[CPEO-BIF] Leavitt Addresses Brownfields Conference

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

EPA seeks to ease redevelopment, official says

By Sara Shipley
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
September 20, 2004

The federal government is working to make it faster, cheaper and easier 
to redevelop polluted properties, the head of the Environmental 
Protection Agency said in St. Louis Monday.

EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt said a new rule he signed last month 
would help keep prospective property buyers from being unfairly held 
liable for pollution caused by a previous owner. In the past, an owner 
could be sued for damage caused years earlier, making some developers 
reluctant to consider sites that were less than pristine.

"The old way was mandate, regulate and litigate," Leavitt said. "The new 
way is collaborate, collaborate, collaborate."

Leavitt spoke during a national conference on brownfields, contaminated 
properties that often sit vacant for years. The free conference, which 
continues through Wednesday, drew about 5,000 people to America's Center 
downtown, itself a formerly polluted site that was turned into a 
convention center.

…

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--
Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org


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