Environmental Law

Public Funding for Brownfield Development Takes a Hit

By M. Joel Bolstein

As previously reported, the state operating budget for PADEP took a large hit in the budget recently signed into law by Governor Rendell.  The corresponding reduction in Department personnel will undoubtedly have an impact on brownfield redevelopment activities in Pennsylvania.   Fewer personnel at PADEP means fewer people to review and approve Act 2 plans, reports and environmental covenants.  It also means fewer people to review and approve air, water, stormwater and waste permits needed by developers to put brownfield sites back into productive reuse.  The result of a reduced budget could be unpredictable review times as program  managers scramble to find the necessary resources to get the job done.

In addition to the cuts at PADEP, significant cuts were made at the Department of Community and Economic Development which has historically provided grants to economic development agencies for  environmental assessments and remediations at brownfield sites in Pennsylvania.  The budget for PADCED dropped dramatically from $567 million to $264 million in this budget cycle.  Included among those cuts was a zeroing out for the Industrial Sites Environmental Assessment Fund (a loss of $493,000) and a zeroing out for the Keystone Innovation Zones (a loss of $543,000).  Marketing budgets for attracting business have been slashed, as have other grant and loan programs used to attract new businesses to Pennsylvania.  Community Revitalization, previously at $39.5 million, has been eliminated entirely, as has $18.75 million for Urban Development.

In looking over the list of line items in the new budget for PADCED, I did not see any line item for the Industrial Sites Reuse Program.    The ISR program had typically been funded annually at the $5 million level and it had been used to provide assessment and remediation grants under Act 2.  I'm not sure if that money has been put into some other fund or if it has been eliminated entirely.  I have a call into the PADCED grants office to see if I can get some answers regarding the future of the ISR fund.  If it is gone, that will be a real loss to the county redevelopment authorities that have successfully used those funds to reclaim brownfield sites across the Commonwealth.  It will also be a great loss to the brownfield redevelopers who have partnered with those redevelopment authorities and brought life back to some blighted properties. 

It's possible that redevelopment and economic development agencies will be able to tap into other state grant funds to use for brownfield assessments and cleanup.  I'll be looking into that as well.  Absent state money, federal brownfield dollars will have to fill those gaps, and we may all have to learn to live with the extra strings that are attached to those federal brownfield dollars.     

Full post as published by PA Brownfields Environmental Law on October 30, 2009 (boomark / email).