Another aspect of sustainable development - recycling land.

The environmental health lexicon has acquired a new term - brownfields. Since there is some confusion, and even trepidation, about this area, I thought it useful to discuss what brown fields mean to environmental health.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) defines brownfields as "Abandoned, idled, or underused industrial and commercial facilities where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived contamination." (Individual states may have their own definitions for brownfields.) It should he noted that, although the contamination may be real, these are not Superfund sites, or National Priorities List sites. Instead, brownfields are typically former industrial sites, often with usable on-site buildings.

Why are brownfields considered a problem? To begin with, there are an estimated 150,000 to 450,000 brown fields throughout the United States. Because of contamination, these sites may pose health risks to individuals working or living nearby. Frequently the sites are found in environmentally or economically distressed urban areas, which have their own potential problems, such as crime and a decline in business.

These problems raise the question: "Why try to develop such properties?" Keep in mind that these sites are often prime industrial sites, frequently with access to major means of transportation. Often the infrastructure is still in place. All that is needed in many cases is an incentive for a business to turn a brownfield into a new industry.

To communities, however, brown fields represent much more. Brownfields often started life as viable industries. They were providing jobs for community members. They may have played an active role in the community through support of parks and recreation, schools, and cultural programs. Often, an industry also gave a community its identity. (Who doesn't think of Atlanta every time the name Coca Cola comes up?) Then, through a process unique to each site and business (e.g., bankruptcy or merger), the business closed and the site was abandoned with limited cleanup - if any. Eventually these sites become blights on the very communities they once supported.

Brownfields laws were enacted to encourage what has been called the "recycling" of such sites. According to Kathy Dalton, author of A Resource Guide for Community-based Brownfields Development in Massachusetts,

These laws include provisions to: provide grants for demonstration projects or pilots, provide financial incentives for brownfields development, and reduce the risks of cleanup liability for new property owners. Unlike previous environmental cleanup legislation, brownfields law takes into consideration the final use of the redeveloped property and requires cleanup appropriate to that use.

What is particularly encouraging is that communities are a part of the process; indeed, in many cases, communities are actively seeking to promote the redevelopment of brownfields properties. Dalton cites the following tools as integral to the community's role in a holistic approach to sustainable development:

* community involvement and diverse stakeholder participation (encouraging public participation in decision making at each step of the redevelopment process);

* multi-stakeholder planning (recognizing that there is a diverse set of stakeholders at a site, ranging from business owners to community members);

* connecting to community vision (respecting that many communities have already identified the facets of life that are important to them and their future - whether standards for quality of life or maintenance of multicultural facets);

* community mapping (collecting data that provide information crucial to addressing cumulative environmental impacts and the protection of community assets);

* making connections to sustainable transportation, open space preservation, and river protection (using properties that slow the spread of urban sprawl and promote the preservation of undeveloped lands); and

* preventing future brownfields (ensuring that new businesses and industry, whether they are brownfield redevelopments or not, conform to the goals of sustainable development).

The potential developer, in the past, had justifiable concerns about liability, particularly as they pertained to cleanup. Prior to brownfields legislation, owners could be held liable for cleanup of existing site contamination, both known and unknown, sometimes regardless of whether they were the responsible party Brown fields legislation has helped to alleviate some of those fears through provisions that help shield developers from cleanup liabilities while still protecting the public. These provisions are still being developed in many cases, so I will not enumerate them here.

Cleanup of a site is a matter of choices: What is the intended end use? What cleanup technologies are available to address the specific contaminants, contaminant levels, and contaminated media at a site? What is the cost of this technology? At the federal level, several programs are available to encourage brownfields redevelopment, including community and development block grants, empowerment zones, and rehabilitation tax credits. In other cases, community banks may finance these projects through new provisions of the Community Reinvestment Act. States, and in some cases local jurisdictions, may also have provisions for brownfields redevelopment funding.

That, in brief, is what brownfields are all about - just another example of environmental health investing wisely in the future.

(Note: Further information about brownfields may be found at the U.S. EPA brownfields home page: <http://www.epa.gov/brownfields>.