RE: [CPEO-MEF] Unexploded Arms Require Big Cleanup At 16,000 U.S. Sites

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

The following was posted as a response to Mr. Vernon Brechin's posting 
of 12-03-02 from someone within the DOE Office of Long-Term Stewardship.


The June 2002 Draft of the Department of Energy Long-term Stewardship 
Strategic Plan included a discussion of the number of potential 
brownfield
sites to place the DOE cleanup and long-term stewardship efforts within 
the broader context of the national approach(es) to managing 
institutional
controls, and the re-use of property.  Our research provided a wide 
variety of estimates regarding the number of "brownfields" sites across 
the
nation, from 130,000 at the Envirotools website to "as many as 650,000 
sites" in a report sponsored by the US EPA.  The use of the phrase "over 
400,000
sites" may be modified in the next draft to fully represent the range of 
estimated sites and we will include a reference in the next draft of the 
Long-term
Stewardship Strategy. I have attached some of the references used for 
the Draft.  I hope this clarifies.



"... there are estimated to be more than 450,000 brownfields sites 
nationwide." S. Rep. No. 107-2, 107th Cong., 1st Sess. 3 (2001),
Brownfields  Revitalization and Environmental Restoration Act of 2001.

"The GAO estimates there are approximately 400,000 to 600,000  
brownfields properties in the US" Clean Air and Brownfields Report, The 
US
Conference of Mayors (December 2001) at pg. 11.

"It has been estimated that as many as 650,000 brownfield sites exist in 
the United States and that the total cost of restoring these
sites to productive use may be in excess of $650 billion." Public 
Policies and Private Decisions Affecting the Redevelopment of 
Brownfields: An Analysis
of Critical Factors, Relative Weights and Areal Differentials, US EPA 
(September 2001).

"Estimates suggest that there are over 430,000 brownfields nationwide." 
Simons, R. 1998. Turning Brownfields into Greenbacks. Urban
Land Institute, Washington, DC.

"Around 130,000-450,000 contaminated commercial and industrial sites 
blight the United States," website,
http://www.envirotools.org/factsheets/brownfields.shtml

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