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| Brownfields Weekly |
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October 11, 2001 THIS WEEK:
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Davis-Bacon Act Derails Brownfields Bill in Congress WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Brownfields bill, H.R. 2869, was pulled from the House calendar after a dispute over labor wage rates in the Davis-Bacon Act, reports the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). Sources say the overwhelmingly supported Brownfields bill will not see further action until next year. One of the first environmental initiatives of the Bush Administration, the Brownfields Bill came under fire from labor officials, who wanted the EPA to clarify in writing that the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act apply to all programs under the bill. The Davis-Bacon Act required that workers on a federal construction site be paid the area's prevailing wage rate. H.R. 2869 combined two separate bills: S. 350, a brownfields bill passed by the Senate by 99-0 in April; and, H.R. 1831, a Superfund liability measure passed by the House 419-0 in May. H.R. 2869 would have authorized up to $250 million per year for five years to clean up industrial sites, while at the same time transferring some of the oversight authority from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to the states. In addition, the bill would have limited the liability of small business owners and others who contributed minimal amounts of waste to a Superfund site.
New Administrators Appointed to EPA's Region 9 and OSWER
WASHINGTON, D.C. - EPA Administrator Christie Whitman appointed Wayne Nastri, a longtime environmental consultant and entrepeneur, as the new administrator of the agency's Region 9 office in San Francisco, which covers California, Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii and the Pacific Islands. For the past six years, Nastri has served as the president of Environmental Mediation, Inc., a Southern California firm that advises clients on issues such as compliance audits, third party reviews and remedial project oversight. He specialized in air and water quality issues as well as hazardous waste investigation and remediation issues. Prior to establishing Environmental Mediation, Inc., Nastri was the vice president of the Jefferson Group, a government public affairs firm, and has also founded and worked at numerous other environmental businesses. He has served on a number of government and private advisory committees and bodies, including: the Governor of California's appointee to the Governing Board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District; a post on the external advisory committee for the California Department of Toxic Substances Control; and he currently serves as the legislative director for the California Environmental Business Council. Nastri has written and had published a variety of papers dealing with environmental audits, regulatory agencies and environmental mediation. In other appointment news, Marianne Lamont Horinko was confirmed as Assistant Administrator of U.S. EPA for the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER).
Study Links Brownfields Redevelopment, Greenfields Preservation ANN ARBOR, Michigan - Urban wastelands and rural landscapes may seem to have little in common. But revitalizing one can help preserve the other. That’s the guiding premise behind a recently completed project titled "Bridges: Linking Brownfields Redevelopment and Greenfields Protection for Sustainable Development." The project, a collaborative effort by the Great Lakes Commission, the National Wildlife Federation and the Council of Great Lakes Industries outlines a series of coordinated strategies to encourage urban renewal and reduce development pressures on farmlands, woods and other open spaces. The initiative was funded by the C.S. Mott Foundation. "This report responds directly to the Great Lakes Commission’s goal of promoting responsible land use through brownfields redevelopment and greenfields preservation," said Nat Robinson, Chairman of the Great Lakes Commission’s Board of Directors. "It gives our member jurisdictions a tool to evaluate current policies and offers fresh ideas for more efficient and sustainable land development and protection." More than two years of effort went into the Bridges project, so named because it was designed to build links between greenfields protection and brownfields redevelopment efforts among the public, private and non-profit sectors in the eight U.S. states and two Canadian provinces of the Great Lakes region. The final report is an in-depth examination of the issues involved and outlines a series of tools that governments and private entities can choose from in devising their own protection and redevelopment strategies. Numerous strategies have been developed for brownfields redevelopment and greenfields protection, but their implementation throughout the Great Lakes region has been uneven. Efforts are often fragmented, with business, policy and community leaders focusing either on preserving agricultural lands and open space or redeveloping urban areas, but rarely coordinating the two. The Bridges project identified, researched and analyzed policies for brownfields redevelopment and greenfields protection in place throughout the United States and Canada, including many in the Great Lakes region. Its centerpiece is a set of 32 strategic actions that are considered to be effective tools for preserving open space and redeveloping urban land. A web site on sustainable land use issues was developed as part of the project and is integrated with online clearinghouses of information on greenfields redevelopment and brownfields protection. The Bridges project was initiated in 1998, building upon recommendations issued by the President’s Council on Sustainable Development and earlier work by the Great Lakes Commission. Copies of the report are available through the Commission. For more
information on the Bridges report, please visit:
USTfields Pilot Deadline Extended to November 19, 2001 WASHINGTON, D.C. - The deadline for USTfields Pilot proposals has been extended to Monday, November 19, 2001. The EPA announced earlier this year that it will provide $4 million to as many as 40 Pilot projects for cleaning up contamination from underground storage tanks around the U.S. States, territories, federally-recognized Indian Tribes and intertribal consortiums are invited by the EPA to compete for the USTfields Pilots. Each selected Pilot will receive up to $100,000 in Leaking Underground Storage Tank Trust Fund monies. The chosen Pilots will be announced by the end of the year. For the USTfields
Program Proposal Guidelines and information, please visit:
City Makes Great Strides in Removing Hazardous Tanks From the 1960's through the mid-1990's, 2759 West Washington Street in Chicago was home to a gas station and auto repair shop. When the vacated shop was demolished in 1999 by the City of Chicago, they found and removed eight underground storage tanks, each filled with 100 to 6,000 gallons of fuel. Until the mid 1980's, most underground storage tanks were made of bare-steel. This metal corrodes over time, allowing the contents of the tank to leak. The greatest potential hazard from a leaking underground storage tank is that the petroleum or other hazardous substance can seep into the soil and groundwater -- the source of drinking water for nearly half of all Americans. Not only that, leaking tanks pose another serious risk: the chance of catching fire and exploding. Because the West Washington property was determined to be a threat to public health and safety, the site became the city's highest priority for Illinois' $100,000 USTfields grant, awarded in 2000. The city pursued the gas station owner to recover the costs associated with the West Washington cleanup. When that proved unsuccessful, the city took control of the site. During the removal of the eight tanks, they found that the tanks had indeed leaked. Soil testing confirmed the presence of petroleum, and soil excavation was begun. Then, during the excavation phase, another heating oil tank was discovered and removed. Despite the scope of the cleanup effort, the Chicago Pilot has made great strides in only a year. The city has finished site assessment, preliminary cleanup, and excavation of a portion of the contaminated soil. To keep neighborhood residents safe, the city fenced the property, and both the state and Chicago have a cleanup strategy planned for the remaining soil that will be funded by the Pilot. If funds remain in the Pilot after the completion of the West Washington remediation, four additional abandoned gas stations in Chicago have been targeted for cleanup. When the Washington site is finally clean, the developer involved will build affordable housing on the former abandoned gas station. |