[CPEO-BIF] New York City forms Office of Environmental Remediation

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PR- 218-08
June 9, 2008

MAYOR BLOOMBERG ANNOUNCES CREATION OF OFFICE OF ENVIRONMENTAL 
REMEDIATION AND OUTLINES NECESSARY REFORM MEASURES TO OVERHAUL NEW 
YORK'S BROWNFIELD CLEANUP PROGRAM

New Office Will Lead City's Expansion of Brownfield Identification and 
Cleanup Efforts as Outlined in PlaNYC and Work with State on Instituting 
Reform

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today announced the creation of the Office of 
Environmental Remediation (OER) to expedite the cleanup of contaminated 
brownfield sites throughout New York City as outlined in PlaNYC . The 
new office will create a new local brownfield program and work with 
communities and developers to help them navigate remediation processes. 
Mayor Bloomberg also outlined a series of reform measures for New York 
State's Brownfield Cleanup Program, including State authorization of the 
City to offer liability protection for Brownfield cleanups performed 
under City oversight. The Mayor was joined at the announcement, which 
took place at Edgewater Concrete Plant in the Bronx, by newly appointed 
OER Director Daniel Walsh, Director of the Mayor's Office of Operations 
Jeffrey Kay and Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe.

"Over the past six years, we have undertaken a comprehensive review and 
transformation of land-use in New York City, unlocking 
transit-accessible areas for new residential and commercial development, 
creating and enhancing parks and playgrounds and revitalizing more than 
60 miles of waterfront," said Mayor Bloomberg. "Cleaning our more than 
7,600 acres of contaminated sites and putting them to productive use is 
the critical next step in that effort. Our new Office of Environmental 
Remediation, led by Dan Walsh, will spearhead our plan to make that 
happen, but we can't do it alone. We need Albany to introduce a series 
of critical reforms to make brownfield remediation easier and more 
economical, and to ensure it is done with greater input from local 
communities."

...

For the entire press release, see
http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.c0935b9a57bb4ef3daf2f1c701c789a0/index.jsp?pageID=mayor_press_release&catID=1194&doc_name=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nyc.gov%2Fhtml%2Fom%2Fhtml%2F2008a%2Fpr218-08.html&cc=unused1978&rc=1194&ndi=1

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org



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