![Soilcontam](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Soilcontam.JPG)
In
urban planning
Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, ...
, brownfield land is any previously developed land that is not currently in use. It may be potentially contaminated, but this is not required for the area to be considered brownfield. The term is also used to describe land previously used for industrial or commercial purposes with known or suspected
pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...
including
soil contamination
Soil contamination, soil pollution, or land pollution as a part of land degradation is caused by the presence of xenobiotic (human-made) chemicals or other alteration in the natural soil environment. It is typically caused by industrial activity ...
due to
hazardous waste.
Examples sites include abandoned
factories
A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. T ...
,
landfills
A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the waste ...
,
dry cleaning
Dry cleaning is any cleaning process for clothing and textiles using a solvent other than water.
Dry cleaning still involves liquid, but clothes are instead soaked in a water-free liquid solvent. Tetrachloroethylene (perchloroethylene), known i ...
establishments and
gas stations
A filling station, also known as a gas station () or petrol station (), is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold in the 2010s were gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel.
Gaso ...
. Typical contaminants include
hydrocarbon
In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrocarbons are examples of group 14 hydrides. Hydrocarbons are generally colourless and hydrophobic, and their odors are usually weak or ...
spillages,
solvent
A solvent (s) (from the Latin '' solvō'', "loosen, untie, solve") is a substance that dissolves a solute, resulting in a solution. A solvent is usually a liquid but can also be a solid, a gas, or a supercritical fluid. Water is a solvent for ...
s and
pesticides, as well as
heavy metals like
lead
Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...
,
tributyl tins and
asbestos.
Many contaminated brownfield sites sit unused for decades as
involuntary parks because cleaning cost is more than land worth after
redevelopment
Redevelopment is any new construction on a site that has pre-existing uses. It represents a process of land development uses to revitalize the physical, economic and social fabric of urban space.
Description
Variations on redevelopment include: ...
. Previously unknown underground wastes can increase the cost for study and clean-up. Acquisition, adaptive re-use, and disposal of a brownfield site requires advanced and specialized appraisal analysis techniques.
Remediation techniques include
in situ oxidation
In situ chemical oxidation (ISCO), a form of advanced oxidation process, is an environmental remediation technique used for soil and/or groundwater remediation to lower the concentrations of targeted environmental contaminants to acceptable leve ...
or thermal remediation,
bioremediation
Bioremediation broadly refers to any process wherein a biological system (typically bacteria, microalgae, fungi, and plants), living or dead, is employed for removing environmental pollutants from air, water, soil, flue gasses, industrial effluent ...
,
phytoremediation
Phytoremediation technologies use living plants to clean up soil, air and water contaminated with hazardous contaminants. It is defined as "the use of green plants and the associated microorganisms, along with proper soil amendments and agronom ...
, or
soil vapor extraction
Soil vapor extraction (SVE) is a physical treatment process for in situ remediation of volatile contaminants in vadose zone (unsaturated) soils (EPA, 2012). SVE (also referred to as in situ soil venting or vacuum extraction) is based on mass tran ...
.
Definition
Canada
Environment and Climate Change Canada
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC; french: Environnement et Changement climatique Canada),Environment and Climate Change Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of the Environment ...
defines brownfields as "abandoned, idle or underutilized commercial or industrial properties
ypically located in urban areaswhere past actions have caused environmental contamination, but which still have potential for redevelopment or other economic opportunities."
United States
The
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon pro ...
(EPA) defined brownfield not simply as a possible improvement site which has been previously improved, but one that may also have impediments, such as "the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant". This comports well with an available general definition of the term, which scopes to "industrial or commercial property".
The term ''brownfields'' first came into use on June 28, 1992, at a
U.S. congressional field hearing hosted by the Northeast Midwest Congressional Coalition. Also in 1992, the first detailed policy analysis of the issue was convened by the
Cuyahoga County, Ohio Planning Commission. EPA selected Cuyahoga County as its first brownfield pilot project in September 1993. The term applies more generally to previously used land or to sections of industrial or commercial facilities that are to be upgraded.
In 2002,
President George W. Bush signed the
(the "Brownfields Law") which provides grants and tools to
local governments for the assessment, cleanup, and revitalization of brownfields. The motivation for this act was the success of the EPA's brownfields program, which it started in the 1990s in response to several court cases that caused lenders to redline contaminated property for fear of liability under the Superfund. As of September 2015, the EPA estimates that the Brownfields program has resulted in 56,442 acres of land readied for reuse.
''Mothballed brownfields'' are properties that the owners are not willing to transfer or put to productive reuse.
Brownfield status is a legal designation which places restrictions, conditions or incentives on redevelopment and use on the site.
United Kingdom
In the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, the term 'brownfield' has a colloquial meaning roughly equivalent to the American usage described above, i.e. vacant or derelict land or property, usually industrial in nature. In terms of
British Town and Country Planning, however, the meaning of 'brownfield' is more complex, and is often conflated with the technical term 'previously developed land' (PDL). PDL was originally defined in planning policy for housing development in England and Wales, and was carefully distinguished in such policy from 'brownfield', which was undefined but considered to be different. The definition from the 2012 National Planning Policy Guidance, which only applies to
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, uses the terms 'brownfield' and 'previously developed land' interchangeably:
"Land which is or was occupied by a permanent structure, including the
curtilage
In common law, the curtilage of a house or dwelling is the land immediately surrounding it, including any closely associated buildings and structures, but excluding any associated " open fields beyond". In feudal times every castle with its depen ...
of the developed land (although it should not be assumed that the whole of the curtilage should be developed) and any associated fixed surface infrastructure. This excludes:
* land that is or has been occupied by agricultural or forestry buildings;
* land that has been developed for
minerals extraction
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...
(
mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...
) or waste disposal by landfill purposes where provision for restoration has been made through development control procedures;
* land in built-up areas such as private residential gardens, parks, recreation grounds and allotments; and
* land that was previously developed but where the remains of the permanent structure or fixed surface structure have blended into the landscape in the process of time."
Locations and contaminants
Generally, brownfield sites exist in a city's or town's industrial section, on locations with abandoned
factories
A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. T ...
or commercial buildings, or other previously polluting operations like steel mills, refineries or landfills.
Small brownfields also may be found in older residential neighborhoods, as for example
dry cleaning
Dry cleaning is any cleaning process for clothing and textiles using a solvent other than water.
Dry cleaning still involves liquid, but clothes are instead soaked in a water-free liquid solvent. Tetrachloroethylene (perchloroethylene), known i ...
establishments or
gas stations produced high levels of subsurface contaminants.
Typical contaminants found on contaminated brownfield land include
hydrocarbon
In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrocarbons are examples of group 14 hydrides. Hydrocarbons are generally colourless and hydrophobic, and their odors are usually weak or ...
spillages,
solvent
A solvent (s) (from the Latin '' solvō'', "loosen, untie, solve") is a substance that dissolves a solute, resulting in a solution. A solvent is usually a liquid but can also be a solid, a gas, or a supercritical fluid. Water is a solvent for ...
s,
pesticides, heavy metals such as
lead
Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...
(e.g., paints),
tributyl tins, and
asbestos.
Old maps may assist in identifying areas to be tested.
Brownfield status by country
The primary issue facing all nations involved in attracting and sustaining new uses to brownfield sites is
globalization
Globalization, or globalisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences), is the process of foreign relation ...
of industry. This directly affects brownfield reuse, such as limiting the effective economic life of the use on the revitalized sites.
Canada
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
has an estimated 200,000 "contaminated sites" across the nation. Canada had about 23,078 federally recognized contamination sites, from abandoned mines, to airports, lighthouse stations, and military bases, which are classified into N 1,2,or 3, depending on a score of contamination, with 5,300 active contaminated sites, 2,300 suspected sites and 15,000 listed as closed because remediated or no action was necessary.
The provincial governments have primary responsibility for brownfields. The provinces' legal mechanisms for managing risk are limited, as there are no tools such as "No Further Action" letters to give property owners finality and certainty in the cleanup and reuse process. Yet, Canada has cleaned up sites and attracted investment to contaminated lands such as the
Moncton rail yards. A strip of the Texaco lands in Mississauga is slated to be part of the
Waterfront Trail
Stretching over 3600 km (2236 miles) from Prince Township, west of Sault Ste. Marie, to the Quebec border, the Great Lakes Waterfront Trail is a signed route of interconnecting roads and off-road trails joining over 150 communities and First Na ...
. However, Imperial Oil has no plans to sell the property which has been vacant since the 1980s.
According to their 2014 report on federally listed contaminated sites, the Parliamentary Budget Officer estimated that the "total liability for remediating Canada's contaminated sites reported in the public accounts
as$4.9 billion."
The report listed significant sites called the Big Five with a liability of $1.8 billion:
Faro mine,
Colomac Mine
The Colomac Mine was a privately owned and operated open pit gold mine located 220 km northwest of Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories in Canada . The Colomac mine operated between 1990–1992, and 1994–1997. It was operated by Neptune ...
,
Giant Mine
The Giant Mine was a gold mine located on the Ingraham Trail, north of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Giant Mine was within the Kam Group, a part of the Yellowknife greenstone belt. Gold was discovered on the property and mineral claims ...
,
Cape Dyer-DEW line and
Goose Bay Air Base. The
Port Hope, Ontario
Port Hope is a municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada, approximately east of Toronto and about west of Kingston. It is located at the mouth of the Ganaraska River on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in the west end of Northumberland County. ...
site has a liability of $1 billion.
Port Hope has the largest volume of historic low-level
radioactive
Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A material containing unstable nuclei is consi ...
wastes in Canada, resulting from "radium and uranium processing in Port Hope between 1933 and 1988 by the former Crown corporation
Eldorado Nuclear Limited and its private sector predecessors.
By 2010 it was projected that it would cost well over a billion dollars for the soil remediation project, it was the largest such cleanup in Canadian history. The effort is projected to be complete in 2022.
In July 2015 the $86,847,474 contract "to relocate the historic low-level
radioactive waste
Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. Radioactive waste is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, rare-earth mining, and nuclear weapons r ...
and marginally contaminated soils from an existing waste management facility on the shoreline of Lake Ontario to the new, state-of-the-art facility about a kilometre north of the current site." was undertaken.
There is also "$1.8 billion for general inventory sites" and "$200 million for other sites."
The same report claimed the inventory currently lists 24,990 contaminated sites."
The federal government exercises some control over environmental protection, the "provincial and territorial governments issue the bulk of legislation regarding
contaminated sites."
Under the Shared-Responsibility Contaminated Sites Policy Framework (2005), the government may provide funding for the remediation of nonfederal sites, if the contamination is related to federal government activities or national security. See Natural Resources Canada (2012)
Denmark
While
Denmark
)
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, song_type = National and royal anthem
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, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
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, establish ...
lacks the large land base which creates the magnitude of brownfield issues facing countries such as Germany and the U.S., brownfield sites in areas critical to the local economies of Denmark's cities require sophisticated solutions and careful interaction with affected communities. Examples include the cleanup and redevelopment of former and current ship building facilities along
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
's historic waterfront. Laws in Denmark require a higher degree of coordination of planning and reuse than is found in many other countries.
France
In France, brownfields are called "friches industrielles" and the Ministère de l'Écologie, du Développement Durable et de l'Énergie (MEDDE) maintains a database of polluted sites named BASOL, with "more than 4000 sites". of about 300 000 to 400 000 potentially polluted sites total (around 100 000 ha),
in a historical inventory named BASIAS, maintained by the Agence de l'Environnement et de la Maitrise de l'Energie (ADEME).
Hong Kong
Developing brownfield land is considered by the public as one of the most popular ways to increase
housing in Hong Kong
Housing in Hong Kong varies by location and income. More than 7 million people live on about 1,108 km2 (427 mi2) of land in the region, making it one of the densest places in the world.
History
Housing by types
In 2016 the t ...
. The
Liber Research Community has found 1,521 hectares of brownfield land in Hong Kong, and has found that almost 90% of existing uses of the land could easily be moved into multi-story buildings, freeing up land that could be used efficiently for housing. In June 2021, Liber Research Community and
Greenpeace East Asia collaborated and found a new total of 1,950 hectares of brownfield sites, 379 more hectares than the government was previously able to locate.
Germany
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
loses greenfields at a rate of about 1.2 square kilometres per day for settlement and transportation infrastructure. Each of the approximately 14,700 local municipalities is empowered to allocate lands for industrial and commercial use. Local control over reuse decisions of German brownfield sites ("Industriebrache") is a critical factor. Industrial sites tend to be remote due to zoning laws, and incur costly overhead for providing infrastructure such as utilities, disposal services and transportation.
In 1989, a brownfield of the Ruhrgebiet became
Emscher Park.
United Kingdom
In the
UK centuries of industrial use of lands which once formed the birthplace of the
industrial revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
have left entire regions in a brownfield status. New legislation in the UK may provide a needed incentive for brownfield cleanup and redevelopment. Cleanup laws are centered on the premise that the remediation should be "fit for the purpose". In 2018, the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) reported that the 17,656 sites (covering over 28,000 hectares of land) identified by local planning authorities at Brownfield Land Registers would provide enough land for a minimum of 1 million homes, which could rise to over 1.1 million once all registers are published. There is also brownfield capacity in areas in which the green belt is in danger, particularly in the Northwest, where local authorities have identified enough brownfield land to provide for 12 years of housing demand.
United States
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
estimates suggest there are over 500,000 brownfield sites contaminated at levels below the
Superfund caliber (the most contaminated) in the country. While historic land use patterns created contaminated sites, the Superfund law has been criticized as creating the ''brownfield phenomenon'' where investment moves to greenfields for new development due to severe, no-fault liability schemes and other disincentives. The Clinton-Gore administration and US
EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...
launched a series of brownfield policies and programs in 1993 to tackle this problem.
Redevelopment
Valuation and financing
Acquisition, adaptive re-use, and disposal of a brownfield site requires advanced and specialized
appraisal analysis techniques. For example, the
highest and best use of the brownfield site may be affected by the contamination, both before and after remediation. Additionally, the value should take into account residual stigma and potential for third-party liability. Normal appraisal techniques frequently fail, and appraisers must rely on more advanced techniques, such as
contingent valuation
Contingent valuation is a survey-based economic technique for the valuation of non- market resources, such as environmental preservation or the impact of externalities like pollution. While these resources do give people utility, certain aspects ...
, case studies, or statistical analyses. A 2011
University of Delaware
The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 ma ...
study has suggested a 17.5:1 return on dollars invested on brownfield redevelopment.
A 2014 study of EPA brownfield cleanup grants from 2002 through 2008 found an average benefit value of almost $4 million per brownfield site (with a median of $2,117,982).
To expedite the cleanup of brownfield sites in the US, some environmental firms have teamed up with insurance companies to underwrite the cleanup and provide a guaranteed cleanup cost to limit land developers' exposure to environmental remediation costs and pollution lawsuits. The environmental firm first performs an extensive investigation generally in the form of desk studies and potentially further intrusive investigation.
Remediation strategies
Innovative
remediation techniques used at distressed brownfields in recent years include in situ thermal remediation,
bioremediation
Bioremediation broadly refers to any process wherein a biological system (typically bacteria, microalgae, fungi, and plants), living or dead, is employed for removing environmental pollutants from air, water, soil, flue gasses, industrial effluent ...
and
in situ oxidation
In situ chemical oxidation (ISCO), a form of advanced oxidation process, is an environmental remediation technique used for soil and/or groundwater remediation to lower the concentrations of targeted environmental contaminants to acceptable leve ...
. Often, these strategies are used in conjunction with each other or with other remedial strategies such as
soil vapor extraction
Soil vapor extraction (SVE) is a physical treatment process for in situ remediation of volatile contaminants in vadose zone (unsaturated) soils (EPA, 2012). SVE (also referred to as in situ soil venting or vacuum extraction) is based on mass tran ...
. In this process, vapor from the soil phase is extracted from soils and treated, which has the effect of removing contaminants from the soils and
groundwater
Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated ...
beneath a site. Binders can be added to contaminated soil to prevent chemical leaching. Some brownfields with heavy metal contamination have even been cleaned up through an innovative approach called
phytoremediation
Phytoremediation technologies use living plants to clean up soil, air and water contaminated with hazardous contaminants. It is defined as "the use of green plants and the associated microorganisms, along with proper soil amendments and agronom ...
, which uses deep-rooted plants to soak up metals in soils into the plant structure as the plant grows. After they reach maturity, the plants – which now contain the heavy metal contaminants in their tissues – are removed and disposed of as hazardous waste.
Research is under way to see if some brownfields can be used to grow crops, specifically for the production of
biofuels.
Michigan State University, in collaboration with
DaimlerChrysler
The Mercedes-Benz Group AG (previously named Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler and Daimler) is a German multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is one of the world's leading car manufacture ...
and NextEnergy, has small plots of
soybean
The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean, which has numerous uses.
Traditional unfermented food uses of soybeans include soy milk, from which tofu a ...
,
corn,
canola
Close-up of canola blooms
Canola flower
Rapeseed oil is one of the oldest known vegetable oils. There are both edible and industrial forms produced from rapeseed, the seed of several cultivars of the plant family Brassicaceae. Historically, ...
, and
switchgrass
''Panicum virgatum'', commonly known as switchgrass, is a perennial warm season bunchgrass native to North America, where it occurs naturally from 55°N latitude in Canada southwards into the United States and Mexico. Switchgrass is one of the ...
growing in a former industrial dump site in
Oakland County, Michigan. The intent is to see if the plants can serve two purposes simultaneously: assist with phytoremediation, and contribute to the economical production of
biodiesel
Biodiesel is a form of diesel fuel derived from plants or animals and consisting of long-chain fatty acid esters. It is typically made by chemically reacting lipids such as animal fat ( tallow), soybean oil, or some other vegetable oil ...
and/or
ethanol fuel
Ethanol fuel is ethyl alcohol, the same type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, used as fuel. It is most often used as a motor fuel, mainly as a biofuel additive for gasoline. The first production car running entirely on ethanol was t ...
.
The regeneration of brownfields in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
and in other
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
an countries has gained prominence due to
greenfield land
Greenfield land is a British English term referring to undeveloped land in an urban or rural area either used for agriculture or landscape design, or left to evolve naturally. These areas of land are usually agricultural or amenity properties ...
restrictions as well as their potential to promote the
urban renaissance
The urban renaissance of the United Kingdom is the recent period of repopulation and regeneration of many British cities, including Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, and parts of London after a period of inner c ...
.
Development of brownfield sites also presents an opportunity to reduce the environmental impact on communities, and considerable assessments need to take place in order to evaluate the size of this opportunity.
Barriers
Many contaminated brownfield sites sit unused for decades because the cost of cleaning them to safe standards is more than the land would be worth after redevelopment, in the process becoming
involuntary park
Involuntary park is a neologism coined by science fiction author and environmentalist Bruce Sterling to describe previously inhabited areas that for environmental, economic, or political reasons have, in Sterling's words, "lost their value for te ...
s as they grow over. However, redevelopment has become more common in the first decade of the 21st century, as developable land has become less available in highly populated areas, and brownfields contribute to environmental stigma which can delay redevelopment. Also, the methods of studying contaminated land have become more sophisticated and costly.
Some states and localities have spent considerable money assessing the
contamination
Contamination is the presence of a constituent, impurity, or some other undesirable element that spoils, corrupts, infects, makes unfit, or makes inferior a material, physical body, natural environment, workplace, etc.
Types of contamination
...
on local brownfield sites, to quantify the cleanup costs in an effort to move the redevelopment process forward. Therefore, federal and state programs have been developed to help developers interested in cleaning up brownfield sites and restoring them to practical uses.
In the process of cleaning contaminated brownfield sites, previously unknown
underground storage tanks
An underground storage tank (UST) is, according to United States federal regulations, a storage tank, including any underground piping connected to the tank, that has at least 10 percent of its volume underground.
Definition & Regulation in U.S. ...
, buried drums or buried railroad
tank car
A tank car ( International Union of Railways (UIC): tank wagon) is a type of railroad car (UIC: railway car) or rolling stock designed to transport liquid and gaseous commodities.
History
Timeline
The following major events occurred in ...
s containing wastes are sometimes encountered. Unexpected circumstances increase the cost for study and clean-up. As a result, the cleanup work may be delayed or stopped entirely. To avoid unexpected contamination and increased costs, many developers insist that a site be thoroughly investigated (via a
Phase II Site Investigation or Remedial Investigation) prior to commencing remedial cleanup activities.
Post-redevelopment uses
Commercial and residential
the
Atlantic Station
Atlantic Station is a neighborhood on the northwestern edge of Midtown Atlanta, Georgia, United States comprising a retail district, office space, condominiums, townhomes and apartment buildings. First planned in the mid-1990s and officially op ...
project in
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
, was the largest brownfield redevelopment in the United States.
Dayton
Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...
, like many other cities in the region, is developing
Tech Town in order to attract technology-based firms to Dayton and revitalize the downtown area. In
Homestead, Pennsylvania
Homestead is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, USA, in the Monongahela River valley southeast of downtown Pittsburgh and directly across the river from the city limit line. The borough is known for the ...
, the site once occupied by
Carnegie Steel
Carnegie Steel Company was a steel-producing company primarily created by Andrew Carnegie and several close associates to manage businesses at steel mills in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area in the late 19th century. The company was formed ...
has been converted into a successful commercial center,
The Waterfront.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...
, has successfully converted numerous former
steel mill sites into high-end residential, shopping, and offices. Examples of brownfield redevelopment in Pittsburgh include:
* In Pittsburgh's
Squirrel Hill
Squirrel Hill is a residential neighborhood in the East End of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The city officially divides it into two neighborhoods, Squirrel Hill North and Squirrel Hill South, but it is almost universally treated ...
neighborhood, a former
slag dump for steel mills was turned into a $243 million residential development called
Summerset at Frick Park.
* In Pittsburgh's
South Side neighborhood, a former
LTV Steel mill site was transformed into
Southside Works
SouthSide Works is an open-air retail, office, entertainment, and residential complex (often referred to as a lifestyle center) located on the South Side of the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. and just across the Monongahela River from th ...
, a mixed-use development that includes high-end entertainment, retail, offices, and housing.
* In the
Hazelwood (Pittsburgh)
Hazelwood is a neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the United States. It is represented on Pittsburgh City Council by Corey O'Connor. It is bordered by Greenfield and Oakland on the north, Squirrel Hill and Glen Hazel on the east, and the ...
neighborhood, a former
Jones and Laughlin
The Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation began as the American Iron Company, founded in 1852 by Bernard Lauth and Benjamin Franklin Jones, a few miles (c 4 km) south of Pittsburgh along the Monongahela River. Lauth's interest was bought in ...
steel mill site was transformed into a $104 million office park called
Pittsburgh Technology Center.
* In Herr's Island, a island on the western bank of the
Allegheny River, a former rail stop for livestock and meatpacking was transformed into
Washington's Landing
Herrs Island, also known as Washington's Landing, is an island in the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is officially considered part of the Troy Hill neighborhood.
Rehabilitation
As a result of the industrial ...
, a waterfront center for commerce, manufacturing, recreation and upscale housing
Regulation
United States
In the United States,
Brownfield regulation and development is largely governed by state environmental agencies in cooperation with the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In 1995, the EPA launched the Brownfields Program, which was expanded in 2002 with the
Brownfields Law.
The EPA, together with local and national government, can provide technical help and some funding for assessment and cleanup.
From 2002 through 2013, the EPA awarded nearly 1,000 grants for clean up, for a total of almost $190 million. It can also provide
tax incentive
A tax incentive is an aspect of a government's taxation policy designed to incentivize or encourage a particular economic activity by reducing tax payments.
Tax incentives can have both positive and negative impacts on an economy. Among the posi ...
s for cleanup that is not paid for outright; specifically, cleanup costs are fully
tax-deductible
Tax deduction is a reduction of income that is able to be taxed and is commonly a result of expenses, particularly those incurred to produce additional income. Tax deductions are a form of tax incentives, along with exemptions and tax credits. T ...
in the year they are incurred. Many of the most important provisions on liability relief are contained in state codes that can differ significantly from state to state.
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, regulation of contaminated land comes from Part IIA of the
Environmental Protection Act 1990
The Environmental Protection Act 1990 (initialism: EPA) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that defines, within England and Wales and Scotland, the fundamental structure and authority for waste management and control of emissions ...
; responsibility falls on local authorities to create a "contaminated land register". For sites with dubious past and present uses the Local Planning Authority may ask for a desktop study, which is sometimes implemented as a condition in planning applications.
See also
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Greenfield project
In many disciplines, a greenfield project is one that lacks constraints imposed by prior work. The analogy is to that of construction on greenfield land where there is no need to work within the constraints of existing buildings or infrastructure ...
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Brockton Brightfield (brownfield turned into a
solar power plant
A photovoltaic power station, also known as a solar park, solar farm, or solar power plant, is a large-scale grid-connected photovoltaic power system (PV system) designed for the supply of merchant power. They are different from most building- ...
)
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Greyfield land
Greyfield land is underused real estate assets or land. The term was first coined in the UK in urban design theory in the late 1990s, and later adopted in the US about a decade later, with the name coming from the "sea" of empty asphalt concrete ...
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HUD USER
HUD USER is an information source containing reports and reference documents for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD USER was established by the HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R) in 1978.
Backgro ...
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Industrial nature Industrial Nature is the regeneration of natural vegetation on industrial sites; the invasion of abandoned or disused industrial sites by colonising species; or new plantings on abandoned, disused or remediated industrial sites. The underlying princ ...
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Love Canal
Love Canal is a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, United States, infamous as the location of a landfill that became the site of an enormous environmental disaster in the 1970s. Decades of dumping toxic chemicals harmed the health of hun ...
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Redevelopment of Mumbai mills
The redevelopment of Mumbai's cotton mills began in 1992, when efforts began to demolish the numerous cotton mills that once dotted the landscape of Mumbai, India, to make way for new residential and commercial buildings, as part of the wider mod ...
(unused mills being re-developed)
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Regulatory Barriers Clearinghouse
The Regulatory Barriers Clearinghouse (RBC) collects, processes, assembles, and disseminates information on existing barriers that inhibit the production and conservation of affordable housing. RBC is part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urba ...
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Waste (law)
Waste is a term used in property law to describe a cause of action that can be brought in court to address a change in condition of real property brought about by a current tenant that damages or destroys the value of that property. A lawsui ...
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Urban renewal
Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...
References
Further reading
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External links
United States EPA Brownfields HomepageEnvironment Agency, United Kingdomsearch for Brownfield
University of Vermont Press)
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ttps://web.archive.org/web/20110210204726/http://www.emagazine.com/magazine/dirty-secrets-under-the-schoolyard Parents Demand Curbs on Schools Built on Contaminated LandPhotographies of French Brownfields.Photographies of German Brownfields.National Brownfields Conferencecosponsored by the U.S. EPA and ICMA
Sustainability Toolkit: Environmental Models*
ttp://www.cmu.edu/steinbrenner/brownfields/index.html The Brownfields Center at Carnegie Mellon UniversityBrowninfo Methodology and Software for Development of Interactive Brownfield Databases*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brownfield Land
Soil contamination
Town and country planning in the United Kingdom
Urban decay
Urban studies and planning terminology