Browner Touts Record on Brownfields, Challenges Areas to Grow Smarter

By Kevin McCarty

The Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Carol M. Browner, told the mayors that “We must continue to grow, but we have to grow smart. One of the most important steps is to reclaim and revitalize those industrial sites we call brownfields.”

Speaking at the closing luncheon session at the 68th Winter Meeting, Browner detailed some of the ill effects of urban development, citing data from a recent study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “Between 1992 and 1997, nearly 16 million acres of forests, farmland and open spaces were converted, paved over, developed. At this rate, in a decade we have bulldozed the land equivalent of states like Pennsylvania or Mississippi,” she said.

She contrasted the loss of open space with the potential of brownfields redevelopment. “While all that land was being swallowed up, hundreds of thousands of acres of brownfields sat idle. Your own report (USCM’s National Brownfields Survey) on this crucial subject estimated that developing that land could bring in almost $1 billion to nearly $3 billion in tax revenue annually, create nearly 700,000 new jobs and take some of the development pressure off of our forests, our farms, our open spaces,” Browner said.

Browner also reviewed the Administration’s record on helping cities in redeveloping brownfields, touting Vice President Gore’s Brownfields National Partnership Action Agenda that provides both financial commitments and technical advice from more than 25 federal agencies and partners. She noted how communities in the past five years have received more than $385 million for brownfields redevelopment and another $140 million in loan guarantees.

Noting the success communities are having with brownfields redevelopment, Browner said, “That’s why this Administration will continue to work to expand brownfields opportunities to more communities.”

Acknowledging the need for federal legislative action, Browner added that “There’s more we can do, but to really get this job done, we need brownfields legislation. The President wants to pass a brownfields bill this session that would benefit communities across the country.” She also emphasized that “Superfund legislation will not happen.”

In addition to brownfields, the EPA Administrator talked about the Administration’s proposal, “Better America Bonds,” which is designed to deliver about $10 billion in bond proceeds to cities, counties and states to support local and regional efforts to clean up brownfields, preserve open space and protect water quality. Under this plan, which is now pending before Congress, communities on a competitive basis would be able to use a portion of these funds for brownfield cleanups or other eligible purposes, realizing savings of about 50 percent as compared to financing these investments locally through a traditional tax-exempt bond.

In her remarks, she also discussed the Administration’s new rules on refiners to produce cleaner fuels and automakers to control air emissions from sport utility vehicles and light-duty trucks. She noted how these changes will “cut air pollution from cars and trucks by 80 percent of what they are today.”