Environmental Law

EHB Case Addresses Act 2/Waste Management Interface

Posted on November 21, 2007
Act 2 has been around for over twelve years now and yet there are only a small handful of Environmental Hearing Board (EHB or Board) cases that address Act 2 issues.  The EHB is the administrative board that hears appeals of final actions taken by PADEP...

Failure to Include Deed Notice Invalidates Lease for Brownfield Site

Posted on November 13, 2007
I came across an interesting case in Massachusetts in which a judge declared a lease for a brownfield site invalid because the landlord failed to include the proper notice of the relevant land use restrictions required by that state's Brownfields Act...

Green Building on Brownfield Sites

Posted on November 01, 2007
In my last entry, I wrote about using brownfield sites to generate solar energy.  In this post, I'd like to focus on one of the hottest topics in the field of environmental law -- green building. What is a green building?   According to EPA's website, "a green building" is a building that is "purposely designed to reduce both the direct and indirect environmental consequences associated with its construction, occupancy, operation, maintenance and eventual decommissioning...

Brownfields and Solar Energy

Posted on October 22, 2007
Brownfield redevelopers are creative people.  It takes a certain kind of vision to be able to look at a vacant or underutilized industrial property or waste disposal site and see all the different and unique opportunities...

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Brownfield Sites and SMCLs

Posted on October 05, 2007
There are certain substances that are considered secondary contaminants.  If you look at the Land Recycling Program's Pocket Guide of Statewide Health Standards, you notice that below the chart containing the medium specific concentrations (MSCs) for Inorganic Regulated Substances in Groundwater you see a list providing SMCLs for the following five regulated substances -- aluminum, chloride, fluoride, iron and manganese...

A Tribute to Dave Hess

Posted on September 27, 2007
This is a tribute to Dave Hess.  Not the Dave Hess who was Executive Deputy Secretary and later became Secretary during Governor Ridge's second term, but the Dave Hess we affectionately referred to as Dave Hess the Second, or Dave Hess2 or Dave Hess (14th Floor) when I was at PADEP...

Brother can you spare some fill material

Posted on September 19, 2007
Everyone who works on brownfield redevelopment projects in Pennsylvania needs to understand how the PADEP regulates the use of fill material.  Why?  Because many brownfield projects require some beneficial re-use of on-site fill material or the importation of fill material, either to bring areas up to grade, or to fill in tank excavations, or to use as material to cap areas of the site to eliminate potential direct contact using the Site Specific standard...

Update on HSCA Funding and PADEP ECP Program

Posted on September 19, 2007
I previously reported on the linkage between the lack of HSCA funding and the running of PADEP's brownfield program.  As noted, the HSCA fund only has enough money to continue through December 2007.  Last week, State Senators Pileggi and White introduced legislation that would allocate $15 million from existing legislative accounts to put in the HSCA fund...

What's PNDI got to do with it?

Posted on September 10, 2007
So you've got your brownfield site and now you are ready to start excavating that contaminated soil.  Well, hold on there, do you have your NPDES stormwater construction permit?  It used to be that PADEP policy was that you didn't need an NPDES stormwater construction permit in order to conduct site remediation work...

PA Brownfields and Low Risk Sites

Posted on September 04, 2007
Back in 2004, the PADEP developed a procedure for putting what they called "low risk sites" through the Act 2 program.  I've only considered using the low risk sites procedure once, and in the end, decided against it for reasons I'll explain later...

Brownfields and SIA Agreements

Posted on August 24, 2007
I've worked on a number of brownfield projects in Pennsylvania where the question is whether to enter into an SIA Agreement with PADEP or just go through the Act 2 process using the Site Specific Standard.   The SIA Agreement is another useful tool available to brownfield redevelopers...

SHORT LIST FOR PETROLEUM PRODUCTS GETTING LONGER

Posted on August 17, 2007
As many of you know, Act 2 was signed into law on May 19, 1995.  The statute gave PADEP two years to promulgate regulations implementing Act 2.  I worked with a dedicated team to put those brownfield regulations together and, in fact, I had the great fortune of presenting the proposed and final brownfield regulations to the Environmental Quality Board...

PA Brownfield Program Relies on HSCA Funding

Posted on August 15, 2007
My thanks to Bill Cluck, a fellow environmental lawyer in Harrisburg, PA, for asking the following question about the connection between the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act (HSCA) Fund and the Act 2 program :"I keep hearing how HSCA is relevant to brownfields cleanup and redevelopment...

Brownfield Website Redesigned by PADEP

Posted on August 06, 2007
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...

Using Buyer-Seller Agreements in PA Brownfield Transactions

Posted on August 02, 2007
One of the most helpful tools available to developers involved with brownfield redevelopment projects in Pennsylvania is the Buyer-Seller Agreement.   It's a 3 way agreement in the form of a CO&A between the buyer, the seller and PADEP...

Pennsylvania Brownfields Blog Begins

Posted on July 26, 2007
Welcome to the Pennsylvania Brownfields Blog.  My name is Joel Bolstein and I am the co-chair of the environmental law practice group at Fox Rothschild LLP.  I am starting this blog as a way of communicating with others interested in all matters relating to the reuse of former industrial sites in Pennsylvania and around the country...

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