SEEDING THE BROWNFIELDS - A PROPOSED STATUTE LIMITING ENVIRONMENTAL LIABILITY FOR PROSPECTIVE PURCHASERS

Under current federal environmental law, companies looking for sites o n which to build industrial facilities face strong disincentives to se lecting previously developed urban industrial sites, or brownfields. C ompanies selecting these sites expose themselves to the possibility of significant liability for cleanup of environmental hazards on the sit e, and face a high degree of uncertainty over whether any cleanup they attempt is sufficient for the purposes of federal and state environme ntal law. The result is that many urban industrial sites remain abando ned while companies build on previously undeveloped land In this Note, Mr. Walsh proposes model legislation creating a voluntary cleanup pro gram for brownfields. The proposed statute permits prospective purchas ers of brownfield property to enter into an agreement with the federal Environmental Protection Agency, or relevant state agency, to satisfa ctorily cleanup environmental hazards on the land while eliminating th e possibility of future liability for cleanup.