There have been some highly-effective brownfield redevelopments, great projects accomplished as reported in Brownfield Renewal and elsewhere, but each done one at time, with great effort. From a policy perspective, the question is how to move from resolving brownfields one at time to multiple remediations and redevelopments that will substantially reduce the number of vacant, contaminated sites. The Obama administration is considering innovative area-wide strategies as well as multi-agency approaches to increase brownfield redevelopment in communities.

In 1993 the U.S. Government Accounting Office (GAO) estimated that there are 450,000 brownfield sites in the U.S. In 2007, EPA reported that it tracks 497,000 contaminated or potentially contaminated sites totaling 15 million acres, and that nearly 1 million acres have been remediated or the contamination encapsulated. Due to factors including; de-industrialization (such as former auto industry facilities), community concerns, ever more sensitive testing and stricter standards, the number of sites needing remediation appears to have actually increased. ...

You need to register to view the rest of the article. Click here to subscribe.