By Virak Kchao
November 11, 2008

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has had great success with its existing brownfields program. The program has been able to increase values to properties, bring new jobs, improve local economies, and make better communities to the areas in which brownfields were once eyesores. Abandoned gas stations, former dry cleaners, buried industrial waste are the most common environmental hazards that make up brownfields. EPA has initiated the Petroleum Brownfields Action Plan: Promoting Revitalization and Sustainability to enhance the process and remediation of petroleum brownfield sites.

The plan outlines four specific initiatives to achieve: 1) improving communication with petroleum brownfields stakeholders 2) target support to state, tribal, and local governments 3) evaluate policies to increase petroleum brownfields site revitalization and 4) create partnerships for investment and sustainable reuse of petroleum brownfields.

Increased communication will help stakeholders be aware of assistance, tools and resources available through EPA. This will allow for quicker assessment, cleanup, and reuse of the petroleum brownfields sites. Also the program would promote a recognition program to showcase the remarkable efforts by stakeholders to revitalize petroleum brownfields sites. The EPA plans to improve state and local government support by clearly identifying regional EPA representatives who will be contacts to outside stakeholders. A Best Practices Guide will be created to help these governments develop voluntary inventories of petroleum brownfields.

One way the plan will remove setbacks to the redevelopment process of petroleum brownfields sites is by exploring new policies that will help expedite the process. By allowing further grant flexibility and effectiveness to its applicants will alleviate the problem of strict eligibility criteria to be approved for grants. The implementation of multi-purpose grants for brownfields will also be explored to fit the needs of smaller petroleum brownfields sites. Multiple-purpose grants will address needs of assessment to cleanup of petroleum brownfield sites and allow multiple substances to be dealt with. The more focused initiative is the act to forge better partnerships of stakeholders and petroleum brownfields. Government, private companies, developers, and community organizations will be supported to collaborate extensively to find better solutions for remediation of petroleum sites. New, strong partnerships that bring new ideas and models that will allow for more efficient assessment and cleanup of the sites. This partnership initiative also plans to support the reuse of these petroleum brownfield by small business owners. A “Petroleum Brownfields to Open Space Projects” program is going to be implemented as a part of the new action plan. It would encourage the reuse of these sites to produce green space or wildlife habitats. This would allow oil companies, environmental preservation organizations and state regulators to cooperate with each other to ensure the program’s success.

strong partnerships that bring new ideas and models that will allow for more efficient assessment and cleanup of the sites. This partnership initiative also plans to support the reuse of these petroleum brownfield by small business owners. A “Petroleum Brownfields to Open Space Projects” program is going to be implemented as a part of the new action plan. It would encourage the reuse of these sites to produce green space or wildlife habitats. This would allow oil companies, environmental preservation organizations and state regulators to cooperate with each other to ensure the program’s success.

The EPA’s Petroleum Brownfields Action Plan will enormously improve all aspects in the assessment, clean up, and reuse of petroleum brownfields sites. Given the full support by the EPA to redevelop petroleum, sites will overcome the many challenges faced by remediating these particular sites. It gives the community the ability to take advantage of great opportunities that these sites have to offer to improve social and economic well-being. The EPA will work vigorously internally and with all stakeholders to implement these action plans in a fashion that well work out effectively and efficiently.