A Miles & Stockbridge Environment & Energy blog article (2018-06-15) reported that recently passed federal legislation provides significant incentives for brownfield revitalization and redevelopment. The Brownfields Utilization, Investment, and Local Development Act of 2018 (BUILD Act) improves the existing brownfield program creates new redevelopment incentives. The article noted that there are approximately 450,000 brownfield sites throughout the nation.
The article highlighted the BUILD Act’s: (1) new and enhanced incentives under the Brownfields Program; (2) codification of tenant liability protection under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA); and (3) incentives for redevelopment of waterfront brownfields and sites using renewable energy.
When discussing waterfront redevelopment, the article cited an example from Baltimore, Maryland:
Many former industrial sites were sited along waterways out of necessity and are ripe for reuse as mixed use commercial and residential areas. A successful example of this can be found in Baltimore, Maryland. Former warehousing and manufacturing sites along the Patapsco River contaminated with heavy metals, petroleum, and PAHs, were converted into commercial and residential use though Maryland’s voluntary cleanup program, grants from EPA, and private investment. …
Cleanup of Superfund sites and brownfields sites has been a priority of the current administration and the current EPA. Through the BUILD Act, Congress has provided EPA and the market with additional tools in the form of additional liability protections and financial incentives that will boost redevelopment and reuse of contaminated sites through the Brownfields Program.
Useful Links
