[SPECIAL BLOG POST: Ohio EPA asked to publish a guest post on the Ohio Environmental Law Blog regarding recent developments pertaining to the Agency’s response to sites with trichloroethene (TCE) and the Voluntary Action Program (VAP).  The Ohio EPA response is posted below in its entirety]

In August 2017, Ohio EPA announced to Certified

As discussed in my prior post, in September Ohio EPA announced that it would be sending “hundreds of letters” to property owners that have trichloroethylene  (TCE) contamination, including property owners that cleaned up their property under the Voluntary Action Program (VAP).  At the September meeting of VAP professionals the Agency announced that it could take

After more than ten years of building a brownfield redevelopment program, Cuyahoga County Officials are currently contemplating bringing the program to a close.  Over the last few years significant staff cuts have reduced the amount of resources dedicated to the program.  Now it appears that in 2017 the various incentives available to attract redevelopment to

Companies expanding onto brownfield sites need public incentives to make their projects viable.  However, the days when cleanup of contamination by itself could attract public incentives are long over.  Under the new local and State brownfield programs companies must make job commitments and/or improvements to the property to attract government assistance.

When companies work with

Ohio is not the only state that is reviewing all sites that have trichloroethylene (TCE) contamination. Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) recently announced that is was going to review 1,000 closed sites with TCE contamination.  MassDEP will evaluate the sites "based on the current understanding of health risks, even if the site was previously

In my four part blog post series- Rethinking Brownfield Redevelopment in Ohio- the final post advocated for a new Ohio liability protection law for buyers of contaminated property.  The new law would provide brownfield redevelopers liability protection faster and at a lower cost than the current Ohio Voluntary Action Program (VAP).

I suggested looking to

This is the final post discussing the current state of brownfield redevelopment in Ohio.  It provides suggested changes to the regulations and incentives in Ohio to accelerate brownfield redevelopment. The prior posts in this series discussed the following:

  1. The Issues Presented by Brownfields- In particular the impact to Urban Centers
  2. The Current State of Brownfield