Urban Brownfield Cleanup's Big Benefits

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has just released a comprehensive research report demonstrating that redevelopment of contaminated industrial sites in inner cities brings substantial environmental benefits. The agency studied 163 brownfield sites in five cities, comparing their impacts with those of sites where development was likely to go had the brownfields not been available.

For over 90 percent of the sites, the brownfield locations were found to have superior environmental performance compared to the alternative locations. In particular, brownfield redevelopment was found to produce 32 to 57 percent less carbon dioxide and other air pollutant emissions per capita relative to conventional development. Stormwater runoff for the redevelopment sites was determined to range 43 to 60 percent less than the conventional greenfield alternatives. All of the sites had been cleaned up with EPA assistance and replaced with residential and commercial development that was completed or in progress at the time of the study.