Brownfield Sites And Environmental Law

Brownfield SitesAnd Environmental Law

Objectives: Define brownfields and explain how they form and what laws

are in place to clean them up.

Humans are poisoning the Earth!

• Major accidents• Improper disposal of waste• Careless, or ignorant use of resources• While trying to fix one problem- creating one

that is even worse

Can you identify how?– Think of examples

Bhopal Disaster – Union Carbide

1983• Killed 8000 people• Tens of thousands injured

2013• Toxic chemicals still contaminate

groundwater

Pesticide plant producing toxic

gases

Agent Orange/ Dioxin in Vietnam

• US military used it to defoliate trees- sprayed by the millions of gallons• 400,000 were killed or injured• 500,000 children born with birth defects• Vietnamese and our US soldiers still suffer side effects

Exxon Valdez

This was an oil tanker that ran aground in Alaska spilling hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude oil

11 Million Gallons!

Deepwater Horizon (BP) Oil Spill

The oil “spill” in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 that spewed oil for 87 days. It was the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry

210 Million Gallons!

Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant – Soviet Union

April 26, 1986

From 1986 to 2000: 350,400 people were evacuated and resettled from the most severely contaminated areas

After the meltdown, 237 people suffered from acute radiation sickness. 31 died in the next few months.

Environmental Impact of the Industrial Revolution

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obrsE8j5l6c (3.5 min)

What is a Brownfield?

Piece of land that was once used for industrial purposes and is now typically abandoned because of suspected contamination

Valley of the Drums - Kentucky

• 23 acre collection site for toxic waste in the 1960s.• Some caught fire and burned for more than a week!• No laws to address the storage or containment of toxic wastes.• Unregulated for another decade.

What is a contaminant?A contaminant is a toxic chemical that can harm

humans and/or the environment. Contaminants can pollute water, air, and/or soil.

Mercury Benzene

Arsenic

Contaminants of Major Concern

Pesticides

Lead and copper

Benzene

Asbestos

Mercury and arsenic

PCBs

Gasoline and oilRespiratory

problems

Cancer and birth defects

Neurotoxin

Physical and mental disorders

Where do contaminants come from?

Contaminants Possible source of contamination

Heavy metals:

arsenic, cadmium chromium, lead, mercury

metal finishing/plating shops, manufacturing and foundries, coal burning

power plants

Gasoline/constituents of gasoline:

gasoline, benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene, xylene

gasoline stations, tank farms, pipelines

Petroleum Products Leaking undergound storage tanks

Solvents:

tetrachloroethlyene, trichloroethylene,

III-trichloroethane

dry cleaners, machine shops,

metal finishing/plating shops

Why do we keep using technologies and chemicals that

harm our environment?Economic Incentives vs. Health and Environmental Impacts

Coal Mining Natural Gas Fracking

Deep Oil Drilling

Fracking – what is it?

http://www.dangersoffracking.com

Does this site look familiar?

CosCob Power Plant – A Brownfield Site here in Greenwich

Sometimes we don’t always know that a site is dangerous until people

start getting sick

When we don’t know…

Major sign of contaminated area: Start seeing higher than average rates of illnesses

- Cancer - Rashes and skin sores- Asthma and lung illnesses - Bone diseases- Birth defects

Love Canal 1950’s-1970’s – many suspicious illnesses in this NY neighborhood – *A woman developed a debilitating weakness and had to give up working*a child was born with multiple birth defects*kids with strange rashes and allergies*Trees and shrubs dying*Noxious chemical smells over the neighborhood.

What’s going on???

Love Canal

• 1942-1953: 22,000 tons of chemical waste dumped by Hooker Corporation

• 1955: Site filled, land sold for $1, elementary school built on site.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKUyOLXtUsQhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXSE9kcBQCI

• 1979 – law suits filed. Schools were shut down. Government programs bought condemned homes and tore them down. Hundreds of families evacuated. Clean up costs have been estimated at $250 million.

Part 1 – six minPart 2 – six min

History repeats itself… this time in Woburn, MA – A Civil Action

High rates of leukemia in the area around the wells.

Trichloroethylene contamination of the town's water supply by three different chemical companies.

Have no fear… Can we fix it? Yes we can!!

Superfund is the common name for the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA), a United States federal law designed to clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances.

Remediation: Making Brownfield sites safe and usable again…

• Identify and measure contaminants

• Determine the safety risks• Stop the contaminants from

spreading• Remove or isolate the

contaminants

Can we fix it? Yes we can!!

Why Redevelop Brownfield Sites?

– Discounted real estate cost– Valuable location– Reduce pressure on undeveloped land– Preserve historical or architecturally

significant buildings – Eliminate health and safety hazards– Improve community

WE DID IT!!Charles River, Boston – Success Story

In 1955 the Charles River in Boston was so polluted anyone who fell in the river had to get a tetanus shot.

Clean up started in the 1960s and in July 2007 the river hosted its first official swim race in decades.

Then… Now…