Re: [CPEO-BIF] "Brownfields widespread, confidential Ohio industrialpollution li

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Arizona's position, like Ohio's, is unacceptable! Contamination, not
publicity, is responsible for a decline in property value. Concealing it
- even concealing past contamination that has been removed - is
essentially fraud. It's like selling a car with a defective
transmission. If the property is in bad shape, the value should reflect
its condition. The way to restore the value is to restore the condition
of the property - to clean it up.

I've heard for years that there is a powerful "stigma" resulting from
the listing contaminated property, but my experience is the opposite. I
live in Silicon Valley, among perhaps the largest concentration of
Superfund National Priorities List sites in the country. Our property
values - for comparable housing - are also among the highest in the
country. I believe that listing - a key part of a response process that
convinced the public that something was being done to protect our
families and our property - was essential to keeping this a desirable
place to live.

Lenny


willis-frances.ren@ev.state.az.us wrote:
> 
> Arizona doesn't have a law forbidding a listing of Brownfields, so far as
> I know.  Still we do not try to list Brownfields properties.  The reason we
> give is that such a list could adversely influence property values of both
> Brownfields sites and adjacent sites.
> 
> Ren Willis-frances
> Arizona Department of Environmental Quality
> willis-frances.ren@ev.state.az.us
> 


-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 222B View St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/968-1126
lsiegel@cpeo.org
http://www.cpeo.org

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