for state spending on brownfields. A dollar of
state spending produces about 10 times to 100 times more dollars in
economic benefits. Expanding the mission of brownfields justifies greater
state spending.
http://web.inter.nl.net/users/Paul.Treanor/gasfab.html
http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/aw/rr/rbrownfields/index.htm
http://bri.gsa.gov/brownfields/home
http://www.nga.org/center/divisions/1,1188,C_ISSUE_BRIEF%5ED_306,00.html
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The
revitalization of communities involves more than the reuse of old
buildings. Redevelopment encompasses a wide array of socio-economic and a
land use issue, all of which must be addressed if a community is to be
revitalized.
Brownfields properties tend to be concentrated in older
urban areas inhabited by peoples of colour or low-income people of all
ethnic backgrounds. Concerns
raised by people from urban brownfields communities should be addressed.
Territorial, tribal, and rural representatives should be engaged in
this process and add their concerns to the list.
Brownfields revitalization is an environmental justice issue, and
all stakeholders should work to overcome the barriers to public
involvement as well as to address the concentration of environmental
problems typically present in such communities.
All brownfields stakeholders should aggressively pursue strategies
that deliver equity to those who are most affected by brownfields
properties.
http://bri.gsa.gov/brownfields/home
http://www.cpeo.org/index.html
http://www.cpeo.org/pubs/reccom.html
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Brownfields projects can influence nearby communities in
many ways. They can remove health hazards and visible blight, or they can
simply provide window dressing under the guise of institutional controls.
They can bring in new polluting industries to the sites of old ones; they
can trigger gentrification that looks good but drives the old neighbours
out; or they can provide new business and housing opportunities to
long-time residents. They can generate traffic, or they can bring new
transportation options. They can provide new jobs, or they can aggravate
economic disparities.
Today, at most brownfields sites, the people who are
most affected have little influence over which of these outcomes prevail.
Environmental decisions - or at least sign-off - are the responsibility of
state regulators, with local health agencies playing a supporting role.
Land use planning is generally a prerogative of local governments, which
usually answer to an electorate much larger than the affected
neighbourhood. Financing may be controlled by redevelopment agencies, the
private sector, or a mix of public and private entities. Given the
concentration of brownfields in poor communities, the neighbours rarely
have the resources to influence investment decisions.
To the affected public, the combined process of
environmental cleanup and economic revitalization is at best bewildering.
Agencies and companies, often with conflicting or at least disparate goals
and objectives, often take actions without considering the views or
interests of the people who live next door, downstream, downwind, or
up-traffic. To achieve the lofty goals inherent in the brownfields
concept, it's essential to bring public stakeholders into the
decision-making process early in the project development process, and to
keep them involved until completion. Though many developers are suspicious
of community activists, a constructive program of public involvement
actually promotes more successful projects.
http://www.cpeo.org/pubs/comadv.html
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For successful
brownfield redevelopment, the interested parties or
"stakeholders" need to come together to identify interests,
conflicts and problems. At the very minimum, interested parties will
include:
 | Property
owner and, if it exists, operator; |
| Brownfield
redeveloper; |
| The
lender or financial backer; |
| The
regulators (state, and in some cases, federal); |
| Local
government planning and redevelopment agencies; and |
| Representatives
from the affected community. |
Together the stakeholders can develop a strategy to
productively use contaminated property. They can work together to clean up
and redevelop contaminated properties, revitalize communities, create
jobs, prevent urban sprawl and make a significant contribution to their
country, region or city.
http://www.brownfield.org
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The cleanup is performed, in part, to accommodate the
future use of the site (i.e., a parking lot has different cleanup
standards than a school). In
general, three options are evaluated: leave contamination in place and
monitor, treat the contamination in place and monitor the cleanup, or
completely remove the contamination.
Especially on larger sites, a combination of these techniques is
generally employed.
In general, the entity that causes the pollution has to pay for the
cleanup. Often, however, sites are abandoned and it is difficult or
impossible to track down past owners or users, or the contamination is so
old that the source of it is unknown.
In these cases, there should be new funding sources and programs to
assist new owners working to resolve environmental issues and redevelop.
http://www.uvm.edu/~empact/land/brownfields.php3
Evaluating the Risk: Risk Assessment
All risk
assessments must consider existing and reasonably likely future human
exposure and significant adverse effects to ecological receptors in the
locality of the facility. Risk
assessment issues could be:
| Existing and
reasonably likely future human exposures and significant adverse
effects to ecological receptors; |
| Estimates of
plausible upper-bound exposures that neither grossly underestimate nor
grossly overestimate risks; |
| The range of
probabilities of risks actually occurring, the range of populations
likely to be exposed, current and reasonably likely future land uses,
and quantitative and qualitative descriptions of uncertainties; |
| Criteria for
the selection and application of fate and transport models |
| High-end and
central-tendency exposure cases and assumptions; |
| Individual
risk estimates and population risk estimates |
| Approaches for addressing cumulative risks posed by
multiple contaminants or multiple pathways |
http://www.brownfield.org
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| Brownfields
redevelopment should foster healthy communities throughout the city
and region. This can best be achieved by devising and following
effective participatory planning processes that identify redevelopment
priorities, build local capacity, and stipulate leadership in all
sectors. |
| Public
incentives for greenfield development should not outweigh incentives
for recycling brownfields. Redevelopment of brownfield areas will
reduce the need for new infrastructure in outlying areas, conserve
environmentally sensitive areas, and otherwise save the costs of
sprawl. |
| Engaging
the private sector and expanding market resources are critical to
brownfield redevelopment. |
| Effective
strategies require strong partnerships among government, communities,
and the private sector. Cooperation is the only way serious progress
will be made. |
| Public
brownfield expenditures should:
Address
sites that would not be redeveloped without government participation;
Redevelop
disadvantaged areas, especially where environmental justice is a
concern;
Focus on
areas where brownfield reuse will likely catalyse additional
development;
Create and
retain jobs;
Maximize
public benefit. |
| To
prevent the spread of brownfields and to foster sustainable
communities, redevelopment efforts should seek to attract
environmentally sound industries; |
| Brownfield
redevelopment cannot solve the city’s environmental, economic
development, and social problems. Brownfield initiatives should be
viewed as one important component of a comprehensive strategy for
revitalizing urban communities and coordinated with other local,
state, and federal planning and policy development efforts. |
| In
areas where contamination is widespread, brownfield redevelopment
should seek to leverage broader, integrated strategies for promoting
viable, long-term, area-wide development. |
| Environmental
cleanup standards must be clarified to accommodate a full range of
land use options Cleanup and land use decisions must consider
community-wide issues. |
| A
large-scale brownfield redevelopment program should be based on
knowledge and experience gained through pilot efforts and tests of
innovative approaches and tools. |
| While
industrial redevelopment should be the top priority of the city’s
brownfield redevelopment pilot program, the city and other interests
should explore other reuse options that meet community development
goals. |
http://www.brownfield.org
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The complicated process and legal hurdles of acquiring,
cleaning and reusing brownfields sites can be expensive in terms of site
preparation expenses and fees, and costly in terms of time delays.
Site evaluation processes, testing, possible legal liabilities, and
other factors serve to deter private participation in activities to bring
old industrial sites back to productive use.
In many situations, the private development and financial sectors
are not able or willing to act on their own to ensure that the full
economic potential of site reuse will be achieved.
This is because of the following factors:
| Uncertain
Costs and Timelines: Cleanup costs can range from next to nothing up
into the millions, depending on the extent and nature of the problem
and the cleanup standards established. Buyers, lenders and investors
need to quantify their risks and costs and pin down project timelines
in order to evaluate proposals and to make projects succeed. The
environmental variables associated with brownfields complicate this
task. |
| Access
to Capital: Financial institutions are reluctant to make loans
associated with potentially contaminated properties for three reasons.
First, lenders fear that unexpected cleanup liability could bankrupt
borrowers and thus jeopardize the loan. Second, these properties make
undesirable collateral. In the event of a borrower’s failure to pay
back a loan, the bank could end up taking title to contaminated
property. Third, the law is unclear as to the circumstances under
which lenders who engage in workouts with borrowers to help them avoid
default can themselves be sued as operators of a hazardous waste site.
All this can have a chilling effect on the availability of capital for
redevelopment. |
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Private Sector Financing
| Responsible
parties. Prior to redevelopment, many sites are cleaned up by the
party responsible for the environmental contamination. |
| Purchasers.
Often times a property can be cleaned up by the new property owner
when a responsible party could not be identified or held accountable,
or where the party was financially insolvent. |
| Commercial
Banks. Many banks are reluctant to loan money on brownfield projects
until remedial work at the site has been certified as complete.
However, banks are increasingly exploring the role of lending
on contaminated property, and many will do so. |
| Foundations.
Private foundations may be sources of money for cleanup and
redevelopment. |
Public Sector Incentives
The public sector can do much to help level the economic
playing field between greenfield and brownfield sites. Creatively crafted
and carefully targeted incentives and assistance can help advance cleanup
and reuse activities.
http://www.brownfield.org
Funding to Cleaning Up Contamination
| The
companies or agencies responsible for causing the contamination if
they are economically viable, particularly if the state has a strong
program which assigns them strict liability for their contamination; |
| Special
cleanup funds created by state or local governments; |
| Public
funds established to finance the redevelopment of depressed economic
areas; |
| Tax
incentives established under special federal, state, or local
programs; and |
| The
future developer (depending upon the value of the site and the cost of
cleaning up the contamination). |
http://www.brownfieldsnet.org/bfinancing.htm
Funding The New Development
| The
future developer; |
| Banks
or other investors, particularly if they have some corporate
commitment to invest in urban redevelopment; |
| Public
funds established to finance the redevelopment of depressed economic
areas, to create public areas such as parks, or for other special
purposes; and |
| Tax
incentives established under special federal, state, or local
programs. |
http://www.brownfieldsnet.org/bfinancing.htm
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Related Web Sites
Brownfields Non Profit Network
http://www.brownfieldsnet.org/
Financing Brownfield Cleanup and Redevelopment
By Charles Bartsch
http://www.brownfieldsnet.org/bbartsch.htm
Coming Clean for Economic Development
http://www.nemw.org/cmclean.htm
A Resource Book
on Environmental Cleanup and Economic Development Opportunities,
ISBN: 1-882061-59-4
By:
Charles Bartsch, Senior Policy Analyst, Economic
Development
Elizabeth Collaton, Senior Policy Analyst,
Pollution Prevention and Waste Reduction
Edith Pepper, Policy Analyst, Brownfields Research
National Governors Association Online
http://www.nga.org/center/divisions/1,1188,C_ISSUE_BRIEF%5ED_306,00.html
NGA Center for Best Practices
This report discusses the success of brownfields programs that attack
sprawl in five states: Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, and
Pennsylvania.
New Mission for Brownfields
http://www.nga.org/cda/files/REPORT200010BROWNFIELDS.pdf
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/aw/rr/rbrownfields/index.htm
USA General Services Administration (GSA)
Landlord and real estate agent for the federal
government. GSA launched the Brownfields Redevelopment Initiative to
identify and redeploys under-utilised federal properties
http://bri.gsa.gov/brownfields/home
The Centre for Public Environmental Oversight (CPEO)
CPEO promotes
and facilitates public participation in the oversight of environmental
activities at federal facilities, private "Superfund" sites, and
Brownfields
http://www.cpeo.org/index.html
Clean up to Build up
The
Winston-Salem Brownfields Program
http://www.brownfieldsw-snc.org/index.html
Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative
http://www.epa.gov/swerosps/bf/topics.htm
The North Carolina Brownfields
The North Carolina Brownfields Program encourages the
safe reuse of abandoned properties that have some measure of environmental
impairment.
http://www.ncbrownfields.org/
The Brownfields 2002 Conference:
Investing in the Future
This conference will introduce a new and enlarged
Brownfields program inspired by federal legislation signed on January 11,
2002. The Conference will be
November 13-15, 2002 in Charlotte, North Carolina at The Charlotte
Convention Centre.
http://www.brownfields2002.org/
National Brownfield Association
The National
Brownfield Association, established in June, 1999, is a nonprofit
organisation dedicated to stimulating brownfield redevelopment by
providing information resources and educational programs.
http://www.brownfieldassociation.org/default.htm
Nine Mile Run Greenway Project
Conversations in
the Brownfields into Greenways
Pittsburgh, PA
http://slaggarden.cfa.cmu.edu
ROBIN - The Great Lakes Regional Online
Brownfields Information Network
"Recycling Land For A Sustainable Future"
http://www.glc.org/robin/index.html
The Brownfields Centre
Carnegie Mellon
University and The University of Pittsburgh
The Brownfields Centre (TBC) was founded on the
recognized need to integrate multiple disciplines to realize potential
benefits from revitalizing idle industrial sites. http://www.ce.cmu.edu/Brownfields/home.htm
Brownfields Revitalization Systems Synthesis
Project
A study of stakeholder roles in development
decision making conducted by the H John Heinz III School of Public Policy
and Management at Carnegie Mellon University.
http://www.ce.cmu.edu/Brownfields/nsf/HSBP.pdf
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