Recent Trend for Environmental Compliance Provides New Opportunities for Land and Water Use at Brownfields and Other Contaminated Sites

A new environmental compliance trend is leading to more flexibility for environmental remediation and providing potential new opportunities in terms of saving money and utilizing otherwise unusable land and water resources. These opportunities arise primarily from two new changes to the risk assessment process: the incorporation of uncertainty analyses and reconsideration of future land use options. Concurrently, new government regulations are making it easier to reduce potential liabilities associated with contaminated sites and return them to productive use. This article shows how risk assessment and uncertainty recognition can be used to take advantage of the new trend and presents hidden costs/problems of this new approach.