Brownfield Sites And Environmental Law
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Transcript of Brownfield Sites And Environmental Law
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Brownfield SitesAnd Environmental Law
Objectives: Define brownfields and explain how they form and what laws
are in place to clean them up.
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Humans are poisoning the Earth!
• Major accidents• Improper disposal of waste• Careless, or ignorant use of resources• While trying to fix one problem- creating one
that is even worse
Can you identify how?– Think of examples
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Bhopal Disaster – Union Carbide
1983• Killed 8000 people• Tens of thousands injured
2013• Toxic chemicals still contaminate
groundwater
Pesticide plant producing toxic
gases
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Agent Orange/ Dioxin in Vietnam
• US military used it to defoliate trees- sprayed by the millions of gallons• 400,000 were killed or injured• 500,000 children born with birth defects• Vietnamese and our US soldiers still suffer side effects
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Exxon Valdez
This was an oil tanker that ran aground in Alaska spilling hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude oil
11 Million Gallons!
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Deepwater Horizon (BP) Oil Spill
The oil “spill” in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 that spewed oil for 87 days. It was the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry
210 Million Gallons!
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Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant – Soviet Union
April 26, 1986
From 1986 to 2000: 350,400 people were evacuated and resettled from the most severely contaminated areas
After the meltdown, 237 people suffered from acute radiation sickness. 31 died in the next few months.
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Environmental Impact of the Industrial Revolution
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obrsE8j5l6c (3.5 min)
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What is a Brownfield?
Piece of land that was once used for industrial purposes and is now typically abandoned because of suspected contamination
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Valley of the Drums - Kentucky
• 23 acre collection site for toxic waste in the 1960s.• Some caught fire and burned for more than a week!• No laws to address the storage or containment of toxic wastes.• Unregulated for another decade.
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What is a contaminant?A contaminant is a toxic chemical that can harm
humans and/or the environment. Contaminants can pollute water, air, and/or soil.
Mercury Benzene
Arsenic
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Contaminants of Major Concern
Pesticides
Lead and copper
Benzene
Asbestos
Mercury and arsenic
PCBs
Gasoline and oilRespiratory
problems
Cancer and birth defects
Neurotoxin
Physical and mental disorders
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Where do contaminants come from?
Contaminants Possible source of contamination
Heavy metals:
arsenic, cadmium chromium, lead, mercury
metal finishing/plating shops, manufacturing and foundries, coal burning
power plants
Gasoline/constituents of gasoline:
gasoline, benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene, xylene
gasoline stations, tank farms, pipelines
Petroleum Products Leaking undergound storage tanks
Solvents:
tetrachloroethlyene, trichloroethylene,
III-trichloroethane
dry cleaners, machine shops,
metal finishing/plating shops
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Why do we keep using technologies and chemicals that
harm our environment?Economic Incentives vs. Health and Environmental Impacts
Coal Mining Natural Gas Fracking
Deep Oil Drilling
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Fracking – what is it?
http://www.dangersoffracking.com
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Does this site look familiar?
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CosCob Power Plant – A Brownfield Site here in Greenwich
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Sometimes we don’t always know that a site is dangerous until people
start getting sick
When we don’t know…
Major sign of contaminated area: Start seeing higher than average rates of illnesses
- Cancer - Rashes and skin sores- Asthma and lung illnesses - Bone diseases- Birth defects
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Love Canal 1950’s-1970’s – many suspicious illnesses in this NY neighborhood – *A woman developed a debilitating weakness and had to give up working*a child was born with multiple birth defects*kids with strange rashes and allergies*Trees and shrubs dying*Noxious chemical smells over the neighborhood.
What’s going on???
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Love Canal
• 1942-1953: 22,000 tons of chemical waste dumped by Hooker Corporation
• 1955: Site filled, land sold for $1, elementary school built on site.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKUyOLXtUsQhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXSE9kcBQCI
• 1979 – law suits filed. Schools were shut down. Government programs bought condemned homes and tore them down. Hundreds of families evacuated. Clean up costs have been estimated at $250 million.
Part 1 – six minPart 2 – six min
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History repeats itself… this time in Woburn, MA – A Civil Action
High rates of leukemia in the area around the wells.
Trichloroethylene contamination of the town's water supply by three different chemical companies.
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Have no fear… Can we fix it? Yes we can!!
Superfund is the common name for the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA), a United States federal law designed to clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances.
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Remediation: Making Brownfield sites safe and usable again…
• Identify and measure contaminants
• Determine the safety risks• Stop the contaminants from
spreading• Remove or isolate the
contaminants
Can we fix it? Yes we can!!
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Why Redevelop Brownfield Sites?
– Discounted real estate cost– Valuable location– Reduce pressure on undeveloped land– Preserve historical or architecturally
significant buildings – Eliminate health and safety hazards– Improve community
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WE DID IT!!Charles River, Boston – Success Story
In 1955 the Charles River in Boston was so polluted anyone who fell in the river had to get a tetanus shot.
Clean up started in the 1960s and in July 2007 the river hosted its first official swim race in decades.
Then… Now…