[CPEO-BIF] Changes mooted to NY State brownfield program

["Robert Hersh" <b_hersh@verizon.net>]

Brownfield cleanups criticized
Health dangers still present after some work, environmentalists say

By Tom Wilber
Press & Sun-Bulletin

ALBANY -- New York's program to clean up contaminated sites is so lax that
polluted land is still a health danger even after it has been "cleaned,"
some environmentalists charge. "Public funds should not be used to subsidize
dirty cleanups," said Laura Haight of the New York Public Interest Research
Group. "A new survey of other states' brownfields programs showed that New
York has second-rate standards for many chemicals that are not protective of
children and drinking water," said Anne Rabe of the National Center for
Health, Environment and Justice, an organization founded in 1980 in the wake
of the Love Canal toxic-waste disaster in Niagara Falls. The advocates made
their comments Tuesday before a meeting of the Assembly and Senate
Environmental Conservation committees, which are considering changes to the
state's 4-year-old brownfields cleanup law.

...The cost of cleaning brownfields versus the financial return a company
can realize from doing business on them is ultimately what will decide their
fate, said Kenneth Kamlet, an attorney who specializes in Broome County
brownfield issues. Factored into the cost is legal liability that comes with
pollution issues. "You need to have a willingness to take on a site, but
being able to show the economic worth is critical," he said. Kamlet agreed
that any legislation "needs tweaking over time." But, regarding the existing
brownfield program, "I think there is much less wrong with this than
environmental groups are leading legislators to believe."

Rabe contends the law contained two significant compromises: developers were
held to relatively strict standards, in exchange for the nation's most
generous tax breaks: as much as 22 percent of the cost of the entire
project, not just the cost of cleaning up toxins. That has led to criticism
that a handful of developers of large projects are getting the bulk of the
benefits, leading to relatively little money being left for hundreds of
smaller projects that also qualify.

For the entire article, see:
http://www.pressconnects.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070927/NEWS01/7092
70369


Bob Hersh
CPEO



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