Brownfield SitesAnd Environmental Law

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

are in place to clean them up.

Humans are very good at 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 in Alaska spilling hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude oil

11 Million Gallons!

Deepwater Horizon (BP) Oil Spill

210 Million Gallons!

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

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

In the aftermath of the nuclear meltdown accident, 237 people suffered from acute radiation sickness, of whom 31 died within the first three 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

This 23 acre site was a collection point for toxic wastes in the 1960s. In 1966 some of the drums caught fire and burned for more than a week in.

However, at that time there were no laws to address the storage or containment of toxic wastes, and the site continued to be 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

• Asbestos – Cause respiratory problems• Pesticides – Cause cancer & birth defects• Benzene and other solvents – Causes cancer• Lead and Copper - Neurotoxin• Mercury and Arsenic – May cause physical and

mental disorders. • PCBs – Possible cause of cancer & birth defects• Gasoline, oil – respiratory problems

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.gaslandthemovie.com/whats-fracking

http://www.dangersoffracking.com

Does this site look familiar?

CosCob Power Plant – A Brownfield Site here in Greenwich

When we don’t know…

• Sometimes we don’t always know that a site is dangerous until people start getting sick

• Start seeing higher than average rates of illnesses such as:– Cancer– asthma and lung illnesses– birth defects– rashes and skin sores– bone diseases…

Love Canal1950’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 was going on???

Love Canal

1942:- 1953 Hooker Chemicals Corporation dumps nearly 22,000 tons of chemical waste into the canal.

1955: Hooker filled in the site and sold the land to the Niagara Falls School Board for $1, and an elementary school was built there.

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

And again – this time in Woburn, MA A Civil Action

High rates of leukemia in the area around the wells in the town clued residents to trichloroethylene contamination of the town's water supply by three different chemical companies.

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.

Can we fix it? Yes we can!!

Have no fear…

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!!

Where does hazardous waste go?

• Buried somewhere no people live• Chemicals removed and recycled or neutralized• Incinerated

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

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.