Local government officials are calling on Congress to amend the landmark 2002 brownfields law that was intended to help cities and counties fund revitalization efforts in their communities. As it stands now, the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfield Revitalization Act prevents local governments from receiving federal funds to help clean up contaminated properties that were acquired prior to the bill being signed into law on Jan. 11, 2002.

If passed, the new law would allow local governments to receive federal funding for sites they acquired before Jan. 11, 2002, as well as use some of the money to pay for administrative expenses related to the assessment or clean-up. “This [new] legislation would spur further economic development, while also cleaning up our environment in areas where it is desperately needed,” says Charlotte, N.C., Mayor Patrick McCrory.

Brownfields are a major problem for cities and counties that often become the stewards of abandoned industrial sites and gas stations. Unless the land is cleaned up for a new use, it remains an eyesore and produces no tax revenue. “It is a blight on the neighborhoods, discourages economic development and undermines local [government] tax bases,” says Ken Brown, executive director for the Washington, D.C.-based National Association of Local Government Environmental Professionals (NALGEP).

The current brownfields law allows the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to award $250 million a year in grants to local governments for assessing and cleaning up contaminated sites. In July, the EPA announced it had awarded $73.1 million to 176 applicants.

But NALGEP points out that “more than 200 grant applications were excluded from the EPA's recent brownfield grant process.” For example, the agency rejected four of Baltimore's grant applications this year because it submitted sites that it had acquired before Jan. 11, 2002.

Not meeting the current deadline for ownership only increases Baltimore's frustration. “Contamination issues were not caused by any action the city undertook,” says Evans Paull, director of the Brownfields Initiative for the Baltimore Development Corp.

The Senate has modified the law to allow local governments to use some of their grant to help pay for administrative costs. The House has not approved a similar measure.

“We need to fix the law now so that all communities can turn brownfields into greenfields,” says Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md. “Brownfields redevelopment improves quality of life in our neighborhoods and increases rateables for our local governments.”

If the measure is not approved this year, local officials warn that contaminated sites they have acquired prior to Jan. 11, 2002, are likely to remain untouched because they do not have the funds to clean them up. “The neighborhoods around them and the businesses around them suffer,” says Mark Gregor, manager of Rochester, N.Y.'s Division of Environmental Quality.

When the brownfields law went into effect in 2002, it was seen as a major step toward helping clean up sites that had long been ignored. Up until 2002, the EPA allocated about $98 million a year to help remediate contaminated sites.

The author is Washington correspondent for American City & County.