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
Voluntary Action Program
Ohio EPA to Issue Letters Regarding TCE to Property Owners
At a recent meeting of brownfield cleanup professionals, Ohio EPA announced plans to issue letters to owners of property contaminated with TCE. Ohio EPA says it reviewed thousands of sites and will be issuing letters to "hundreds" of sites where it has information in its files that TCE is present. Based on this review, the…
Superfund Reform- What Can We Expect?
While the Trump Administrations primary environmental agenda has been focused on deregulation, one area EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has prioritized is Superfund (i.e. CERCLA). Superfund is meant to investigate and cleanup the dirtiest sites in the country. However, its long and complicated investigation, remedy selection and cleanup implementation processes have slowed cleanups to a crawl.
Budget Bill Fix to VAP Automatic Tax Exemption
- How to value the abatement- The
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State of Ohio Pursues Recovery of Incentives
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 EPA Takes Hard Look at Vapor Intrusion Risks
Vapor intrusion is the process where contamination in soil and groundwater volatilizes and enters indoor air in buildings. Understanding and evaluating the risks to occupants of buildings with vapor intrusion issues has received dramatic new focus nationally in recent years.
In Ohio, scrutiny of vapor intrusion issues is at an all time high. This post…
What Ohio Can Learn from the New Kansas Brownfield Law
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…
Rethinking Brownfield Redevelopment in Ohio- Part 3 of 4
This is the third post in a series of four assessing the current state of brownfield redevelopment in the State of Ohio. This third post will evaluate the progress Ohio has made in the last twenty years with regard to addressing brownfields.
Current Options for Addressing Environmental Liability
As discussed extensively in the prior posts…
Ohio Attorney General Releases Economic Development Manual
Attorney General Mike DeWine should be commended for putting together a comprehensive manual regarding legal issues, resources and incentives available to assist with economic development. The manual is called the 2015 Ohio Economic Development Manual.
The Attorney General collaborated with a number of state agencies and local economic development organizations in putting together…
Practical Issues with Ohio’s Brownfield Tax Abatement Law
I have written before regarding the flaws in Ohio’s automatic ten year tax abatement for brownfield cleanups. In my prior post, I discussed both timing issues and exclusion of new buildings/improvements from coverage under the tax abatement.
Over the years, as I have dealt with this law in practice for clients, another reality has…