[CPEO-BIF] Bridgeport hears about Connecticut's environmental laws

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Forum: Develop brownfields to revive city

by Brad Durrell
Bridgeport News (CT)
24 September 24, 2009

Turning a negative into a positive.

That was the push of last week's Bridgeport Brownfields Summit, attended 
by a room full of developers, commercial real estate brokers, business 
representatives, environmental experts and government officials.

....

Robert Bell, from the state Department of Environmental Protection's 
Remediation Division, said the state is making cleanup rules more 
flexible so remediation is a more practical option.

"We have to reduce hurdles," Bell said. "We want to provide more tools 
and flexibility."

Officials said contaminated land now can sometimes be capped and then 
buildings or parking lots put on top of it, acting as a barrier to 
contain the pollution below the surface level. This eliminates the need 
to remove, and dispose of, large amounts of contaminated soil.

Under a new state law, the new owner of any property abandoned for at 
least a decade cannot be held liable for off-site pollution such as 
groundwater contamination. That eliminates uncertainty, Bell said.


....

For the entire article, see
http://www.acorn-online.com/joomla15/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=37553:forum-develop-brownfields-to-revive-city&catid=147:local-news&Itemid=1429

--


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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