Re: [CPEO-BIF] Santa Clarita article and Brownfield policy

[Peter Strauss <petestrauss1@comcast.net>]

Larry:

Doesn't NJ have a law requiring that sites be cleaned up before they  
are abandoned or transferred?  I recall seeing it years back.  It may  
have applied to only industrial users of a certain size.

Peter
On May 18, 2009, at 9:15 AM, Schnapf, Lawrence wrote:

> How is it that in the 21st century property owners and operators are
> still allowed to abandon property without first having to remediate  
> the
> sites?
>
> When the brownfield movement arose in the mid-1990s, the justification
> for those programs was that liability concerns and uncertainty over
> cleanup costs had contributed to the creation of brownfields.  
> However, I
> believe that justification was premised more on lore and unexamined
> assumptions. The real reason for the creation of brownfields was  
> because
> property owners were allowed to abandon property without being  
> required
> to remediate the sites.
>
> There seems to have been almost a mythological belief that has been
> built up over the past decade that it is the costs to remediate
> brownfield sites that is impeding redevelopment. However, if the
> empirical information coming from the New York BCP is representative  
> of
> the rest of the country, the cleanup costs for brownfield sites are  
> only
> 1%-5% of the potential redevelopment value-with most of the sites
> bundled around 1%. These costs hardly represent "material" liability  
> or
> cost (which is the term routinely used in transactions) and would seem
> to be insufficient to  "complicate" redevelopment. In many cases, the
> remediation costs are simply a "delta" over the construction costs.
>
> New York now requires the projected development costs to be calculated
> and disclosed by applicants seeking to enroll in the BCP. I would
> suggest that this might be useful for all states and even the  
> government
> so that they can focus these precious resources on sites or projects
> where the remedial costs truly material.
>
> It also seems to me that to prevent future creation of brownfields,  
> what
> we really need are tougher laws requiring owners/operators to
> investigate,disclose and remediate contamination before they may  
> legally
> close down operations. Companies are required to provide employees  
> with
> 60 days advance notice before they may close a plant under federal and
> state WARN acts. Maybe we need environmental WARN acts as well.
>
> Larry
>
> P.S. Of course, if someone is aware of empirical data showing that
> brownfield remediation costs are material to redevelopment of those
> sites, I'd appreciate if you would point me to those studies.
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: brownfields-bounces@lists.cpeo.org
> [mailto:brownfields-bounces@lists.cpeo.org] On Behalf Of Lenny Siegel
> Sent: Monday, May 18, 2009 11:51 AM
> To: Brownfields Internet Forum
> Subject: [CPEO-BIF] Park at Special Devices site, Santa Clarita,
> California
>
> Caution urged with park site
> Contaminated property will require special signage, critic says
>
> By Brian Charles
> Santa Clarita Signal (CA)
> May 17, 2009
>
> A city plan to buy a piece of contaminated land near Placerita  
> Canyon is
>
> drawing criticism. It's also drawing comparisons to another infamous
> toxic-waste site.
>
> The city of Santa Clarita plans to spend $2.5 million to buy the
> 140-acre Special Devices site near Placerita Canyon, said Rick Gould,
> city of Santa Clarita park director. The site was the home to Special
> Devices Inc. The company manufactured explosives for the air bags used
> in automotive safety systems, and explosive release charges for the
> doors on the Mercury space capsules, Gould said.
>
> When Special Devices abandoned the site in 1999, the company left  
> behind
>
> a site with contaminated soil, said Ken Paine, project manager for the
> California Department of Toxic Substance Control.
>
> ...
>
> According to the Resources Conservation and Recovery Act study  
> published
>
> in December, the contamination in the soil was enough to prohibit
> home-building, but not enough to stop the city from turning the site
> into open space.
>
> ...
>
> For the entire article, see
> http://www.the-signal.com/news/article/13336/
>
> --
>
>
> 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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