Environmental Law

Brownfield Website Redesigned by PADEP

By M. Joel Bolstein

This morning I received an email from Tom Mellott at PADEP announcing that the Department had redesigned the website for the Land Recycling Program.  The new website is a significant improvement and I want to compliment Jill Gaito, the Deputy Secretary, Dave Hess, the Director of the Pennsylvania Land Recycling Program, and their staff on a terrific new design.  What I like most about the new design is how easy it is to navigate.  There are now large boxes on the right hand side with lists of programs and documents.  While the prior website focused primarily on the nuts and bolts of the Land Recycling Program, e.g., the technical information needed to comply with Act 2, the regulations and guidance documents,  the new website provides more practical information on the economic development aspects of the program.  I've always looked at the Act 2 program as a way of creating new jobs and economic opportunities, and this new website design gives that angle added attention.  In addition to including useful information about the brownfield action team, the new website provides better organized information about funding opportunities at the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.  In addition, the new website provides lots of helpful links to other brownfield programs.  For example, there are currently links to 15 other state brownfield program websites and 19 Pennsylvania-based regional economic development agencies.  In addition, there is a great page providing links to Pennsylvania brownfield success stories.  Anyone wanting to see what Pennsylvania is doing right with brownfields, should click on "success stories".  The only deficiency of the new website is the continuing lack of a search component.  You couldn't search the old Land Recycling Program website and you can't search the new one.  When you click on search, you get to look at the picture of the little girl saying Why Can't I Search this website?, and it just throws you back to the A to Z directory for the overall PADEP website.  Even with that, the newly designed website for the Pennsylvania DEP brownfield program is a significant improvement, and I urge all of you to bookmark the new page.   

Full post as published by PA Brownfields Environmental Law on August 06, 2007 (boomark / email).