[CPEO-BIF] Love Canal legacy stymies reuse of brownfields

["Hersh, Robert" <hersh@WPI.EDU>]

Buffalo has 165 ex-industrial acres it has identified as ripe for development

The Buffalo News
April 5, 2007
By Fred O. Williams 

Buffalo is starting to knock the rust off its long-dormant industrial sites
and turn them into homes for new ventures.

But the effort is hampered by ignorance about new, rust-busting development
tools that help pay for pollution cleanup.

Also holding the region back are memories of its notorious brownfields
disaster.

"When you think 'brownfield' you tend to think 'Love Canal,' " said Chris
Johnston, a senior official in Buffalo's economic development department.

Fears of chemical contamination, whether grounded or not, continue to block
the reuse of land that held steelmakers and other factories in Buffalo's
industrial heyday.

That was the consensus at a panel discussion Wednesday that brought together
experts from state and local government, real estate developers and insurers.

For the entire article, see:
http://www.buffalonews.com/145/story/47301.html

Bob Hersh
CPEO

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