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Since the mid-90s, the progress of brownfield redevelopment efforts has been tremendous. Successful pilots have been created, laws have been changed, financing has been secured, sites have been cleaned up and sustainable reuses established. These successes create the critical infrastructure that the existing brownfield market depends upon.
Yet, for all practical purposes, the brownfield market is still extremely new and many of the tools and techniques that have advanced the market have not been sufficiently replicated, let alone tested. In short, there's been just enough success to be dangerous.
A diverse group of technical, legal and business professionals representing industry, government and non-profit organizations have formed the National ICs Coalition. The goal of the Coalition is to promote a better understanding and more effective use of institutional controls (ICs).
The Coalition was formed to discuss common ground and interest in broad stakeholder advocacy to ensure the future viability of ICs. Monthly conference calls and meetings have since followed as the group focused on various topics relating to ICs.
ICs, also known as environmental land use controls (LUCs) or activity and use limitations (AULs), are administrative or legal mechanisms used to protect public health and the environment from residual contamination at Superfund sites, industrial facilities, commercial establishments, closed military bases, voluntary cleanup sites, and brownfield properties.
ICs are designed to limit land use or on-site activities that might otherwise inadvertently interfere with the remedy, particularly containment remedies such as caps or ongoing treatment remedies.
Currently, the Coalition is focused on educating state legislators and the public about the benefits of adopting the Uniform Environmental Covenant Act (UECA), a model law drafted and adopted by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL).
The Coalition's work includes a broad-ranging outreach effort to educate interested parties on why ICs may not be effective at the present time, and how adoption of UECA would facilitate the implementation and enforcement of ICs and therefore successful land renewal and redevelopment. Other issues the group has discussed include IC tracking, EPA IC guidance documents, and the life-cycle cost of ICs.
Current
members of the National ICs Coalition include the following organizations and
their members:
. International City/County Management Association (ICMA)
. American Chemistry Council (ACC)
. American Petroleum Institute (API)
. Holland and Knight LLP
. U.S. Navy
. National Governors Association (NGA)
. National Brownfield Association (NBA)
. Environmental Bankers Association (EBA)
. Environmental Law Institute (ELI)
. Energy Communities Alliance (ECA)
The cross-functional composition of the Coalition's membership gives it a unique perspective on the issues of ICs, environmental protection, and economic development.
If you or your organization would like more information on the Coalition, please contact David Borak at ICMA (202/962-3506) or Lorraine Krupa-Gershman at ACC (703/741-5219).
The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) has created a uniform law, the Uniform Environmental Covenant Act (UECA), which will provide a better framework for implementing and enforcing future environmental land use restrictions.
This framework, called an environmental covenant, is a legal device to restrict activities and impose affirmative obligations on sites where contamination remains in place.
Similar environmental land use restrictions are sometimes called institutional controls, land use controls, environmental easements, proprietary controls or activity and use restrictions. These restrictions are necessary to protect human health and the environment against inadvertent exposures to residual contamination while encouraging economic redevelopment.
UECA is expected to:
The US EPA has commended NCCUSL on UECA, and is supportive of its goals. EPA cited the current "patchwork of laws" in place across states and noted the need for uniform institutional controls to make it easier for buyers and developers to obtain financing.
UECA has already been introduced in Ohio, Nebraska and Pennsylvania. At least three additional states have active administrative reviews of the act under way.
Plans are ongoing for the introduction of the act in more than 20 additional state legislatures in 2005.