Superfund: Proposals to Remove Barriers to Brownfield Redevelopment,

I am pleased to be here today to discuss the Committees efforts to support the cleanup and redevelopment of hazardous waste properties across the country. Over the past several decades, manufacturing has been declining in many of the nations cities. When businesses closed, they often left abandoned and idled properties, commonly known as brownfields. These properties are sometimes contaminated with chemical wastes from manufacturing processes. Partly to avoid the costs of assessing and cleaning up these properties according to federal and state environmental laws, some new businesses have chosen to locate in uncontaminated areas outside cities known as greenfields. These decisions have led to the loss of tax revenue and employment in central city neighborhoods. The Congress has been interested in finding ways to help localities clean up and redevelop brownfields. This Committee asked us to provide it with information on the legal barriers that the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, commonly known as Superfund, presents for redeveloping brownfields and types of federal financial support that states and localities would like to help them address such properties. This testimony summarizes the major findings from our June 1996 report on brownfield redevelopment and information from an ongoing review for this Committee of states voluntary cleanup programs. These programs substitute incentives for enforcement actions to encourage, rather than compel, private parties to clean up contaminated properties. States are beginning to use these programs to address brownfields because they are faster and less costly than enforcement programs.