Environmental Law

Pennsylvania's Share of Brownfield Stimulus Dollars

Posted on June 16, 2009
Lots of people ask me whether Pennsylvania has received any federal stimulus dollars that are being directed toward brownfield redevelopment.  Based on the information available on US EPA's website, under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, $98,250,000 is supposed to be made available for brownfield redevelopment...

Bethlehem Casino Opens on Pennsylvania Brownfield Site

Posted on June 11, 2009
Earlier this week, Governor Rendell was in Bethlehem for the grand opening of the $743 million Sands Casino Resort on the former Bethlehem Steel Site.  I stopped into the Sands Casino last week, prior to the grand opening, on my way back from a site visit, just to see it for myself...

Wind Power Growing in Pennsylvania

Posted on June 05, 2009
Pennsylvania has been promoting itself as the largest provider of wind energy on the East Coast.  On May 22, Duke Energy announced that it was acquiring a 70 Megawatt (MW) wind project in Blair and Cambria counties consisting of 35 wind turbines...

New PADEP Permitting Strategy for High TDS Discharges Has Broad Implications

Posted on June 05, 2009
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection recently released a document entitled "Permitting Strategy for High Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Wastewater Discharges".  At first glance, it doesn't sound like something that should have implications for brownfield  redevelopers, but it could have a significant impact on them and a wide range of businesses...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Retirement of PADEP Deputy Secretary Tom Fidler

Posted on June 02, 2009
On April 27, I sat down for a friendly chat with PADEP Deputy Secretary Tom Fidler in his office on the 16th floor of the Rachel Carson Building in Harrisburg.  At that time, Tom wasn't sure how much longer he'd last, having put in 35 years...

EPA Ends Performance Track Program

Posted on March 18, 2009
On March 16, 2009, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson issued a two-page memorandum that put an immediate halt to the Performance Track program.  Of the 547 members, 17 were located in Pennsylvania and 7 of them were charter members.  The Performance Track  program offered recognition and certain regulatory benefits for facilities that are environmental leaders...

PADEP's UECA Stakeholder Group Holds First Meeting

Posted on March 16, 2009
On Friday March 13, 2009, PADEP's newly formed UECA Stakeholder Group met for the first time at the Rachel Carson Building in Harrisburg.  I was one of the participants along with several other environmental attorneys who represent brownfield redevelopers, environmental consultants, and in-house environmental engineers from two companies that have a large number of properties subject to activity and use limitations...

PADEP Forms Stakeholder Group on UECA

Posted on March 11, 2009
This Friday will be the first meeting of the UECA Stakeholder Group recently formed by PADEP.  I was asked to participate in that Stakeholders Group and gladly accepted.   According to the invitation that I received from Troy Conrad, the Director of the Land Recycling Program, the discussion is intended to focus on three things...

Knowing When to Use the Right to Know Law

Posted on February 02, 2009
On January 1, 2009, PADEP began implementing its new Public Access to Information and Right to Know Law Policy.  Copies of the new policy are available on PADEP's website.  Go to www.depweb.state.pa.us/dep/site/default.asp and click on Right-to-Know on the left side column...

Outlook for Brownfields Redevelopment in 2009

Posted on December 30, 2008
Like all sectors of our economy, brownfields redevelopment has been adversely effected by the current economic crisis.  Over the last 10 years since I returned to private practice after helping develop the Act 2 program, I've worked with a large number of brownfield redevelopers to turn old industrial sites in Pennsylvania into modern manufacturing facilities, commercial and retail space, shopping malls, hotels and casinos, office buildings, banks, drug stores, and housing developments...

Marcellus Shale is Hot Topic in PA Environmental Law

Posted on October 07, 2008
A few years ago, if you asked Pennsylvania environmental lawyers to identify hot topics, they would never have mentioned oil and gas law.  Yes, there were a handful of practitioners handling the limited oil and gas law work floating around, mainly relating to liability for old uncapped gas wells...

PA LEGISLATION PROVIDING ADDITIONAL BROWNFIELD FUNDING ADVANCES TO HOUSE

Posted on August 01, 2008
The Pennsylvania State Senate unanimously passed Senate Bill 1062, the Brownfields Redevelopment Act, which was sponsored by Senator Rob Wonderling.   The bill next will be taken up by the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, chaired by Rep...

PADEP Secretary McGinty Resigns

Posted on July 16, 2008
On July 11, 2008, Governor Ed Rendell announced the resignation of PADEP Secretary Katie McGinty.   Her resignation is effective on July 18.To her credit, Secretary McGinty recognized that PA's Act 2 program was one of its most successful programs and she built on that success...

All Quiet on UECA Front

Posted on June 13, 2008
I apologize to all my readers for the recent lull in postings, but it's been all quiet on the UECA front.  It's still a subject of conversation in every meeting that I have with clients and with my friends at PADEP, but things are definitely in a holding pattern since the initial flurry of activity after the statute was enacted...

An Interview with Troy Conrad on the Future of Act 2

Posted on May 01, 2008
I had the chance to speak today with Troy Conrad, the Director of PADEP's Land Recycling Program.  On the same phone call, I spoke with Jill Gaito (Deputy Secretary, Office of Community Revitalization and Local Government Support) and Tracey Vernon (director of the brownfield action team), but there will be more about those conversations in later posts...

PADEP Posts New Q&A on UECA

Posted on April 23, 2008
Last week, PADEP posted some "frequently asked questions" on the UECA section of its brownfields webpage.  Since that time, I've held my fire, trying to understand what it all means for brownfield redevelopment in Pennsylvania.  As noted in previous postings, I had been contacted by PADEP Deputy Secretary Jill Gaito, prior to the PBI Environmental Law Forum, who told me that the Department was working on the Q&A and would be posting it shortly on its website...

Act 2 Update at PBI Forum Addresses UECA

Posted on April 11, 2008
Those hoping to gain some new insight into PADEP's interpretation of UECA during the annual PBI Environmental Law Forum were given just a small glimpse during the Act 2 Update, which included Louise Thompson, the Regional Counsel in the SE Regional Office, and Terry Bossert, the former PADEP Chief Counsel...

Deputy Secretary Gaito Says "No Backsliding" on UECA

Posted on April 07, 2008
Earlier today, Jill Gaito, PADEP's Deputy Secretary for Revitalization and Local Government Support, reached out to me regarding the Department's implementation of UECA.   According to Deputy Secretary Gaito, she intends to ensure that the Department's implementation of UECA does not result in a dramatic change to the Act 2 program...

Unintended Consquences of UECA

Posted on April 07, 2008
In my continuing efforts to understand the potential impact of the Uniform Environmental Covenenats Act (UECA) on brownfields redevelopment in Pennsylvania, I have now spoken with a former PADEP Chief Counsel who was involved in Pennsylvania's enactment of the Act...

UECA's Impact on Site Specific Cleanups

Posted on April 01, 2008
Does the Uniform Environmental Covenants Act (UECA) recently signed into law by Governor Rendell require that environmental covenants be recorded on adjacent properties when the remediator seeks to attain the Site Specific Standard on a property where groundwater contamination is migrating off-site?  That, my friends, is a very real issue that is being hotly debated...

UECA's Impact on Site Specific Cleanups

Posted on April 01, 2008
Does the Uniform Environmental Covenants Act (UECA) recently signed into law by Governor Rendell require that environmental covenants be recorded on adjacent properties when the remediator seeks to attain the Site Specific Standard on a property where groundwater contamination is migrating off-site?  That, my friends, is a very real issue that is being hotly debated...

First Experience with UECA

Posted on March 12, 2008
The following is a faithful narrative of my first on the ground experience with the Uniform Environmental Covenants Act.   For the last ten years, I have served as the outside Environmental Solicitor to the Redevelopment Authority (RDA) of the County of Bucks...

First Experience with UECA

Posted on March 12, 2008
The following is a faithful narrative of my first on the ground experience with the Uniform Environmental Covenants Act.   For the last ten years, I have served as the outside Environmental Solicitor to the Redevelopment Authority (RDA) of the County of Bucks...

PADEP Implementation of Uniform Environmental Covenants Act

Posted on February 12, 2008
Earlier today, PADEP sent information regarding its implementation of the Uniform Environmental Covenants Act (Act 68) to the people on the Land Recycling program's email list.  The information includes PADEP's overview of the UECA, a model environmental covenant, and a model notice of environmental covenant...

PADEP Planning Outreach on UECA

Posted on February 01, 2008
Based on the comments that I received, it looks like lots of people are interested in finding out how PADEP plans to implement the Uniform Environmental Covenants Act (UECA), which takes effect on February 16, 2008.  In a recent exchange of emails that I had with Jill Gaito, PADEP's Deputy Secretary for Community Revitalization and Local Government Support, it sounds like our questions will soon be answered...

Lancaster gets Non-Use Aquifer Designation

Posted on January 18, 2008
As reported in the Lancaster Sunday Times earlier this week, PADEP recently granted the City of Lancaster's request for a non-use aquifer designation.  I didn't see any mention of that on the PADEP website, but it sometimes takes some time before a non-use aquifer designation makes it onto the running list that is kept on the website...

PA Brownfields and Environmental Covenants

Posted on January 14, 2008
Well, it took a long time, but Pennsylvania has now adopted the Uniform Environmental Covenants Act (UECA).  The Act was signed on December 18, 2007 by Governor Rendell and it will be effective on February 16, 2008, so you need to be ready.Right off the bat, I'll say that everyone who deals with brownfield properties in Pennsylvania -- lawyers, consultants, developers, municipalities -- needs to understand that this Act fundamentally changes the manner in which institutional and engineering controls will be handled in the Commonwealth...

PADEP Brownfield Program Receives Needed Funding

Posted on December 26, 2007
On December 19, Governor Rendell signed Senate Bill 1100 into law, ensuring that PADEP's brownfield program would be able to keep operating through December 31, 2010.  In the weeks leading up to the signing, it was looking pretty bleak for the 149 PADEP staff people who faced layoffs or bumping without additional funding from the HSCA Fund, which was running out of money...

Crossing the Delaware in search of brownfields

Posted on December 11, 2007
In a few weeks, colonial re-enactors in Pennsylvania will paddle two Durham boats across the Delaware River, landing in New Jersey, just as General Washington did with his troops hundreds of years ago.  Yesterday, I drove my car from Doylestown across the I-95 bridge into Trenton to attend the "Building Strong Neighborhoods Workshop -- Brownfields Redevelopment in Undercapitalized Communities", hosted by the Northeast-Midwest Institute...

The Role of the Cleanup Standards Scientific Advisory Board

Posted on December 06, 2007
The Cleanup Standards Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) is a 13 member board that was created by Section 105 of Act 2 which assists the Department by providing technical and scientific advice on matters relating to the implementation of the Land Recycling Act...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.