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Indiana defines a brownfields site as "an industrial or commercial property that is abandoned, inactive, or underutilized, on which expansion or redevelopment is complicated due to the actual or perceived environmental contamination." Simply put, a business or industry closes or moves to another location and leaves behind a site with real or possible harmful contaminants. Developers are reluctant to utilize the site because of the potential liability involved with environmental contamination (see terms below); banks are reluctant to finance redevelopment for the same reason. As a result, the site becomes a "brownfield" (as opposed to undeveloped land termed "greenfields"). The total number of brownfields in the United States is estimated to be 450,000.

Why develop a brownfield?

There is only so much undeveloped land to go around. And...it makes sense to redevelop and reuse land that may have viable buildings and infrastructure already present. Redevelopment of brownfields properties provides new employment opportunities, increases local revenue, and revitalizes urban areas. This helps to revive inner cities while reducing urban sprawl. Plus, brownfield sites are often eyesores to the community and redeveloping them can greatly improve the appearance of an area.

The EPA Brownfields Initiative

The EPA initiated its initiative in 1995. The Brownfields Initiative has since become a national program that has changed the way that contaminated property is perceived, addressed and managed. The goal of the Initiative is to enable states and communities to work together to assess, safely clean up and sustainably reuse brownfields.

In order to do this, the EPA created Brownfields "Pilot" programs that provide useful information and strategies for brownfields restoration. Pilot programs provide initial funding as well as continued general and technical assistance needed to meet cleanup goals. There are several categories of Brownfield Pilots:

Brownfields Assessment Pilots provide funding for environmental assessments and community outreach.
Brownfields Cleanup Revolving Loan Fund (BCRLF) Pilots provide funding to capitalize loans that are used to clean up brownfields.
Brownfields Job Training and Development Demonstration Pilots provide environmental training for residents of brownfields communities.
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)/Brownfields Prevention Pilots utilize the inherent flexibility in RCRA regulations to prevent brownfields from forming on RCRA properties.
Clean Air/Borwnfields Partnership Pilots help determine the potential air quality and other environmental and economic benefits of redeveloping urban brownfields.
Brownfields Showcase Communities serve as national models for successful brownfields assessment, cleanup, and redevelopment.
Targeted Brownfields Assessments (TBAs) provide funding and/or technical assistance for environmental assessments at selected brownfields sites not targeted by EPA Assessment Pilots.

With the help of these Pilot programs, billions of dollars in cleanup and redevelopment funding from public and private sectors has been leveraged, properties once considered worthless have been assessed and found to require no cleanup and have instantly been returned to circulation, and thousands of jobs have been created.

Brownfield terms

*Acute hazards -*	Environmental hazards that pose an imminent threat to human health or the environment.
*Chemical -*	Any contaminant that is not a petroleum product.
*Chemical of concern -*	All types of potentially harmful chemicals that may be present at a site.
*Comfort letter -*	A letter issued specific parties that are relieved of liability under state statutes or existing IDEM policy. This type of letter provides a legal opinion regarding IDEM's possible pursuit of legal actions against a seller, owner or potential purchaser of a brownfield site. This letter clarifies why the party is not liable.
*Contamination -*	Any physical, chemical, biological or radioactive substance or matter present in air, water or soil at concentrations that may result in adverse effects on people or the environment, or introduction into water, air and/or soil of microorganisms, chemicals, toxic substances, wastes or wastewater in a concentration that makes the medium unfit for its next intended us. Also applies to surfaces of objects, buildings and various household and agricultural use products.
*Covenant Not to Sue -*	A document issued from the governor's office after a cleanup through Indiana Department of Environmental Management's Voluntary Remediation Program has been successfully completed. The covenant protects the recipient of the Certificate of Completion and any other person who receives the certificate through a transfer or by acquiring property to which the certificate applies. These persons are protected from all public or private claims arising under the environmental management laws for the release or threatened release of a hazardous substance or petroleum that was the subject of the remediation work plan.
*Environmental assessment -*	The process by which it is determined whether contamination is present on a site through a records review, a historical review, sampling activities, etc.
*Hazardous substance -*	Any material that poses a threat to human health or the environment. Typical hazardous substances are toxic, corrosive, ignitable, explosive or chemically reactive, or any substance designated by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to be reported if a designated quantity of the substance is spilled in the waters of the United States or is otherwise released into the environment.
*Hazardous waste -*	Byproducts of society that can pose a substantial or potential hazard to human health or the environment when improperly managed. Possesses at least one of four characteristics (ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity or toxicity) or appears on special U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lists.
*Liability -*	The Superfund law (CERCLA), which applies to brownfields, says that anyone ever associated with a contaminated site, at any point in time, is potentially responsible for paying for its cleanup, forever. In legal terms this is known as strict/joint/several liability. These people are the potentially responsible parties, or PRPs. In some situations, liability also can include non-PRPs, like banks, who would have to pay for cleanup if they had lost collateral on a loan due to contamination issues.
*Oversight -*	To oversee or supervise the assessment or remediation of a site to ensure the proper or appropriate objectives are met or adhered to.
*Permanent remedy -*	A remedial action taken to eliminate the chemical of concern from a project site, thereby eliminating risk.
*Permanent cleanup -*	A remedial action that removes contamination from the affected media or permanently reduces concentrations of chemicals of concern to health-protective levels.
*Petroleum product -*	Virgin petroleum lubricating oil or virgin petroleum fuel oil.
*Remediation -*	All necessary actions needed to investigate and clean up any known or suspected discharge or threatened discharge of contaminants, including the following without limitation: preliminary assessments, site investigation, remedial investigations, remedial alternative analyses and remedial actions.
*Risk assessment -*	An evaluation of the potential for harm to human health or the environment posed by anthropologic environmental hazards.
*Stakeholder -*	Any organization, governmental entity, or individual that has a stake in or may be affected by a given approach to environmental regulation, pollution prevention, energy conservation, etc.
*Tank -*	A stationary device designed to contain an accumulation of regulated substances and constructed of non-earthen materials (e.g., concrete, steel or plastic) that provides structural support.
*Urban sprawl -*	Scattered development or outward growth.

A success story in Clark County

as reported by the Indiana Brownfields Program
IDEM Office of Water Quality

Occidental Chemical

The former Occidental Chemical facility was located on 26 acres in a highly commercialized area of Clark County, Indiana. The manufacturing facility was constructed by Shea Chemicals in 1954 and purchased by Occidental Chemical (then Hooker Chemical) in 1958. Sodium and potassium phosphate products, and technical and food grade phosphoric acid were produced at the facility until it was shut down in December of 1991. A site investigation discovered arsenic and phosphorus contamination in the surface and subsurface soils throughout the site.

Occidental applied to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management's (IDEM) Voluntary Remediation Program in November, 1993. A voluntary remediation work plan was submitted to IDEM in April 1994. On-site remediation consisted of the demolition of several former production buildings and the removal of over 25,000 cubic yards of arsenic and phosphorus contaminated soil. The remediation work was conducted under the oversight of IDEM's Voluntary Remediation Program. The entire remediation project was completed within one year of entering the Voluntary Remediation Program. IDEM issued a Certificate of Completion to Occidental for the successful completion of their remediation work plan in February , 1995. A Covenant Not to Sue for the Occidental site has also been issued by the Governor's Office.

As a direct result of Occidental's participation in IDEM's Voluntary Remediation Program, commercial development of the site began during the summer of 1995 by a new owner. The site is currently occupied by retail stores such as Office Depot, Pier 1 and various restaurants. This development has provided over 400 local jobs and stimulated the local economy. IDEM's Voluntary Remediation Program has demonstrated that government and industry can work together to improve the environment and support economic redevelopment.

More About Brownfields

Indiana Brownfields Program

EPA Brownfields

ROBIN - Regional Online Brownfields Information Network

Brownfield Central

U.S. Department of Housing and Development

Brownfields.com