EPA's Land Revitalization Action Agenda
The goals of EPA's Land Revitalization Agenda are to:
- Clean up our nation's contaminated land resources so that communities
are able to safely return them to productive use;
- Ensure that cleanups protect public health, welfare, and the environment
and ensure that cleanups are consistent with future land use; and
- Communicate information about cleanups that may be relevant to reuse.
EPA's Land Revitalization Agenda provides a menu of policies and practices
the Agency may employ to further reuse as a part of cleanup in Regional
Reuse Work Plans and through other national efforts.
| Objective:
Integrate Land Reuse into Cleanup Programs |
- Conduct reuse assessments in cleanup of contaminated
properties
- Develop screening processes to identify property characteristics
that facilitate reuse
- Identify properties undergoing cleanup that have significant
potential to meet green space and other community needs (e.g., parks,
habitats for native species, bike trails), as well as economic and
restoration needs
- Assess the reuse potential of remedial properties
- Collect, maintain, and disseminate environmental information that
facilitates reuse
- Modify outputs of the federal site assessment process (e.g.,
readable summaries) across cleanup programs in ways that make them
more directly useful and readily available to the local community
- Build on ongoing work with the General Services Administration
to expeditiously identify parcels of federally-owned property ready
for reuse as part of cleanup
- Use sampling data early in the cleanup process to characterize
where contamination is known and not known and/or develop a method
to describe "areas of EPA interest" (as opposed to site boundaries)
in order to make it easier for the public to recognize when property
is available for reuse
- Develop and disseminate information on sustainable incentives,
strategies, and resources that promote reuse in cleaning up underutilized
or idled private properties
- Develop and pilot an Internet-based Land Revitalization Clearinghouse
(e.g., using a Multiple Listing Service-type system for properties)
of properties being cleaned up to provide a publicly-available national
inventory with site-specific information for use by developers,
community members, and others
- Integrate OSWER web information on reuse in cleanup programs
to enhance public access and emphasize the priority of revitalization
across all cleanup programs
- Review policies, guidance, and practices to make reuse considerations
an integral part of EPA's cleanup programs
- Address barriers to redevelopment under CERCLA, RCRA, TSCA and
other laws, through revised guidance, regulations, or practices
- Develop performance measures for reuse
- Establish a single, cross-program reuse measure of success (e.g.,
"land ready for reuse") for OSWER
- Establish a process to determine when a property is safe for reuse
- Pilot "ready for reuse" technical determinations to clarify appropriate
reuses
- Develop principles for implementing "ready for reuse" technical
determinations
- Develop guidance on how to make portions of sites available for
reuse ("parceling") during cleanup under RCRA and CERCLA to benefit
cleanup and community reuse goals
- Increase use of partial deletion authorities at Superfund sites
- Develop and improve the use of technology to assess and clean
up contamination
- Endorse and promote field analytical methods to characterize sites
and minimize costs
- Work with the states and tribes to identify efficiencies in the
use of area-wide assessments that reduce cost
- Promote the use of EPA's capabilities to provide technology assistance
in support of brownfields cleanup
- Explore policies and practices for furthering land reuse in cleanups
undertaken by potentially responsible parties (PRPs)
- Explore options for accommodating reuse assessment and consideration
of future land use in achieving cleanups at PRP-lead sites
- Promote use of supplemental environmental projects (SEPs) to
facilitate reuse in penalty actions, across statutes
- Address the liability concerns of parties involved in sale and
acquisition of property for productive reuse that is subject to RCRA
requirements
- Use available mechanisms (e.g., completion determinations, remedial
action plans, comfort letters, and RCRA prospective purchaser agreements)
to facilitate property cleanup and reuse
- Evaluate RCRA administrative liability relief for municipalities
when they involuntarily acquire contaminated property
- Evaluate state innovations for lender liability relief at RCRA
facilities
- Coordinate grants affecting reuse across multiple federal cleanup
programs to target area-wide clusters of properties
| Objective:
Develop Partnerships to Further Land Reuse in Cleanup |
- Implement an urban river restoration initiative
- Establish an inter-agency partnership with the Department of the
Army to leverage U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and EPA resources and
authorities for urban river restoration demonstration projects that
achieve both cleanup and revitalization
- Announce urban river restoration pilots
- Create broad-based public/private partnerships for reuse
- Expand EPA Regional efforts to achieve cleanup goals (e.g., RCRA
GPRA goals and NPL "construction completes") that facilitate land
reuse through communication (e.g., through Regional meetings) with
both private and public Superfund responsible parties, RCRA responsible
owners and operators, and other regulated entities
- Partner with the petroleum industry to foster reuse opportunities
in cleanups that are associated with industry mergers and divestiture
of assets
- Expand the use of partnerships that stimulate private
investment in reuse activities as part of cleanup, similar to EPA's
recently announced partnership with Habitat for Humanity or partnership
with the Soccer Foundation
- Undertake insurance symposia to discuss the potential roles of
environmental insurance—past, present and future—in
furthering cleanups that promote property reuse
- Explore long-term land stewardship options
- Study the use of innovative public and private stewardship and
property reuse mechanisms to support cleanup by managing institutional
controls and long-term property care
- Partner with states, tribes, local governments, and the private
sector to pilot the use of "one-call" systems (e.g., one
telephone number) that simplify management of long-term controls
- Explore options to establish links among existing State/Tribal,
local, and federal web-based data systems for the identification
and enforcement of institutional controls
- Strengthen federal, state, and tribal partnerships
- Undertake needs surveys, under the auspices of the EPA and State
Senior Cleanup Council and state and tribal associations, to look
at various state/tribal land revitalization needs in the context
of cleanup
- Partner with states and tribes to foster unified approaches to
cleanup and revitalization
- Partner with DoD, DOE, and other federal agencies to achieve cleanups
that foster reuse
- Develop a "how to" guide for communities to undertake cleanups
at mining waste properties that result in reuse, including natural
restoration technologies
- Ensure early and meaningful community involvement in clean up
and reuse assessment
- Hold Community Revitalization Work Shops to provide urban and
rural local officials and citizens in large and small communities
with the tools and training to meet revitalization challenges in
cleanup
- Package and disseminate information on all community-related EPA
grant programs that may enhance opportunities for land reuse
- Partner with the Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice
- Hold environmental justice listening sessions in several locations
to focus attention on reuse issues and revitalization activities
- Coordinate environmental justice revitalization projects with
the Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice
- Partner with industry to recognize industry accomplishments
in cleanup that foster reuse
- Encourage and recognize large and small companies' voluntary commitments
to achieve cleanup goals that foster reuse
- Establish an awards program
- Integrate property cleanup with local "smart growth" land use
planning and other initiatives
- Identify which Superfund/RCRA/Brownfield/UST sites are in "smart
growth zones" to integrate cleanup with local "smart growth" land
use planning that minimizes the air, water, and land quality impacts
of the redevelopment
- Promote pollution prevention in waste cleanup projects, including
the use of recycled, bio-based, and environmentally preferable products
in land use applications, and the use of "green buildings" and "green
energy"
| Objective:
Instill a Culture of Land Reuse in our Organizations |
- Empower the Regions to make cleanup decisions that protect human
health and the environment and promote reuse as a priority
- Create a "Regional Reuse Coordinator(s) Team" in each EPA
Region to champion revitalization policy reforms, develop Regional
work plans with specific goals, strengthen state/tribal/EPA coordination,
work with State Small Business Assistance Programs (SBAPs) to encourage
reuse, overcome obstacles among site cleanup requirements, and
facilitate Community Revitalization Roundtables
- Assemble expert Revitalization Technical Assistance Team to assist
site managers and communities with site evaluation, "visioning"
meetings with local officials and community members, and cleanup
that considers revitalization
- Incorporate land reuse considerations in Superfund removal and
oil spill response programs through policy and guidance (e.g., to
expedite site assessment and facilitate reuse through clean up of
site "parcels")
- Train EPA, state, tribal, and local governments on reuse practices
relevant to cleanup
- Assess Regional and HQ reuse training needs
- Identify and utilize key training resources, including EPA, other
federal agencies, states, tribes, universities, Hazardous Substance
Research Centers, and other organizations
- Conduct real estate training and environmental insurance training
for program and counsel staff and management to help achieve cleanups
that facilitate reuse
- Develop web-based training approaches
- Hold "brown bag" meetings for HQ and Regional staff
on key reuse issues to focus discussion and enhance coordination
across OSWER and EPA
- Recognize federal, state, tribal, and local government reuse accomplishments
- Establish awards for EPA, state, and tribal staff and management
who work creatively in partnership with key "stakeholders" to make
reuse principles a central part of their jobs in all cleanup programs
- Provide national recognition for states and tribes, other governmental
agencies, communities, developers, etc., in cooperation with sponsors
of the Phoenix Awards, for those who have been instrumental in the
successful revitalization of contaminated properties in a wide range
of cleanup programs
| Objective:
Implement the New Brownfields Law |
- Request budget increase for brownfields activities to $210 million
in fiscal year 2004
- Integrate and streamline brownfields grants application processes
- Expand the number and types of brownfields grants under the Small
Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act
- Make grants available: for sites eligible (e.g., to address petroleum
contamination, mine-scarred lands, sites contaminated by a controlled
substance, RCRA sites); to entities eligible for certain types of
grants (e.g., non-profit organizations); and for purposes eligible
(e.g., planning)
- Make grants available specifically for brownfields cleanup
- Conduct outreach activities to implement the new law
- Work with states, tribes, local governments, federal agencies,
and others to identify and address barriers to land revitalization
- Explore the need for new or amended state-EPA agreements (MOUs
and MOAs), in close consultation with the states and tribes and
consistent with needs surveys (see "Develop Partnerships that Further
Land Reuse in Cleanup")
- Clarify applicability of liability provisions in the new law
- Implement prospective purchaser, innocent landowner, and contiguous
property owner sections of the law
- Develop a regulation on site assessment processes to protect
human health and the environment and public welfare, harmonizing
federal and private sector approaches in order to facilitate future
uses
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