Brownfields are a shameful waste of otherwise valuable land. The term
brownfields typically refers to abandoned
industrial sites that have been or thought to have been contaminated by
hazardous waste. The
Love Canal fiasco in the
1970s spurred the creation of the
EPA Superfund to require the
remediation of such places by requiring the owners or buyers of such sites to pay for remediation of the site before reuse. Regretfully, many of the companies that originally contaminated the land are out of business and
bankrupt. Since a new owner would have to pay for remediation, the land may actually have a negative value, in spite of a favorable location, built-in
infrastructure, or potential economic value. While the regulations may discourage future abuse of the land, it has resulted in large tracts of many industrial cities being
forsaken.
The cost of remediation is often enormous, so few sites ever get cleaned up and reused. Newer industries move out to suburban greenfields, where plentiful land and lack of potential envioronmental liabilities are a powerful lure, leaving the areas surrounding older urban brownfields devastated with little hope for revival. People living in the working class neighborhoods near the brownfields used to depend on the industries that used to occupy them for jobs. With neither jobs nor positive ambience available, those who can leave do so, leaving the neighborhoods to the criminals and the rats, or those that remain are forced to commute to the suburbs for work.
While the intentions of the Superfund might have been noble, the results have been disastrous, and politicians are just starting to realize the mistakes they made. Restoring many of these sites to pristine condition is unfeasable in many cases, and in many cases it is for all practical purposes unnecessary. There is a balance that needs to be struck between costs of remediation, economic benefits of returning a piece of land to productive use, and the hazards of reusing land that is not quite pristine. It is foolish to allow a daycare center to be built on a site that was contaminated by heavy metals, but why not pave it over and build a warehouse or other light industry on the site. Other hazards which pose little danger to surface dwellers, such as contamination of ground water by fuel spills could be redeveloped into parks or shopping centers.
Perhaps another philosophy would be to open up the brownfields to those dirty, but necessary businesses vital to the economy, regulating them appropriately to prevent further damage to the area, but preventing them from soiling unspoiled areas. Thoughtful and creative legislation could help revive dying urban centers in cites such as Baltimore, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Cleveland, help control suburban sprawl, and ease traffic congestion, which would help lower pollution for us all.