After weeks of delay, the House on December 20 finally approved legislation that will assist in cleaning up abandoned and contaminated urban industrial sites, or “brownfields.” The Senate passed the bill – the "Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act" – by unanimous consent a short time later.
The bill (H.R. 2869) had been scheduled for a floor vote on September 11th, and was delayed since then as parties squabbled over whether to apply the Davis-Bacon law to environmental clean-ups. The bill passed by the House does not include a provision that assures the payment of prevailing wage rates to workers performing construction activities at brownfields sites. However, it is current Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) policy that construction at Superfund sites already falls under Davis-Bacon protections.
H.R. 2689 would authorize $250 million annually in fiscal years 2002 through 2006 to fund assessment and cleanup activities at brownfields sites. Of that $250 million, $200 million would be authorized to fund state and local grants for brownfields assessments and cleanups, and $50 million would fund grants to enhance state and local cleanup programs. This provision would authorize developers or other "innocent purchasers" to apply for funding to clean up brownfields. The bill also amends Superfund to provide protection from liability from so-called "innocent landowners" and prospective purchasers of brownfields sites.
The bill also includes language of the "Small Business Liability Protection Act" (H.R.1831), which would provide a de micromis exemption from small businesses that dispose of less than 1,000 gallons of nonhazardous liquid or less than 200 pounds of nonhazardous solid waste before April 1, 2001, at a Superfund site listed on the National Priorities List (NPL). The bill also provides that if a small business is sued by a larger responsible party for costs to clean up a site at which both parties disposed of waste, the larger party must prove the small business is responsible, rather than the small business prove its innocence.
The Bush Administration supports the bill, and President Bush is expected to sign it. In a statement released by EPA, Administrator Christine Todd Whitman stated, "the new legislation will make the cleanup of brownfields a more effective and cooperative effort. Revitalization of brownfields and new investment in our cities is essential. The passage of brownfields legislation by Congress will considerably enhance our efforts on those fronts. Returning abandoned industrial sites to productive use can create jobs in areas where they are very much needed and also will improve the tax base of many communities."
