USCM BROWNFIELDS

2008 Brownfields Conference in Detroit!

2008-01-15T09:16:00.000-08:00

Registration Now Open for the 2008 Brownfields Conference

With nearly 6,000 attendees, over 150 educational sessions, more than 200 exhibitors and unrivaled networking events, the U.S. EPA and ICMA co-sponsored National Brownfields Conference is the premier event of its kind. Join us May 5-7, 2008 at the Cobo Convention Center in Detroit, MI. To learn more about the conference and events, please visit the ICMA's Brownfields 2008 website

What Are States Doing in The Area Of Brownfield's Development?

2008-01-15T09:03:00.000-08:00

New Jersey
Connect Smart Growth with Brownfields Cleanup - New Jersey's Approach The New Jersey Office of State Planning's brownfields program began in July 1997. On January 6, 1998, Governor Christine T. Whitman signed into law the Brownfields and Contaminated Site Remediation Act, which established a Brownfields Redevelopment Task Force. The 11-member task force includes representatives from five state agencies and six public members. In June 2000, the task force adopted an action plan to guide its future activities. In addition, the 2001 budget included a new $15-million Brownfields Redevelopment grant program to provide municipalities with funds for redevelopment projects. The state plan impact assessment found that the brownfields approach would reduce sprawl, saving 68,000 acres of farmland and 122,000 acres overall. New Jersey Department of Environmental Quality, 609/292-1250

Michigan
Eliminate Barriers and Offer Incentives - Michigan's Approach to BrownfieldsPrior to 1995, a strict liability law and stringent remediation standards constrained Michigan's brownfields redevelopment efforts. Legislators amended the law, adding fairness to the liability scheme by holding only those parties that caused the contamination responsible for the cleanup. New cleanup standards based on reasonable risk assumptions give developers and public officials more flexibility. In 1998 Governor John Engler's Clean Michigan Initiative, a $675-million environmental bond, expanded redevelopment programs. Of this amount, more than $300 million is dedicated to environmental cleanup and urban renewal. In June 2000, the legislature approved several other proposals, making it easier to prepare brownfields for redevelopment and providing tax incentives and low-interest loans. A new law increases the maximum single business tax credit for developers from $1 million to $30 million. Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, 800/662-9278

Pennsylvania
Promote Reuse of Land -Pennsylvania's Green Opportunities for Brownfields InitiativeOn January 9, 1999, Governor Tom Ridge signed an executive order to foster sound land-use practices in Pennsylvania. The order promotes reuse of land, planned growth at all levels of government, regional cooperation among local governments, greenways to improve quality of life, and preservation of farmland and open space. The Natural Lands Trust and the departments of environmental protection, conservation and natural resources, and community and economic development are collaborating on the governor's Green Opportunities for Brownfields Initiative. It seeks to encourage mixed-use development with housing choices; recognize the importance of open space, recreational areas, and greenways in urbanized areas; and apply energy-efficient, low-emission designs. Pennsylvania's Land Recycling Program, 717/783-7816

Wisconsin Leopold Center Earns LEED Platinum

2007-11-05T11:27:00.000-08:00

Baraboo, Wisconsin - Built in honor of one of the world’s most famed conservationists, the Aldo Leopold Legacy Center, located on Leopold’s farm near Baraboo, Wisconsin, has earned 61 out of a possible 69 LEED points, the most earned by any LEED-certified building to date and enough to qualify for a Platinum rating.

The net-zero-energy building produces as much energy as it consumes with a grid-tied photovoltaic system and a ground-source heat pump serving a radiant-floor heating system; wood stoves add additional heat.Fresh air is pumped into the building through a series of underground pipes, moderating extreme outdoor temperatures before entering conditioned space, thereby lessening the energy needed for heating and cooling. The Center is also the first LEED building to earn an innovation credit for being carbon neutral; emissions from the Aldo Leopold Foundation’s activities and the generation of electricity for those activities are offset by the carbon sequestration of the foundation’s 35 acres of forest certified to Forest Stewardship Council standards.

Much of the lumber used in the center—90,000 board feet (200 m3), including many trees planted by Leopold—also came from this forest. More information is available at www.aldoleopold.org/legacycenter/.

The Aldo Leopold Legacy Center has received Platinum LEED ® Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Following a rigorous assessment, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program awarded the Legacy Center 61 points of 69 possible points, more than any other building yet rated in the world.

The Legacy Center helps us to envision how we can use energy more efficiently and develop positive relationships to other people and the planet. Through energy efficiency, renewable energy, and an ongoing commitment to land stewardship, the Legacy Center became the first carbon neutral building certified by LEED—meaning annual operations account for no net gain in carbon dioxide emissions.

The Legacy Center is a net zero energy building, meeting all of its energy needs on site. Despite the contrasts of Wisconsin’s four-season climate, the Legacy Center uses 70 percent less energy than a building built just to code, and the center’s roof-mounted solar array is projected to meet 110 percent of the building’s energy needs on an annual basis.

Key Features of the Legacy Center:
Carbon-neutral
Energy-efficient design
Locally-harvested wood products
Continuing the work of Aldo Leopold

ThinkSustainable (European Best Practice)

2007-11-05T10:52:00.000-08:00

Putting sustainability into action, originally made for use at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the UK. http://www.defra.gov.uk/

ThinkSustainable was developed in Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) as a package to communicate sustainable development (SD). It was created to raise awareness and understanding of SD and to help policy makers embed SD in their work.

The ThinkSustainable identity was launched in Defra alongside the UK SD Strategy Securing the Future in April 2005. ThinkSustainable aims to provide a coordinated approach to embedding SD in Government. This includes communicating clear messages and behaviours through for example, campaigns, tools and events.

ThinkSustainable has provided consistency and helped to gain the maximum impact from our messaging and campaigns. As part of this launch, Defra invested in developing a package of ‘SD Tools’.

These were developed to help government policy makers as well as those working on project and programs to think about how their work impacts on sustainable development.

Toronto Hydro Best Practice Video

2007-11-05T10:20:00.000-08:00

The Making of the Toronto Hydro Services Facility Video at 500 Commissioners Street, Toronto, Ontario.

An example of a TEDCO brownfield redevelopment project for Toronto Hydro opened in 1997. TEDCO worked with Shell Canada to conduct a Site Specific RiskAssessment (SSRA) based clean-up with Shell retaining responsibility for any future clean-up requirements.Proactive environmental management approach by TEDCO, in association with Shell Canada and Toronto Hydro; Brownfields restoration of contaminated waterfront lands; 1995 Site Specific Risk Assessment clean up in Ontario; Strong working relationship with the City of Toronto and the MOE; Proactive environmental management approach by TEDCO, in association with Shell Canada and Toronto Hydro.

US Conference of Mayors Releases Preliminary Results For the 2006 Brownfields Survey- Vol. 7

2007-11-05T07:10:00.000-08:00

**Preliminary Results for the 2006 (May 2007) Brownfields Survey- Vol. 7**

Executive Summary

The seventh Brownfield’s report documents the problems of brownfields redevelopment faced by local communities throughout the United States and identifies the fleeting opportunities lost when properties remain idle and abandoned. For the first time, this report quantifies some of the benefits from brownfields redevelopment efforts across the country with cities responding their positive results from land recycling and the return of brownfields to productive uses.

Status of the Problem

203 cities provided information regarding brownfields in their communities. In this years’ survey, 179 estimated that they had more than 18,418 brownfields sites, with the average size of a brownfield site being 14.17 acres. There were 167 cities estimating 67,196 acres of land, which were idle or abandoned properties holding the potential to create jobs or produce tax revenue. More the 140 cities also estimated 2,705 sites have been “Mothballed,” which is defined, as sites that the current owner has no intention of redeveloping or selling due to environmental impact concerns.

This year’s report again demonstrates that brownfields not only affect large urban areas, but also rural landscapes. Our last report stated that nearly a third of the respondents were from cities with populations under 50,000 and this report had the similar results.

The cities again identified the major obstacles to the redevelopment of brownfield sites. In this seventh report, ‘Clean-up Funds’ was the most frequently identified impediment, cited by 85 percent of the respondents. The next two major impediments again were ‘Liability Issues’ and the need for ‘Environmental Assessment’. Both impediments were selected by an equal portion of the respondents and as a result, both tied for the second spot.

This survey also asked cities if they had brownfields sites that would require additional subsidies beyond cleanup funds and assessment monies. Over 69 percent of the respondents listed the need for additional help in the following forms: low interest loans, demolition monies, aid in the acquisition and assembly of land, grants for remediation and aid for sewer upgrades, road improvements and other infrastructure upgrades. Also identified this year, not in order or rank, were: brownfields technology training, job development and training, assistance in the planning process, and community needs assessment training.

In this year’s survey cities were also asked it there were institutional controls in place on their redeveloped Brownfield sites. 103 cities responded that they currently have institutional controls in place. 47 cities responded that they would require additional subsidies to enact a city / state wide system.

Potential Benefits

In this year’s survey we asked cities to report the actual number of acres and sites that have been redeveloped as well as current acres and sites in progress. There were 146 cities that reported having success in redeveloping brownfields. The average time it took to redevelop a brownfields site was three and half to four years. 152 cities successfully redeveloped more than 1,494 sites representing 13,179 acres. There are 1,163 sites, comprising 13,391 acres currently in progress of being redeveloped.

Over 46 percent of the survey respondents stated that if brownfields were redeveloped, they could realize nearly $1.1 billion to $3.3 billion annually in additional tax revenues. There were 62 cities that provided an actual tax revenue amount from redeveloped brownfields sites totaling over $336 million. In addition, 99 cities responded that over 149,515 new jobs could be created on brownfields sites with 75 cities reporting that 178,197 jobs have already been created from former brownfields sites (66,493 jobs during redevelopment and 111,704 jobs created post development.) We also asked what the end uses for sites were. Site usage included retail, mixed-use, housing and commercial projects.

Over 75 percent of the respondents stated that additional people could live in their cities without burdening existing infrastructure, with more than 35 percent of the respondents stating that 2.5 million additional people could be accommodated in their communities.

* 2006 Recycling America's Land Survey is in the process of being published, a full and finalized version of the Survey will be available of purchase or download starting in Late November 2007

* 2006 Recycling America’s Land Brownfield Survey Volume 7, contains numbers following the devastation from Hurricane Katrina. Cities in Louisiana, Florida, Texas, Mississippi and other effected regions submitted Brownfield numbers post 2005 Hurricane Season. Not all of the effected cities or areas were able to estimate their Brownfield sights after such a devastating hurricane season.

Buried Burdens Underground Fuel Tanks Threaten County Road 400 North Project

2007-11-05T06:58:00.000-08:00

Bettina Puckett-Staff Writer

Years ago, folks around Fairland often stopped off at Frodie's Place Food Center to fill up their gas tank or buy a gallon of milk.The gas station has been closed for several years, but now its leaking underground gasoline storage tanks present an environmental problem that could affect the next phase of the County Road 400 North project, which is due to be bid in the spring.When David Griffin purchased the old gas station a few years ago at a tax sale, he bought it as an investment property but has made no improvements to the property. But on Oct. 23, he lost the two parcels of land in another tax sale.Shelby County Auditor Amy Glackman said Griffin owed $1,802.78 in taxes on the property. At the recent tax sale, a man named Vinod C. Gupta, in care of Banco Popular Lien Holder Rudy, of Miami Lake, Fla., purchased the two parcels for $4,400.

At Monday night's regular weekly meeting of the Shelby County Board of Commissioners, Griffin told the commissioners that he didn't learn the tax sale had happened until Oct. 24."My intentions are to pay the taxes and get the property back," Griffin said.By Wednesday, Griffin had not yet reclaimed his property, and Glackman said the penalties and interest are growing.Grant money available

In the meantime, the problem of the leaking underground storage tanks has not been addressed. Under the Indiana Brownfields Program, petroleum remediation grants are awarded throughout the state to help clean up the contamination left from the old tanks.Ken Coad, a project manager with the program, said last August that $97,000 is in the state's budget to help clean up Frodie's. But since the old gas station is privately owned, the owner must give permission for the clean-up to begin. And since the ownership is now uncertain, cleanup is on hold.

Coad was out of the office this week and could not be reached for comment. Several tries to a phone number that Griffin provided in the commissioners' meeting produced only a busy signal.

Coad had explained that Indiana is divided up into seven regions, and Shelby County is located in Region 2. "Each region was awarded $750,000 to clean up leaking underground storage tanks that have been identified by our consultant," Coad said at the time.Dan Fortune, a project director with American Environmental of Indianapolis, said in August that Griffin hired his company to do some initial tests at the site. After doing seven borings, Fortune said a lot of contamination was found in the soil and ground water. Fortune was unavailable for comment.

All of this news of contamination does not sit well with Michael and Francine Turner, who own a home right next to the old gas station. Francine Turner said some people had come to take water samples about the time that the first story appeared in The Shelbyville News."The people said they would get back to us in 30 to 60 days, but we never heard from them," Francine Turner said. "We need to know what's going on."The Turners have lived in their well-kept yellow house next door to the gas station for 26 years. She is concerned about how the contamination might have affected their well water.

The family's house is located near the corner of South Edgerton Street and West Carey Street. The Turners have watched the gas station deteriorate through the years, but they have been good neighbors and have mowed the grass around the old store so that it doesn't detract from their home.

Episode brings back bad memories the whole episode reminds Commissioner Dave Mohr of when county officials had to deal with contamination from an underground storage tank at the old county jail before the new jail was built. "We went through some miserable times to clean that up," Mohr said. "Finally, (the state) said it was OK, and we went on down the road."Mohr has learned from experience that most everything having to do with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and other state agencies takes time.

He and his fellow commissioners, Roger Laird and Tony Newton, are wondering whether the $97,000 grant, when it is finally approved, will cover the entire cost of the cleanup at Frodie's. They don't want county taxpayers paying the rest of the cost.

Also, Phase 2 of the County Road 400 North project hangs in the balance. Phase 3 was recently completed, while Phase 1 was finished in 2003. Phase 3 was completed before Phase 2 because that portion of the road had no shoulders and was dangerous for drivers.At Monday night's meeting, the commissioners tabled any action on the petroleum remediation grant for two weeks to give Griffin time to pay his back taxes and reclaim his property. Griffin said a representative from the Shelby County Highway Department made him an offer from the county to buy the land a year ago, but the deal was never finalized."We had preliminary plans, but that was before the contamination showed up," Mohr said at the meeting. "The plan now is to keep the right of way as tight as we can."Rather than include sidewalks in the portion of CR 400 North that will be built in front of the store, through the contaminated area, the county has decided tentatively to eliminate those sidewalks."We were told to stay completely away from that (contamination)," Newton said.

Because the old gas station is on privately owned land, the county commissioners do not want the county to be liable for any of the cleanup costs."I don't want them stringing it out for two years and holding up that road project," Newton said.The federal Environmental Protection Agency estimates that nearly 25 percent of the underground fuel storage tanks in the United States might be leaking, according to a Purdue University Web site.

Our view: Brownfields become urban greenswards

2007-11-05T06:54:00.000-08:00

Eagle-Tribune

Polluted urban lots once regarded as dangerous wastelands are finding new life as places for recreation and relaxation.In recent days, the governor's office announced major reclamation projects that will take place in Salem and Lawrence, while officials in Beverly celebrated the transformation of a former fly-ash pit near the airport.The site formerly occupied by the Ogden Martin (now Covanta) medical waste incinerator in Lawrence's Arlington neighborhood is a desolate area that will be transformed into a beautiful park.

Aided by a $500,000 state grant, the city plans to make the land part of the Spicket River Greenway with benches, new landscaping and other amenities.The Covanta facility in Lawrence was shuttered in 1998. Contamination and the availability of more developable sites within the city had seemingly condemned it to many more years of neglect.But its location between Manchester Street and the Spicket River provided an ideal opportunity to develop it for active and passive recreation. City officials believe those improvements may help relieve the flooding problems that occur periodically in the area.

Birch Plains Park is the bucolic name of the Beverly site. It reflects the greenery that's replaced what had been a bleak expanse of rock, gravel and tons of fly ash trucked in from the Salem Harbor power plant. Funding for the park restoration, which will serve to protect Salem and Beverly's water supply in nearby Wenham Lake, came from the power plant's former owner, National Grid."It's a work of art," exclaimed famed environmental lawyer Jan Schlictmann, president of the Wenham Lake Watershed Association and a prime mover behind the restoration effort.And in Salem, the same grant program that's funding the Lawrence project will be used to build a new playground on an industrial site next to the South River canal in the city's Point neighborhood.

"Open spaces help define the character and improve the livability of our cities and towns, and investing in our system of parks across the entire commonwealth will allow residents to enjoy nature and engage in recreational activities within their communities," Gov. Deval Patrick declared in announcing $7.8 million worth of grants for 21 projects throughout the state.Indeed, in densely populated cities like Salem and Lawrence where green space is at a premium, it makes sense to convert these abandoned brownfields sites into places where people can enjoy the outdoors.

The boost from the state's Urban Self-Help Program was critical. Besides the two North-of-Boston projects, the grants announced last month will help restore a decaying urban plaza in Brockton, improve public access to the Concord River in Lowell, and build bocce courts in Chelsea.According to Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Ian Bowles, whose office oversees the 30-year-old Urban Self-Help Program, "We gave special consideration this year to projects that will stabilize city neighborhoods and help revitalize urban centers."All three projects are welcome additions that will allows residents of their respective communities to find a touch of green where there was once only the brown of neglect and decay.
Copyright © 1999-2006 cnhi, inc.

British Gas Launches Greenest Energy Tariff

2007-08-20T12:19:00.000-07:00

British Gas has announced it is launching two new green energy tariffs, Zero Carbon, which will be the greenest tariff available on the domestic market and Future Energy. British Gas has launched the tariffs in response to the increasing demand for green energy products.

Householders signing up to the Zero Carbon tariff will:

* reduce their household energy carbon emissions to zero through Kyoto compliant offset schemes which will meet the new Defra requirements
* help fund a direct increase in investment in renewable energy generated in the UK
* contribute to the new British Gas green fund which will:

* invest in developing new renewable technologies such as wave power
* oversee a programme to help schools in the UK reduce their CO2 emissions

Gearaid Lane, Managing Director British Gas New Energy said, "Our new tariff responds to consumer demand for truly green energy solutions. It is essential that customers have confidence in green energy tariffs and that their credibility is not damaged by tariffs that claim to be green but in reality do not deliver any incremental environmental benefits. Green tariffs are moving from niche to mainstream products and we're leading the industry by offering a tariff that will do more for the environment than any other product currently available."

Under the government's Renewables Obligation (RO), electricity suppliers in the UK are already required to produce an increasing percentage of their electricity through methods such as wind farms which, unlike traditional power plants, produce zero carbon emissions. For 2007/2008 this figure is set at 7.9%.

In a recent report, the National Consumer Council (NCC) raised concerns that some energy suppliers are packaging electricity which is produced under the RO scheme as 'green', yet it delivers no additional environmental benefits. The NCC called on energy suppliers to take steps beyond their legal requirements and offer green energy tariffs that provide genuine additional environmental benefits, in particular CO2 emissions reduction.

British Gas worked with Global Action Plan and The Climate Group's We're in this Together campaign to develop Zero Carbon which goes further than any other green tariff in meeting these requirements offering consumers the only zero carbon option on the market.
The tariff carries a premium per year, reflecting the higher cost of producing energy through lower carbon emission schemes.

Virginia Graham, Chair of Global Action Plan, said, "The British Gas Zero Carbon tariff delivers on all three of the essential requirements of a green tariff which are: additionality, transparency and verifiability. As such it is a very welcome new offering in the market. Consumers signing up to the tariff can be confident that they are getting 12 per cent more renewable energy than they would otherwise have got. The carbon emissions from their electricity and gas will also be offset with emissions reductions from projects accredited by the United Nations."

Zero Carbon is one of the first initiatives launched through the We're in this Together campaign, which was launched in April 07 as an alliance of some of the UK's biggest brands who are all working to help their customers reduce their impact on the climate.

Dr Steve Howard, CEO of The Climate Group and founder of We're in this Together said, "We're committed to offering people ways to make a real impact on climate change through Together.com. We've worked with British Gas to ensure that Zero Carbon is a genuine step forward in delivering more environmental benefits than any other tariff currently available."
British Gas's second green energy tariff, Future Energy, offers an alternative green electricity tariff at a premium of just Â£20 per year. Customers signing up to this tariff will contribute to a green fund which will provide solar panels and other renewable energy technologies to UK schools. Money from the fund will also be invested in development of future renewable technologies and sources.

2007. Copyright Environmental News Network

Clean Diesel Signs Distribution Agreement to Improve Diesel Exhaust Controls

2007-08-20T12:17:00.000-07:00

STAMFORD, Connecticut — Clean Diesel Technologies Inc., a developer of chemical and technological products designed to reduce harmful engine emissions, announced that it has signed a blending and distribution agreement with Fleetguard Inc., a business unit of Cummins Inc., for the sale of Platinum Plus Fuel-Borne Catalyst.

Under the terms of the agreement, Fleetguard will purchase Platinum Plus FBC concentrate from Clean Diesel for blending into finished products for sale under the Fleet-tech brand to distributors and end users in the on-highway, off-road, marine and power generation sectors. Clean Diesel will continue to focus on product development, FBC-emissions verification with after-treatment devices, and global promotions

The Platinum Plus FBC provides significant emission reductions from diesel engines and is formulated to improve the performance of after-treatment devices such as diesel-oxidation catalysts, partial filters or diesel-particulate traps. Offered in both the Platinum Plus DFX and higher strength Platinum Plus DFX-DPF formulations, Fleetguard will carry both products through its nationwide sales and distributor partners. According to James Valentine, president of Clean Diesel, "These products have been demonstrated to improve the performance of after-treatment devices by reducing soot loading to the devices, lowering soot-oxidation temperature and keeping devices catalytically active."

Commenting on the agreement, David Brisk of Fleetguard said: "Our target markets will initially be those fleets using after-treatment devices where the benefits of a fuel-borne catalyst are well established. These include fleets using particulate filters or diesel-oxidation catalysts which can become fouled with soot under low temperatures or stop-and-go driving cycles. The Platinum Plus FBC reduces engine-out soot loadings and allows soot to oxidize at lower temperatures, thus reducing or eliminating plugging of exhaust treatment devices."

Initially targeted at the retrofit market, Clean Diesel is also conducting programs using Platinum Plus FBC in advanced engines with exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) and soot filters to achieve the 2007 emissions standards. Use of the FBC is expected to allow lower platinum loadings on after-treatment devices, reduce fuel-economy penalties of new low emissions engines, and improve low temperature regeneration of soot filters in difficult medium-duty urban drive conditions.

About Fleetguard Inc.: Fleetguard Inc. is a business unit of Cummins Inc. It is a designer and manufacturer of heavy-duty air, fuel, hydraulic and lube filtration, chemicals and exhaust system technology products for diesel and gas-powered equipment. Fleetguard cares about maintaining a cleaner, healthier, and safer environment. Fleetguard's homepage on the Internet can be found at www.fleetguard.com.About Clean Diesel Technologies Inc.: Clean Diesel Technologies Inc. (OTCBB:CDTI) and its U.K. representative office, Clean Diesel International LLC, is a developer of chemical and technological products designed to reduce harmful engine emissions. Clean Diesel Technologies has patented products that reduce emissions from combustion engines while simultaneously improving fuel economy and power. For more information, visit www.cdti.com.

Source: Business Wire, Clean Diesel Technologies, Inc.

Georgia Contractors Cut Costs by Going "Green" with Use of New Emissions Technology

2007-08-20T12:13:00.000-07:00

Southern Drilling, a Georgia-based provider of heavy drilling equipment for mining operations, water wells and mineral exploration has been instrumental in reducing diesel fuel consumption and pollution in the state for the last five years. Southern Drilling is the exclusive distributor in Georgia of Emissions Technology, Inc.'s Combustion Catalyst Systems (CCS) that reduces harmful pollutants in stationary diesel engines by 50 percent and lowers fuel consumption 15 - 20 percent.

"At first I thought it was pure snake oil," says John Yongue, president of Southern Drilling. "After I tried it on a diesel drilling rig, I quickly became a believer."

Now, 200 installations later, Yongue is still a firm believer in the product, and he is making new believers with each new installation. Besides drilling rigs, Yongue has installed CCS units on diesel generators, grinders, chippers and pumps.

The catalyst system was designed by Phoenix-based technology company Emissions Technology. It is the size of a large cereal box and is installed under the hood, near the diesel engine's turbocharger. The technology makes the engine combustion cleaner and more efficient by injecting a platinum-based catalyst into the combustion chamber. The concept is the same as taking a catalytic converter, and installing it on the front end of the combustion cycle, rather than on the exhaust.

According to Troy Bohlke, vice president of marketing/investor relations for Emissions Technology, "It was a big plus to us when we discovered that the catalyst system could save fuel and help engines run cleaner. It was originally designed to reduce particulate emissions from diesel engines. However, now we are killing three birds with one stone...reducing pollutants, lowering fuel consumption and increasing the life of the engine with one CCS unit."

Two of Yongue's customers also have become "die hard" believers. Greg Grosch, manager of Grosch Drilling, a 74 year old company in Dublin, Georgia operates between 30 ”“ 35 heavy drilling rigs used for boring large diameter municipal and agricultural water wells. Yongue installed a CCS unit on one of Grosch's drilling rigs and three more units on his diesel air compressors. So impressed by the savings, Grosch is preparing to retrofit his remaining diesel-driven drilling rigs, generators and air compressors spread throughout Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Nebraska, Colorado and Illinois with CCS units.

"We immediately began to notice fuel savings right after the installation," says Greg Grosch, manager of Grosch Drilling. "We also noticed the bigger the engine, the bigger the savings, the better my bottom line."

Ronnie Savage of Ronnie Savage Construction, a land clearing company located in Maysville, Georgia, with operations in Alabama had Yongue install a total of three CCS units on two of their diesel grinders. The CCS reduced fuel consumption by 16 percent on their 650 hp grinder and 23 percent on their 1000 hp grinder. After 15 days of operation on the 1000 hp grinder, running eight hours a day, the CCS reached its break even point.

According to Ronnie Savage, president of the Ronnie Savage Construction, "It was too good to be true. When you're the one writing the checks for fuel, you take notice of the savings quickly."
Health and environmental concerns are causing a number of states to enact stricter emissions' control legislation. This is placing companies that operate older, non-compliant diesel-powered equipment in a tailspin, looking for ways to quickly, but economically become compliant.

Unfortunately, their choices are limited to either purchasing entirely new equipment which is cost prohibitive, or finding less expensive, after market solutions, which are often time consuming to install.

"Less fuel and less smoke...we are saving money and the environment. That doesn't take a PhD to figure out," says Savage.

By injecting the platinum-based catalyst into the cylinder, scaring and pitting is reduced within the combustion chamber. This increases the lifespan of the engine while keeping the engine operating at optimum performance.

Southern Drilling technicians can install a CCS unit in 1Â½ to three hours. In addition, Southern Drilling performs most of their installations "in the field" to reduce the amount of time the equipment is not in operation at the work site.

http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/22037

Brownfields: Recycling of Urban Space (Czech Republic)

2007-08-20T12:05:00.000-07:00

OP/Ed Article

The trend of favouring less expensive and less complicated greenfield developments causes constant growth of cities and suburban areas. On the other hand, the inner cities are affected by underused areas left after old outdated premises. Though, in the recent years, the historic cores of the Slovak cities have undergone renewal efforts and the various commercial activities and urban life have returned back, there are residing or former industrial areas from the end of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.

Their original location was peripheral but during the time, with the spatial expansion of cities, they became the part of the innercity. There are several arguments for recycling of such areas. Firstly, the ecological reasons have to be mentioned. If the total land stock is constant, it is necessary, like any other non-renewable resource, to spare and after loosing the original usage, it should be “recycled”.

Revitalisation of brownfields contributes to the increase of the attractiveness of the city, aesthetic and functional quality of the urban spaces. In practice, the revitalisation and functional conversion is rarely primarily motivated by the ecological goal of avoiding suburbanisation. The strategies of developers are rather based on utilising their main advantage, namely the favourable location, in the proximity to the city centre.

Increasing prices of properties in the city centre are followed by the increasing interest for this spatial reserve. At the same time, there is the disadvantage of additional costs for restructuring and demolitions, compared with greenfield location. In the developer’s efforts to utilise the lucrative lots as much as possible, some less profitable, however not obsolete functions might be displaced. This problem could be illustrated by the intention of using the lots under the bus station or the river port in Bratislava for other development project.

Moreover, the old industrial areas often host valuable historical buildings or whole structures that would disappear if completely replaced by the new structures. Without active intervention of the municipality or state, many of such areas are almost unusable and stay outside the interest of investors or may be subject of land speculation.

The public body may consider stimulation such as tax deductions, partial construction of the infrastructure, consultation and project support. In more complex projects, the most suitable solution is to establish a long-term cooperation of the private and public sector in the form of Joint Venture or local development agency. This cooperation forms have been successfully applied by the revitalisation of brownfield, particularly in Great Britain (London Docklands, Glasgow). In Slovakia, the state no specific measure to applied to brownfield redevelopment. The situation is more favourable even in the Czech Republic that initiated the preparation of the National Strategy for Brownfield Regeneration.

Author: Jaroslav Coplák, PhD., Project team Ecocity

Governor Trumpets Brownfields Law

2007-08-20T12:01:00.000-07:00

The Hartford Courant
August 10, 2007

Gov. M. Jodi Rell held a ceremony this week to highlight a new law to promote the redevelopment of contaminated properties.The law, which went into effect on July 1, creates a new program to finance the cleanup of so-called brownfields. It also allows the Connecticut Development Authority to issue bonds and guarantee loans for towns that redevelop dirty sites.The law sets up a way for municipal tax assessors and the Department of Environmental Protection to reduce the costs for property owners who agree to clean up properties.Rell held a ceremonial bill signing Tuesday at the site of the former Latex Foam Products Inc. plant in Ansonia that's been redeveloped into a Target store.

Copyright © 2007, The Hartford Courant

Cleaning Up Brownfields To Bring Redevelopment To The Coast

2007-08-20T11:47:00.000-07:00

People came out to the Faith Tabernacle church in Biloxi to learn about redeveloping blighted areas in their communities, more specifically Brownfields.

"A Brownfield is that piece of property in your community that for whatever reason just cannot seemed to be redeveloped," says Trey Hess.

The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) says it could be environmental issues or negative perceptions of the property that may keep it from being redeveloped. Bishop James Black, of the Biloxi-based Center for Environmental and Economic Justice is concerned about lost economic development from brownfield properties being overlooked.

"We have highway 90 being developed and D'Iberville in between nothing is happening. And so how do we get economic dollars to build and rebuild our communities blighted by Katrina and pre-Katrina," says Bishop James Black, Center for Environmental and Economic Justice and Faith Tabernacle Pastor.

MDEQ says it's important to re-use properties, reduce urban sprawl and bring jobs back to Mississippi. Although development is slowly coming back on Highway 90, MDEQ officials say there are obvious brownfields that must be addressed.

"Gas stations, we've got to iron out the environmental issues. We've got to decide whether they'll come back as gas stations or be redeveloped into something else," says Trey Hess with MDEQ.

"Maybe the answer lies somewhere in between. A city that will addresss the needs of the suburban towns around it and the business community without sacrificing the needs of people who made Biloxi what it is - its residents," says Larry Charles, Center for Public Environmental Oversight.

When it comes to redevelopment, those who spoke at the workshop say the community must take the initiative to recognize brownfields and get elected officials involved in redeveloping their communities.

The Center for Public Environmental Oversight, Center for Environmental and Economic Justice, MDEQ and the U.S. EPA organized the workshop.
There is grant money available through EPA's Brownfields program as much as 70 million dollars. The deadline for this year's grant is October 12th.
If you would like to learn more about brownfields, click here.
By Krystal Allan

WLOX-TV ABC 13's Coverage of the event is found at the following link:
http://www.wlox.com/global/video/popup/pop_player.asp?ClipID1=1661064&h1=Krystal%20Allan%20Reports%20On%20A%20Conference%20Addressing%20Brownfields%20In%20South%20Mississippi&vt1=v&at1=News&d1=152700&LaunchPageAdTag=News&activePane=info&playerVersion=9&hostPageUrl=http%3A//www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp%3FS%3D6919577%26nav%3D6DJI&rnd=38361438

An Old Steel Mill Retools to Produce Clean Energy

2007-05-22T13:39:00.000-07:00

Doug Benz for The New York Times

Windmills at Steel Winds dot the site of the old Bethlehem Steel mill in Lackawanna, N.Y. The wind farm is the largest to be built in a city.

The road from Buffalo to this city to the south offers a stark reminder of the region’s faded past as a hub of industry and shipping.

Yet in the past few months, a different sight has emerged on the 2.2-mile shoreline above a labyrinth of pipes, blackened buildings and crumbling coke ovens that was once home to a behemoth Bethlehem Steel plant: eight gleaming white windmills with 153-foot blades slowly turning in the wind off Lake Erie, on a former Superfund site where iron and steel slag and other industrial waste were dumped during 80 years of production.

"It’s changing the image of the city of Lackawanna," said Norman L. Polanski Jr., the city’s mayor and a former Bethlehem worker who lost his job when the company stopped making steel here in 1983. "We were the old Rust Belt, with all the negatives. Right now, we are progressive and we are leading the way on the waterfront."

Christine Real de Azua, of the American Wind Energy Association, said Steel Winds, as this wind farm is known, is the largest to rise in a city, and according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, it is the first to rise on land overseen by New York’s brownfields program. (Brownfields are low-level toxic waste sites concentrated mainly around abandoned factories.)

"It’s a way to convert the Rust Belt to the Wind Belt," Ms. Real de Azua said.
The turbines, owned jointly by BQ Energy of Pawling, N.Y., and UPC Wind of Newton, Mass., are able to produce a total of 20 megawatts of electricity a year, enough to provide power to 7,000 homes, said the project manager, Mark Mitskovski. The companies involved in the project plan to sell the energy to individual customers or utilities.

The company began construction of the wind farm in September 2006, six months after the federal Environmental Protection Agency declared the site clean enough to be removed from the Superfund list, allowing the state Department of Environmental Conservation to oversee its development.

The windmills are a welcome change for an area buffeted by the loss of jobs and environmental problems since Bethlehem’s steep decline began in the mid-1970s as cheaper imported steel, mainly from Japan, began flooding the United States.

At its peak during World War II and through the boom years that followed, Bethlehem employed more than 20,000 people here, most living within walking distance of the plant. But as the jobs vanished, the city’s population fell from a high of 30,000 in the 1960s to about 19,000 today.

Smoke from the blast furnaces and coke ovens coated the mill town with a layer of red ore dust, and artificial clouds glowed several times each day, when rail cars tipped their loads of slag into Lake Erie, creating a lavalike flow visible from miles away.

"As a kid, we’d be at the beach and you’d see the ladle cars going out there 24 hours a day," said Michael Malyak, of Lackawanna’s Steel Plant Museum, who was a shipping clerk at Bethlehem for eight years before becoming an elementary school teacher. "The sky would light up, and you’d see this red-hot slag rolling down the hillside."

Mayor Polanski said that as dangerous and unhealthy as it was, "it was a way of life."
And one that passed through generations. Like many of his classmates, Mr. Polanski, who is 58, followed his father to Bethlehem, getting hired as an apprentice pipe fitter.
"I graduated in June of ’67, and at the end of July, I had a job at the steel plant," he said. "I never figured I’d lose that job."

But as the lower-priced imported steel began to dominate the market, Bethlehem started to shrink. About 7,300 workers lost their jobs when the company stopped making steel in Lackawanna, leaving only the coke ovens and several finishing mills in operation.

Bethlehem ended coke production in 2001, the year the company filed for bankruptcy. A much smaller mill that finishes galvanized steel and employs about 250 is now operated by Mittal Steel, which acquired Bethlehem’s assets in 2005 in a merger with International Steel Group.
About $300,000 in state and federal assistance was used to research wind patterns and evaluate the environmental impact, and the windmills each cost $4.5 million to build. Power lines left from the plant carry the electricity from the turbines, while paved roads, rail lines and an industrial port built by Bethlehem were used to bring much of the construction material to the site.

"It’s much easier to do this on farmland somewhere," Mr. Mitskovski said. "But all the things you would need to build in a green field setting are already here."

Steel Winds has permits to build two more turbines and plans to put up as many as 27 in all. This month, local officials announced plans to move a rail line and build new roads in an effort to open 400 more acres of brownfields at the former Bethlehem site for redevelopment and to revitalize the Lake Erie port there, which is large enough to handle eight oceangoing ships at a time.

The economic effect of the wind farm on this city will never rival that of the steel giant. Mr. Mitskovski estimated that Steel Winds will ultimately employ a few dozen people, compared with the tens of thousands who punched the clock at Bethlehem. And though there are incentives for clean energy production, taxes generated by the wind farm will never match those paid by the steel mill, which at one time subsidized most of Lackawanna’s government.
The greatest effect of the eight windmills, however, may have more to do with attitude.
"A community that has had difficulty moving forward has accepted a technology that leapfrogs other forms of energy generation," Mr. Mitskovski said. "Decades of steel-making created this environmental legacy. But that also created the opportunity to take this fallow, contaminated land and reuse it."

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)- EPA Awards $71 Million to Help Brownfields Bloom into Productivity

2007-05-14T12:31:00.000-07:00

(Washington, D.C. - May 14, 2007) Communities in 38 states will receive brownfields grants to help revitalize former industrial and commercial sites, turning them from problem properties to productive community use.

Two territories and five tribal nations also will share the $70.7 million from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

"By transforming thousands of blighted sites into engines of economic rebirth, EPA's Brownfields program is proving to be one of the greatest environmental success stories of the past decade," said Administrator Stephen L. Johnson. "These grants build on the Bush Administration's commitment of handing down a healthier, more prosperous future to the next generation of Americans."

Brownfields are sites where expansion, redevelopment, or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants. In January 2002, President Bush signed the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act, which authorizes annual funding for brownfields grants. The 2002 law expanded the definition of brownfields, so communities may now focus on mine-scarred lands or sites contaminated by petroleum or the manufacture and distribution of illegal drugs.

This year, 202 applicants were selected to receive 294 assessment, revolving loan fund, and cleanup grants. The $70.7 million will provide:

· 189 assessment grants totaling $36.8 million to be used to
conduct site assessment and planning for eventual cleanup at one or
more brownfields sites or as part of a community-wide effort.

· 92 cleanup grants totaling $17.9 million to provide funding
for grant recipients to carry out cleanup activities at brownfields
sites they own.

· 13 revolving loan fund grants totaling $16 million to
provide funding for communities to capitalize a revolving loan fund
and to provide subgrants to carry cleanup activities at brownfields
sites. Revolving loan funds are generally used to provide low
interest loans for brownfields cleanups.

The brownfields program encourages redevelopment of America’s estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated waste sites. Since the beginning of the program, EPA has awarded 1,067 assessment grants totaling more than

$262 million, 217 revolving loan fund grants totaling more than $201.7 million, and 336 cleanup grants totaling $61.3 million.

In addition to industrial and commercial redevelopment, brownfields approaches have included the conversion of industrial waterfronts to river-front parks, landfills to golf courses, rail corridors to recreational trails, and gas stations to housing. EPA’s brownfields assistance has leveraged more than $9.6 billion in cleanup and redevelopment, helped create more than 43,029 jobs and resulted in the assessment of more than 10,504 properties and the cleanup of 180 properties.

Information on the grant recipients: http://www.epa.gov/brownfields
R143

Note: If a link above doesn't work, please copy and paste the URL into a browser.

Welcome

2007-05-02T07:00:00.000-07:00

Fellow Brownfields Coordinators,
I just wanted to extend a welcome to everyone who has had a chance to come to the new blog. I am looking forward to sharing ideas and best practices with cities across the country. Please feel free to leave me any messages on the new and improved site.

Thank you again.
-Ted Fischer
Program Manager
US Conference of Mayors