With the loss of redevelopment in California, money for brownfield remediation has dried up. The California Legislature needs to focus on regulatory reform to support brownfield redevelopment, according to environmental attorney Richard Opper.
In the wake of 9/11, Congress revised CERCLA (Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, aka Superfund) so that the World Trade Center site could be rebuilt. It was a step in the right direction but not enough, writes Richard Opper, a San Diego based environmental law attorney. In California, Governor Brown's elimination of redevelopment agencies, eliminated a primary source of funding for redevelopment of such sites. He says:
. . . it is an embarrassing failure of leadership at all the state levels that has failed to implement regulatory reform to support brownfield redevelopment. California still treats every plot owner as a possible PRP (rhymes with “perp” aka potentially responsible party). It doesn’t matter which of the mind numbingly various state agencies one deals with, they are generally just not interested in making brownfield redevelopment smarter in California. Our governor, who has had experience with urban redevelopment, seems to think our state system is fine and in need of no further improvement. In this he is wrong. Our current system is suffering from regulatory entropy. We are at a point as low as any of the last three decades.
For more of Opper's views on the topic, please visit the source article.
FULL STORY: Observations from the Brownfield Trenches
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