Salt of the Earth: House ponders brownfields legislation

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August 2001

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House ponders brownfields legislation
Abandoned or neglected urban sites of industrial contamination called brownfields dot the landscape of just about every major city in the country. The U.S. Conference of Mayors estimates the industrial eyesores are costing cities the possibility of 550,000 additional jobs and as much as $2.4 billion a year in tax revenues, a price the mayors aren't willing to pay anymore.

The city leaders say with federal assistance they can clean up and redevelop these sites. They helped push a $1 billion aid bill through the Senate on a 99 to 0 vote in April, and they're calling for quick approval of nearly identical legislation from the House.

J. Christian Bollwage, mayor of Elizabeth, N.J., testified before the House Subcommittee on Environment and Hazardous Materials in June. "It's clear the Senate found a way to reach broad agreement on these issues," Bollwage told the House members. "We urge this [Subcommittee] to work in the same spirit as the Senate to reach similar broad bipartisan agreements to allow this legislation to move forward."

Bollwage says a final House bill must include liability relief for those who clean up and develop the sites, an appropriate definition of a brownfield, funding for redevelopment, and clear guidelines for federal and state cooperation in brownfield cleanup. The Senate's legislation provides liability protection for developers and others who take on brownfield clean up, $100 million a year for five years for local government assessment and clean up efforts, and $50 million a year over the next five years specifically for petroleum-contaminated sites.

Liability protection is key to revitalizing the contaminated plots, the mayors say. Companies and individuals that might purchase or develop brownfields now shy away from the sites to avoid penalties associated with environmental pollution. The sites' owners could bear legal responsibility for environmental damage even if they didn't cause or contribute to it. The mayors say new protections would increase interest in the properties.

How the House defines brownfields will also be significant. Agreeing on a definition could prove tricky. Industrial companies would like high levels of pollution permitted under the term brownfield and therefore more opportunity for liability relief.

The Environmental Protection Agency describes brownfields as "abandoned, idled, or under-used industrial and commercial facilities where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination." In a 2000 Conference of Mayors report on brownfields in the United States, 210 cities estimated they had more than 21,000 such sites, ranging in size from a quarter of an acre to 1,300 acres. Brownfields are not the most contaminated sites in the country though, the Conference of Mayors says. The mayors want Congress's definition of a brownfield to exclude properties that qualify for the EPA's National Priority List, a grouping of the country's most polluted sites.

While the mayors are calling for quick action on the issue, discussions continue in the House Subcommittee on Environment and Hazardous Materials. So far there is no clear timetable for a vote. The mayors asked the House to adopt the Senate version if it cannot reach bipartisan agreement soon.—Anne Graber

For more information:
U.S. Conference of Mayors
Recycling America's Land—from the U.S. Conference of Mayors
Smart Growth Network on brownfield redevelopment
BrownfieldNews.com

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