Date: Fri 12-Feb-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

business-Taylor-brownfields

Full Text:

GENNEWS / LIBRARY

Setting Industry Standards For Environmental Clean-Ups w/ cut

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

A local man has helped develop a set of standards that industry will use in

the coming years to tackle the "brownfields" environmental contamination

problem nationwide.

Michael Taylor of Head O'Meadow Road, the president of Vita Nuova, LLC, was

co-chairman of a group which developed the standards intended to guide the

reclamation of brownfields.

Brownfields are abandoned, idled or underutilized properties where expansion

or redevelopment is complicated by the potential or confirmed existence of

toxic chemicals in the soil, air or water.

Although the majority of brownfields are located in cities, brownfields also

exist in the suburbs and rural areas.

Local examples of brownfields are The Charles Batchelder Company, a former

aluminum smelting plant on Swamp Road where industrial activity left piles of

waste metals which contaminated local groundwater; the Appleblossom Lane

neighborhood, where the release of PCE, an industrial degreasing chemical,

contaminated groundwater supplies; and Fairfield Hills, the former state

mental institution, where there are extensive amounts of lead paint and

asbestos, toxic substances which were common building materials in the past.

The town has received a $30,000 state grant to further study contamination

problems at the Batchelder site. Almost 100 residences in the Appleblossom

Lane neighborhood recently received United Water Company public water service

to provide a safe alternative to using water from domestic wells. The state is

marketing Fairfield Hills for private redevelopment. The redevelopment process

will involve removing or neutralizing the contaminants there.

Brownfield Standard

Last fall at a national meeting at the American Society of Civil Engineers, Mr

Taylor unveiled a newly developed brownfields reclamation standard established

by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM).

The standard addresses the environmental, economic and social aspects of

cleaning up brownfields and reusing the properties for new purposes.

The standard, which took two years to formulate, is intended to streamline the

redevelopment of environmentally contaminated properties. ASTM will publish

its brownfields reclamation standard this month. The brownfields reclamation

market is estimated to be worth $10 billion in the US.

The brownfields reclamation standard allows the urban poor who live near

brownfields to have a formal say in how the contaminated sites should be

redeveloped. The standard seeks to actively involve those people affected by

presence of brownfields with the reclamation of those areas, Mr Taylor said.

Went Field Park

Mr Taylor is involved in a project to reclaim the Went Field Park area in

Bridgeport. It is an urban six-acre park which serves 39,000 city dwellers.

Two brownfields exist along the edge of the park. The objective is to reclaim

the contaminated area so that the park can be expanded, Mr Taylor said.

An expanded Went Field Park would serve the students of Bassick High School.

The high school is considered one of the "stake holders" in the reclamation

project, he said.

Reclaiming the privately-owned, abandoned brownfields, which contain

dilapidated buildings, will require numerous funding sources, Mr Taylor said.

The City of Bridgeport, which hired Mr Taylor to coordinate the brownfield

project, is the lead agency in the reclamation project. Approximately $800,000

is needed to reclaim the properties and convert them into an expanded park, he

said. Funding sources are expected to include grants from the US Environmental

Protection Agency (EPA) and the state, he said.

As project coordinator, Mr Taylor is writing a plan for the park's

redevelopment.

The brownfields standard developed for ASTM is a document that can be applied

to various reclamation plans as diverse as the Went Field Park project and the

redevelopment of Fairfield Hills, Mr Taylor said.

"Brownfields is an issue that cuts across all society," he said. "Anyone can

use this document," he noted.

The presence of brownfields is one of the causes of urban blight and the lack

of urban redevelopment, he said. "In many cases, there's no polluter to pay"

the costs for an environmental clean-up, he said, noting that the firms

responsible for the contamination often do not have the money to pay for the

clean-up.

"The reason developers don't redevelop these sites is because there's a lot of

risk," he said.

The brownfields standard is intended to streamline the redevelopment process,

he stressed. "It's industry regulating itself," he said.

Environmental Advocacy

While the EPA has its own regulations on environmental clean-ups, the

brownfields standard is industry's "advocacy tool" intended to shape

environmental regulations, Mr Taylor said.

In the absence of any applicable regulations, the brownfields document takes

on the standing of an industry-endorsed standard, he said.

In the majority of cases Mr Taylor works on as an environmental consultant, a

government agency is involved to monitor environmental clean-ups. His work

involves creating agreements among the various parties involved to expedite

environmental clean-ups.

Often, he is employed by private firms working to rectify contamination

problems. The job involves balancing competing interests to address and

resolve the environmental and economic concerns stemming from cleanup

projects, he said.

"It's a whole new area," he said of brownfields reclamation.

Mr Taylor, who has a background in urban planning, has worked in the

environmental field for 15 years. He started Vita Nuova last year.

"We want an economy where brownfields get developed," he said.