Press Release: California's Brownfields Initiative Receives National Recognition

For Immediate Release (C-10-97)
Contact: Communications Office (916) 324-9670
April 8, 1997

555 Capitol Mall, Suite 525
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 324-9670
FAX (916) 445-5563

Sacramento California's Brownfields Initiative has received national recognition from Renew America and the National Awards Council for Environmental Sustainability. The Initiative, which started in California in 1993, develops solutions for redevelopment of contaminated parcels, frequently, but not always, located in urban areas, and referred to as "brownfields."

"This recognition of California's leadership in the cleanup and reuse of old industrial sites is a welcome tribute to the vision and hard work of the Department of Toxic Substances Control," said Secretary for Environmental Protection James M. Strock. "Where traditional Superfund has all-too-often served as a cautionary tale of laws and lawyers gone awry, California's Brownfields Initiative serves as a national model of what can be done when regulators, lawyers, lenders and local communities roll up their sleeves and get to work at the same table."

The National Awards Council for Environmental Sustainability issues awards annually based on program effectiveness, conservation of natural resources, economic progress, and human development. DTSC's Brownfields Initiative will also be listed in Renew America's Environmental Success Index, a one-of-a-kind data base listing innovative and successful environmental programs throughout the nation. The coalition consists of 60 national nonprofit, government, and business organizations. It includes the National Audubon Society, the Nature Conservancy, the Sierra Club, the Environmental Law Institute, Earth Kind, the National Geographic Society and the Smithsonian Institution.

"We are pleased that the Brownfields Initiative has received national recognition as a program which can benefit both the environment and the economy," said DTSC Director Jesse R. Huff.

"Environmental cleanup and economics can go hand-in-hand."

The Brownfields Initiative includes the development of programs, policies and innovative incentives such as prospective purchaser agreements. The Initiative is implemented under two DTSC programs:

• The Voluntary Cleanup Program -- enables property owners to obtain DTSC oversight of hazardous waste investigations and the cleanup of contaminated sites which are not under DTSC enforcement orders.
• The Expedited Remedial Action Reform Act of 1994 -- established a pilot program featuring a number of incentives including basing contaminant cleanup on proposed land use, providing independence from the National Contingency Plan, and establishing liability allocation and state funding for "orphan shares."

Both programs feature communication across the spectrum of stakeholders such as federal, state, and local agencies, redevelopment agencies, developers, business, and the environmental community to promote the cleanups. The programs also support other Brownfields projects including the three U.S. EPA National Brownfields Pilots in California.

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