Last Friday, I attended the Clean Ohio Council meeting with my client Miceli Dairy Products, Inc. (Miceli Dairy). I had worked with Miceli Dairy over the last couple years on evaluating five parcels of property adjacent to their current facility on which the Dairy would like to expand its operations.
The Dairy submitted an application
In Ohio, the clean up program of choice for brownfields and industrial sites currently used is the Voluntary Action Program (VAP). The program is designed to give a tremendous amount of flexibility to property owners and companies in terms of the nature and extent of clean up performed on their property.
Instead of the traditional
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Rumors abound that the Kasich Administration is seriously considering totally overhauling the Clean Ohio brownfield grant program. Multiple sources have indicated that the Administration is discussing internally making the next round of Clean Ohio the last for the program in its current form.
During the transportation engineers conference in Columbus, Governor Kasich made remarks that
In working on brownfield redevelopment projects, I find that addressing old underground storage tanks (USTs) or hazardous waste (RCRA) units can be one of the trickiest issues to address.
Why are these two issues tricky? Because they complicate the clean up process under Ohio’s Voluntary Action Program (VAP).
Due to the flexibility under the
The contractual language appearing in purchase or lease agreements for industrial property is critical. I have seen a number of contracts that were fraught with vague terms or even silent on liability allocation. Those contracts now define the company’s liability exposure. Protections the company thought they may have are either non-existent or in question.
That is why it is
As of July 1st, the Clean Ohio Assistance Fund (COAF) has been injected with new funding. Below is the update recently sent out by the Ohio Department of Development.
I have heard that the 25% set aside for clean up projects has already been accounted for fifteen days into July. Obviously, there must have been projects
Are you performing a Voluntary Action Program Clean Up?
Are you cleaning up contamination for a release from a petroleum underground storage tank (BUSTR)?
If you answered yes to either of these questions you may qualify for a significant federal tax incentive which allows you to deduct the clean up costs incurred this year as well as years past. Under the tax incentive, certain
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The State has announced the latest modifications to the Clean Ohio Assistance Fund (COAF) policies which provides up to $300,000 for Phase II environmental assessments and up to $750,000 for brownfield clean up. The State released its COAF policy update last month.
Unlike the Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund (CORF), COAF grants are given out on a rolling basis
The Ohio Department of Development working with the Ohio Water Development Authority (OWDA) has released their policies for use of the revamped low interest brownfield loan program. Under the program, private companies (among others) can get a low interest loan up to $500,000 for performing sampling (assessment) and up to $5 million for clean up.
As discussed
In 2000, Ohio originally voted to approve the Clean Ohio Fund as a $400 million dollar bond program. In 2008, the Clean Ohio Fund was reauthorized through a ballot initiative known as Issue 2. The ballot initiative was overwhelmingly approved in all 88 counties which extended the Fund with another $400 million dollars.
Clean Ohio is probably the most