#Brownfields

[wachinyeya]

Mushrooms Help Turn Toxic Brownfields into Blooming Meadows https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/mushrooms-help-turn-toxic-brownfields-into-blooming-meadows/

[greenlens]

Why did the brownfield go to therapy? It had abandonment issues!

I am excited to share that Morgantown, West Virginia, has secured a significant grant from the EPA aimed at revitalizing brownfield sites within our community. This funding, totaling nearly $2 million, represents a pivotal moment for our city's environmental and economic future.

Why is this Funding Important for Morgantown?

Morgantown faces unique challenges with its industrial past. Many old industrial sites, like the former crude oil tank farm in White Park, have left behind more than memories—they've left behind environmental legacies that need our attention

Revitalizing these brownfield sites isn't just about cleaning up messes; it's about unlocking the economic potential behind what has been left. By turning blighted areas into usable spaces, we attract new businesses, create jobs, and increase property values—benefits that ripple through our entire community.

Brownfields are like time capsules from the industrial age—remnants of our past that deserve a second chance. These sites, once bustling with activity, now sit idle due to potential environmental contamination, waiting for a new lease on life.

As Morgantown embarks on this journey of brownfield cleanup and revitalization, we're not just fixing problems; we're building a better future. Together, we'll turn challenges into opportunities and make Morgantown a shining example of environmental stewardship and community resilience.

[kathyrenwald]

This is the best this fence has ever looked. And it still looks like hell. It’s on Strachan Street, wraps. around an idle scrapyard on a site that was supposed to be developed into condos. That story is at least 10 years old.#Graffiti #Fences #PollutedLand #hamont #OldNews#Brownfields (at Hamilton, Ontario) https://www.instagram.com/p/CnXPrTsOhUC/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[unplaces]

W Reppto St, Brownfield, Texas.

[meriol-lehmann]

friche industrielle, chemin de saint-edgar, new richmond

[lookcaitlin]

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Inside Climate News:

New York, Ohio and Indiana have collectively retired 47 coal plants in the past two decades. Of these, only 11 have been successfully redeveloped—converted mostly into gas-fired power plants, but also into data centers and cryptocurrency mining operations. 

And the Great Lakes region is far from an outlier. Across the United States, retired coal plants sit vacant and rusting, with little to no chance of revival. They are, in many cases, the picture of neglect: abandoned lots with murky ash ponds and dirt berms, visible to locals only through barbed wire fences. In some cases, the deserted structures have been known to catch fire or unexpectedly collapse. 

Yet they also occupy some of the country’s most valuable plots of land—large, contiguous parcels abutting major waterways, often within walking distance of a population center. These qualities make them attractive locations for parks, industrial centers, or, as in the case of Nanticoke, clean energy hubs. Why, then, are they so rarely redeveloped?

The answer to that question involves shadowy companies, secret agreements, and false promises—but it begins 40 feet below the Tanners Creek ash ponds. Before any redevelopment can occur, the site must be purged of the harmful toxins such as arsenic, boron and radium that decades of burning and dumping coal allowed to leach into the soil. All told, decommissioning and remediating a retired coal plant can cost anywhere from $3.5 million to $200 million. What’s more, thanks to a 1980 federal environmental law, a botched remediation job can trigger lawsuits against the original polluter, even if they no longer own the property. 

Former coal plant sites, then, are not so much attractive assets as they are a monkey on the back of power plant operators desperate to offload them. 

Dave Altman is the president of Cincinnati-based environmental law firm AltmanNewman. In his five decades of litigating remediation cases, he has witnessed the creative tactics companies employ to jettison contaminated sites. Initially, he says, “the dream of any polluting company was to turn over their contaminated property as a gift to the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, or a church.” That way, when the full scope of contamination was discovered, elected officials would opt to clean it up with state funds rather than sue the “mom-and-pop nonprofit” that had unwittingly agreed to assume ownership of the site. Altman says people eventually caught on to this tactic; he himself warned Xavier University against accepting an exploded chemical plant as a gift in 2000.

With few willing recipients and no desire to maintain the properties, power plant operators now pay millions to offload the sites and, in doing so, unburden themselves of the environmental liability. That has spawned what Altman calls “an entire industry for taking the liability off the books.” Around the country, companies purporting to specialize in brownfield redevelopment have sprung into existence. These companies, Altman said, sign “secret deals” with power plant operators to take over their contaminated properties and associated liabilities.

A closer look at these companies raises more questions than answers. Take the example of Tanners Creek. The property’s official owner, Tanners Creek Development LLC, was incorporated only seven months before assuming control of the site and seems to have no other assets. Altman said this structure is by design. “They set up a separate, small limited liability organization to take hundreds of millions in liability,” he said. Under this structure, the parent company can reap the profits of the land transfer while the small pockets of its subsidiary limit the amount it might have to pay out in the event of a lawsuit, effectively shielding the parent company from responsibility. As an added benefit, he said, “it makes it appear that they’re different companies to regulators who are asleep at the switch.”

Land transfers are often followed by vague statements about redevelopment. But the redevelopment companies’ economic incentives point in a different direction. “They get paid millions of dollars to do the minimum they can do to get out,” Altman said. “If you resolve your uncertainty with a phony cleanup, nobody is going to touch the property. Everybody knows it, but the utility has got it off its books.” In other words, having cashed in on the liability transfer, the new owners would prefer to perform “cosmetic cleanup” than to take on the substantial remediation costs involved in developing. 

[roughridingrednecks]

Brownfield

[autism-disco]

i wonder what han sooyoung would think about greenfield and brownfield sites,,,

[ha-bakbuk]

Cialyn - Silent Dailies [Full Album] - YouTube

[itradiant]

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[whisperhillforo]

[photosenbalades]

Rotonde ferroviaire Grigny #3

Désert bureautique

[thoughtportal]

Development incentives for the proposed $1.5 billion District Detroit buildout came under heavy criticism Monday night during the first public hearing for a Transformational Brownfield valued at $616 million over 35 years.

Nearly two dozen people offered questions or comments on the project and incentives during the two-hour virtual public hearing for the Detroit Brownfield Redevelopment Authority. The authority's board is scheduled to vote Wednesday on the Transformational Brownfield request, which is the largest of the nearly $800 million in planned incentives, tax breaks and reimbursements for the project over the three and a half decades.

The project, a collaborative development by the Ilitch organization's Olympia Development of Michigan and megadeveloper Stephen Ross's Related Cos., calls for 10 new buildings or rehabs. The developers say the project is not possible without the incentives.

Nearly all public comments Monday were negative and opposed to the brownfield incentives. Because the meeting was conducted over Zoom, full names for all of those who spoke were not available.

“We shouldn’t be giving Olympia any money because five to six years ago you came to us, promising a thriving neighborhood already, and you failed to deliver on those promises," said Detroit resident Landis Spencer.

Another commenter, "Caleb," who identified himself as a member of the Detroit chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, said he has a lot of problems with the development proposal and the incentives.

“The Ilitches have proven time and time again, especially from the last time the city gave them money, that they will not keep to their promises and only build to help their own self interests," he said, "like when they built Little Caesars Arena and left all buildings surrounding it completely unused and barren."

For their part, representatives for Olympia and Related Cos. emphasized Monday how 20% of the project's nearly 700 apartments would be set aside at "deeply affordable" rent levels for Detroiters making no more than about $31,000 per year as an individual and $45,000 for a family of four.

Those below-market rents are a reason why the project needs the development incentives to be financially viable, representatives have explained.

"We are about trying to make a difference in the lives of people in Detroit," Keith Bradford, president of Olympia Development of Michigan, said during the virtual meeting.

Yet resident Theo Pride of the Detroit People's Platform said during the hearing that the proposed affordable rents would still not be affordable enough for many Detroiters.

More:More details emerge for $1.5B District Detroit buildout and incentives

More:3 new office buildings would be unique to Detroit, have more amenities, developers say

The project, he said, “will hurt majority Black Detroit — period. It will displace Black people while redistributing resources from the Black public to private white pocketbooks.”

The requested Transformational Brownfield incentive would be a state-level tax capture for the project valued at $616 million over 35 years.

The Detroit Brownfield Redevelopment Authority could vote Wednesday to approve the brownfield request and forward it to Detroit City Council.

If the council then gives its approval in March, a final vote on the brownfield could come in April from the Michigan Strategic Fund, and groundbreaking for the first proposed building — a 17-story office building at 2200 Woodward, in front of Comerica Park — could happen in July.

The developers also are partners on a separate yet related project to build the $250 million University of Michigan Center for Innovation in Detroit.

[handypolymath]

Bonus round toss-up:

remember X only when you cannot do X; use opportunity to slosh on more bad feelings and judgments

make breakthrough/mental progress on X when you physically cannot even note the idea down

X becomes The Stupid Thing you can't even look at directly because Why So Difficult?!

blow the fuse that gives a shit about X so the Real deadline blows through a numb and empty you like trash-laden wind

spend enough time trying to remember & cajole yourself to do X that several months later you'd swear you'd taken care of it

feeling like the consequences of late or absent X is just The Fair Price You Pay for Sucking

one of the worst adhd things ever is wanting to trick yourself into doing tasks so you make up fake deadlines to give yourself a sense of pressure but then your adhd goes ‘is that a Real deadline with immediate consequences or a fake one to make our life more organized? :/‘ and then you go ‘it’s a fake one to make our life more organized 😔’ and then the task doesn’t get done