The federal Environmental Protection Agency has released a comprehensive research report
demonstrating that redevelopment of contaminated industrial sites in
inner cities brings substantial environmental benefits. The agency
studied 163 brownfield sites in five cities, comparing their impacts
with those of sites where development was likely to go had the
brownfields not been available.
For over 90 percent of the
sites, the brownfield locations were found to have superior
environmental performance compared to the alternative locations. In
particular, brownfield redevelopment was found to produce 32-57 percent
less carbon dioxide and other air pollutant emissions per capita
relative to conventional development. Stormwater runoff for the
redevelopment sites was determined to range 43-60 percent less than
the conventional greenfield alternatives. All of the sites had been
cleaned up with EPA assistance and replaced with residential and
commercial development that was completed or in progress at the time of
the study.
The five cities included the following:
- Seattle, WA
- Baltimore, MD
- Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN
- Emeryville, CA
- Dallas-Fort Worth, TX
Most
of the redevelopment sites were in inner-city areas conducive to
compact development. Most of the alternative locations, chosen based on
prevailing development trends in each region, were in suburban or
exurban greenfield areas, and
would likely have been developed in a more spread-out pattern to
capture the same amount of commercial and residential space.
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