[CPEO-BIF] EPA's March 17 listening session is an opportunity

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

U.S. EPA's "Listening Session" on the All Appropriate Inquiries (AAI) 
Rule, governing non-intrusive environmental site assessments, is three 
weeks away. (9:30 a.m. to noon on March 17, 2010 at room 1153 of the EPA 
East Building at 1201 Constitution Ave. NW, Washington D.C). I encourage 
participants in the Brownfields Internet Forum, as well as others, to 
attend: to engage in what I hope will be the first stage of a dialogue 
to improve the EPA Rule, which was published in the Federal Register on 
November 1, 2005.

I was a member of the Negotiated Rulemaking Committee that developed the 
Rule, and I believe that it was a significant step forward. The 
performance-based approach that forms its core is a win-win solution 
that now helps to better identify potential environmental problems with 
only minimal increases in assessment costs.

Nevertheless, except in states where there are additional statutory 
requirements, the AAI process remains unsatisfactory in terms of public 
notification that a site assessment is being undertaken, public 
involvement in the collection of information, and public disclosure of 
the results.

It is my hope that those elements of the Rule can be improved, be it by 
revision of the rule, federal legislation, or state legislation and/or 
regulation. I recognize that many well-meaning participants in 
Brownfields redevelopment view such proposals as a threat to the entire 
Brownfields process, likely to kill deals that lead to additional 
environmental protection.

I see the March 17 event as an opportunity to try to reach common 
ground, to bring the public into the process without "killing the goose 
that laid the golden egg."

Before the Rule was finalized, I prepared a "A Stakeholder's Guide to 
'All Appropriate Inquiries,'" available at 
http://www.cpeo.org/brownfields/SGAAI.pdf. It describes the rule and 
offers the following summary of my concerns:

"Unless the Phase One is being conducted in compliance with another 
environmental program, there is no requirement to ask for public input, 
or even to notify the public that a site assessment is underway. 
Furthermore, while the parties conducting the Inquiries may conduct 
sampling to meet the assessment's performance objectives, sampling is 
not required.

"These limitations are insignificant at most sites where there is no or 
little contamination. But at sites where it appears that human health 
and the environment are at serious risk, communities must demand that 
environmental regulatory agencies become actively involved.

"The Brownfields concept, which uses the demand for property reuse to 
promote the screening and remediation of blighted properties, can 
promote the protection of human health and the environment. But unless 
affected communities participate directly in the oversight of 
Brownfields activities, they risk the likelihood that developers and 
local agencies will simply sweep environmental problems 'under the rug.' 
The ... All Appropriate Inquiries rule can be a tool to ensure that 
environmental protection accompanies property redevelopment, but this is 
more likely to happen if the public is part of the process."

Lenny

--


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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