Chapter 7: The Lure of Brownfields discusses what they are and the remediation of the various brownfield sites. Brownfield land is land that was previously used for industrial purposes and has low levels of hazardous waste or pollution. This land has potential to be reused once cleaned up. Land that is more severely contaminated with high concentrations of pollution are Superfund sites and not considered Brownfield sites. Superfund sites are evaluated, ranked, and placed on the National Priorities List by USEPA, which qualifies for federal cleanup money. In 1955, there were an estimated 450,000 brownfields in the United States. Cleaning up and reinvesting in these properties would increase local tax bases, facilitate job growth, utilize existing infrastructure, and take development pressure off undeveloped open land. The brownfields initiative passed in 2001 and the initial clean up created 25,000 new jobs and cost around $6.5 billion. "The act rewarded voluntary cleanups and offered developers and investors incentives to build on blighted areas. To encourage participation, NJDEP offered to consolidate and expedite permit reviews, allowed less costly remediation through the use of the two-tier cleanup criteria, and permitted less restrictive cleanup remedies called 'institutional and engineering controls'" (123). The controls are legal measures intended to reduce exposure to contaminants by controlling the behavior of a future brownfield owner. This is to ensure that the owners know about the contamination that lies beneath their building and hopefully promote smart decision of what to remediate the site into.
In Camden sites were remediated and "The Victor" was changed into luxury buildings. Other developments included an aquarium, a minor league baseball stadium, an outdoor concert center, and the warf for the battleship New Jersey. All of which are on the Camden waterfront which divides Philadelphia and Camden. Being a Philadelphia resident, I know of all these places and have seen or been to each of them, the aquarium most recently. These site are successful examples of how economic, political, and environmental forces can come together to encourage and support urban renewal. Sometimes though, this isn't the case and "time and pressure" changes project time frames from months or years to weeks or months with a possibility of bypassing public health and ecological risks. Despite the successes, some owners have used their brownfields to dump unwanted and unhealthy facilities on the neighborhood which has caused concern for residents in the community. The placement of this waste is discriminatory to the majority black and hispanic community and a practice of environmental injustice on both a racial and socioeconomic scale.
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Gabriella Brycea Junior at Seton Hall University studying Elementary and Special education with Environmental Studies. Archives
April 2018
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