[CPEO-BIF] "It May Again Become Easier to Build Schools on Brownfields" in Rhode Island

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Toxic Debate About Siting Schools on Brownfields

Rhode Island's most vulnerable populations, most notably inner-city  
children, seem to be the ones impacted when it comes developing on  
contaminated sites. A law that set stricter school building  
protections could be weakened.

By TIM FAULKNER and FRANK CARINI
ecoRI News staff
April 11, 2013

PROVIDENCE - Less than a year ago, Rhode Island passed a bill that  
prohibited the construction of schools on industrial waste sites  
where there is potential for toxic vapors to seep into classrooms.  
The law was proudly touted by both state officials and environmental  
justice advocates as the most stringent in the nation.

Now, two months before the law is even a year old, a movement is  
underway to gut it.

In fact, one of the law's most avid supporters, the state Department  
of Environmental Management (DEM), recently submitted testimony in  
favor of the two sister bills looking to, in the words of those who  
spent three years getting the 2012 version passed, diminish the law’s  
effectiveness.

Opponents recently came out in force against bills (H5617 and S520)  
that would allow construction of schools on contaminated industrial  
sites where there could be potential vapor intrusion.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.ecori.org/front-page-journal/2013/4/11/toxic-debate-about- 
siting-schools-on-brownfields.html

--

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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