Sustainability transitions of contaminated sites: A global meta-analysis on economic effects of remediation behaviour

Abstract:

The worldwide diversity of contaminated sites, coupled with a scarcity of available land presents a challenge for urban spatial planning and, has led to an increasing political significance for brownfield conservation and reuse to achieve land resource sustainability. In this study, economic or the so-called ‘rebound effects’ of land regeneration are studied via a global meta-analysis on value fluctuation of surrounding property. To this end, a total of 91 observations from 28 HPM (hedonic pricing model) studies were synthesized to conduct a meta-analysis following a conditional random effects procedure. The empirical results indicate that, in line with expectations, the conservation and recycling of land resource indeed generate significant rebound in the implicit price of residential houses, especially for those located within 2 km of contaminated sites. Before land remediation and reuse, dwellings closest in distance to contaminated sites experience the greatest value loss. On average, the depreciation in property values within the first 1 km distance from a contaminated site is about 8.18%, significantly at the 1% level, while the corresponding adverse impact from 1 to 2 km distance is a 4.8% price premium significantly at the 5% level. The significance of the stigma or rebound effects depends on 12 attributes, in which, house age, location, floor area ratio (FAR), and central business district (CBD) variables have the largest impact of −37.38% to 37.5%. From a practical perspective, the findings of this meta-analysis: (1) help refine contributing parameters in HPM studies to evaluate environmental economics; and (2) provide meaningful decision-making support for cost-effective remediation and benefit maximization.

by Xiaonuo Li, Shiyi Yi, Andrew B. Cundy and Weiping Chen

Land Degradation & Development via Wiley Online https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/1099145x

Volume 33, Issue11; 15 July 2022; Pages 1775-1786

https://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.4270

EPA and State of New Jersey Propose Settlement with Bank of America for Monmouth County, NJ Superfund Site Cleanup

On May 15, 2023 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a proposed settlement with Bank of America to address the White Swan Cleaners/Sun Cleaners Area Groundwater Contamination Superfund Site in Wall Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey. Under the proposed agreement, Bank of America, the current owner of the White Swan property, will be required to fund and perform vapor intrusion and groundwater cleanup work at an estimated cost of $29 million.

"With this settlement EPA is holding Bank of America accountable for its share of the cleanup at the White Swan site," said Regional Administrator Lisa F. Garcia. " After years of investigation and cleanup efforts, this is a significant step towards resolving the contamination issues at the site for the benefit of the community, the environment, and public health."

“The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are committed to protecting the health of those who live and work in the vicinity of the White Swan Cleaners/Sun Cleaners site,” New Jersey Commissioner of Environmental Protection Shawn M. LaTourette said. “We have partnered together to test indoor air at hundreds of business and residential properties and installed ventilation systems on dozens with vapor intrusion concerns. This settlement with Bank of America ensures that long term cleanup, including remediation of contaminated groundwater and future vapor mitigation work, will be funded by the responsible party, not by the taxpayers.”

Bank of America became legally responsible for the site when it bought the White Swan property through a series of bank mergers and acquisitions in 2004.

Bank of America also will reimburse EPA for certain aspects of its cleanup work, paying $10.8 million, and pay up to $1.5 million for future EPA oversight costs. As part of the agreement, Bank of America will construct and then run the groundwater pump and treatment system for four years to capture and clean the most highly contaminated groundwater at the site.

The company will pay up to a total of $6.5 million to the State of New Jersey to settle its liability for cleanup and removal costs, to voluntarily resolve its liability for natural resource damages (NRD), and to address long-term operational needs of the treatment system. This amount includes $3.7 million for cleanup costs and $2.8 million set aside in an escrow account for any future groundwater system operation and maintenance or added vapor intrusion work needed after the State takes over the cleanup.

Vapor intrusion occurs when volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from contaminated soil and groundwater seep into buildings, potentially exposing occupants to harmful chemicals. EPA has found that the former dry-cleaning operations of White Swan Cleaners and Sun Cleaners were the sources of soil and groundwater contamination. VOCs from the contamination can easily evaporate into the air and cause health hazards. EPA added the site to the National Priorities List (NPL) in 2004. In the course of the cleanup, EPA and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) have installed several indoor air ventilation systems after conducting indoor air testing on residential and commercial properties. In 2018, EPA also oversaw Bank of America’s removal of contaminated soil from the White Swan property. Cleanup of the Sun property, which is not related to the White Swan property, is being funded by EPA.

https://www.epa.gov/vaporintrusion/what-vapor-intrusion

The proposed consent decree, which has been lodged in the U.S. Federal District Court of New Jersey, is subject to a 60-day comment period. The Department of Justice and EPA will evaluate the comments and decide whether to proceed and then, if appropriate, seek final approval by the court.

For more information, to view the proposed consent decree and to give comments, please visit: https://www.justice.gov/enrd/consent-decrees

For additional background, please visit the White Swan Cleaners/Sun Cleaners Area Ground Water Contamination Superfund site profile page.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) www.EPA.gov
Press Release dated May 15, 2023
https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-and-state-new-jersey-propose-settlement-bank-america-monmouth-county-nj-superfund

Who Benefits from Hazardous Waste Cleanups? Evidence from the Housing Market

Abstract

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) manages cleanup of hazardous waste releases at over 3,500 sites across the US, which covers approximately 17.5% of all developed land in the country. This paper evaluates the national housing market impacts of cleanups performed under RCRA and estimates the program's impacts on neighborhood change. We find that cleanups near residential properties yield significant, yet localized, increases in home prices, and that impacts are concentrated in the lower deciles of the price distribution. Importantly, we find no evidence of sorting along socio-demographic dimensions in response to cleanup. Our findings suggest that cleanup benefits accrue to the residents who are the original “hosts” of pollution and could correct pre-existing disparities in exposure to land-based contamination.

...

This paper evaluates the housing market impacts of cleanups conducted under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). We find that the positive environmental impacts from RCRA cleanups are reflected in the housing market, indicating that people are aware of cleanups and value the water quality improvements documented in Cassidy et al. (2020). The price increases that we find are driven by cleanups concentrated among the lowest price deciles of the census tract in which the RCRA facility is located: Prices increase by 11% for the 1st decile of the price distribution, and we detect no evidence of a price increase for the 9th decile. This indicates cleanups raise housing values of the poorest segments of the population, which are likely to face other disadvantageous circumstances in life and are typically more vulnerable to the deleterious effects of pollution (see, e.g. Apelberg, Buckley and White, 2005). 

Furthermore, we find that the benefits of cleanups accrued to those living closest to the sites and, notably, do not find that cleanups induced re-sorting. This is consistent with the localized price impacts that we find, but somewhat surprising given how expansive RCRA cleanups were and the recent literature that has highlighted the potential for policies to worsen underlying inequities (Hausman and Stolper, 2020; Bakkensen and Ma, 2020). Ultimately, whether environmental cleanups lead to neighborhood turnover is an empirical question that has far-reaching consequences for whether a policy would exacerbate pre-existing socio-economic disparities.

The Valley of the Drums, a toxic waste dump in northern Bullitt County, Kentucky
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazardous_waste#/media/File:Valleyofdrums.jpg

by Alecia W. Cassidy, Elaine L. Hill & Lala Ma
National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) www.NBER.org
Working Paper 30661; Issue Date November 2022

https://www.nber.org/papers/w30661

Do Public Benefits of Voluntary Cleanup Programs Justify Their Public Costs? Evidence from New York

Abstract:

This paper contributes to the debate over public benefits and costs of state-funded voluntary cleanup programs, using evidence from property values in New York City. We value site redevelopment separately from cleanup and examine time to capitalization. Using property fixed effects and controlling for time-varying shocks, New York’s Brownfield Cleanup Program added 4% to property values. Off-site gains averaged 5.6% for properties with three units or less and 1.2% for multifamily residences, producing a $579.3 million tax gain that does not exceed the $667.9 million in program spending. Benefits stem from program participation and cleanup, but not from site redevelopment. 

https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/oer/images/content/hero/IMG_3236_clean-soil-stockpile.JPG

http://le.uwpress.org/content/95/3/369.short

by Olesya M. Savchenko 1 and John B. Braden 2

1. Assistant professor, Food and Resource Economics Department, University of Florida, Gainesville; savchenko.olesya@gmail.com

2. Professor Emeritus; Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; jbb@illinois.edu

Land Economics http://le.uwpress.org/ via University of Wisconsin Press http://www.uwpress.org/

Volume 95, Number 3, August 1, 2019; pages 369-390

Japanese knotweed knocks £20bn off value of UK property market - It is estimated that up to 900,000 UK households are affected by the weed, which the Environment Agency describes as one of the ‘most aggressive, destructive and invasive plants’

Japanese knotweed has knocked £20bn off the total value of the UK property market, according to new research, with many mortgage lenders refusing loans for properties affected by the weed.

Japanese knotweed is an ornamental plant that first came to the UK in the 1850s. Now it is one of “the UK’s most aggressive, destructive and invasive plants” according to the Environment Agency, due to its ability to spread through tarmac, concrete, driveways and drains.

A recent survey by YouGov and Environet UK, which specialises in removing the weed, found that around 5 per cent of UK houses are currently affected by knotweed, either directly or indirectly (when a neighbouring property is affected).

...

According to the latest Land Registry price index, the average UK house costs £228,000. The presence of Japanese knotweed has diminished the value of affected houses by 10 percent, creating an average loss of £22,800 to property owners.

It is estimated that between 850,000 and 900,000 UK households are affected by the Japanese plant....

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fallopia_japonica_-_Japanese_knotweed,_Japanintatar,_Parkslide_C_IMG_6997.JPG  Anneli Salo

Japanese knotweed also appeared in several high profile legal cases this year, as landowners were successfully sued for allowing the plant to spread into neighbouring properties.

Marc Montaldo of Cobley’s Solicitors, who specialises in Japanese knotweed litigations, said: “In legal cases relating to diminution in value due to knotweed, we typically see claims for around 10 perent of the property’s value. This is due to the stigma attached to knotweed impacting its future sale price.”

Sellers are now required to inform future buyers whether the property is or has been affected by Japanese knotweed even if it the plant has been removed.

Furthermore, mortgage lenders will usually refuse to give out loans unless property owners have a knotweed management plan with an insurance-backed guarantee in place.

...

by Cristian Angeloni

FOR FULL STORY GO TO:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/japanese-knotweed-house-prices-property-value-mortgage-insurance-how-to-treat-a8557971.html

The Independent https://www.independent.co.uk
September 28, 2018

It’s a Superfund Site, but It’s Also Their Livelihood - The New York Times

...

Alberto Rodriguez', Los Primos Auto Repair and Sale, is one of six businesses at the intersection of Cooper and Irving Avenues in Ridgewood, Queens, that have been targeted for demolition as part of a cleanup plan released recently by the Environmental Protection Agency. The businesses are within a Superfund site, the term for sites covered by a program that finances the cleanup of hazardous waste.

The small, triangle-shaped tract, hemmed in on one side by an abandoned rail spur, does not look particularly active...  But for business owners like Mr. Rodriguez, who have turned the block into a one-stop shop for automotive needs ... the proposed plan threatens to uproot well-established livelihoods.

...

Mr. Rodriguez’s shop sits atop land formerly occupied by the Wolff-Alport Chemical Company, which from the 1920s through the 1950s extracted metals from imported sand. In the process, the company produced waste containing two radioactive elements, thorium and uranium, which it disposed of by dumping the waste into sewers and perhaps also by burying it .......

https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/cursites/csitinfo.cfm?id=0206479

The E.P.A. has been aware of radioactive contamination at the site since at least 1988, but it was not until 2014 that the agency assigned Superfund status to the site. Before then, the E.P.A. installed interim protections, including placing slabs of concrete, lead and steel beneath floors and sidewalks to block radiation from emanating upward.

Those measures wreaked havoc with Mr. Rodriguez’s business, he said. 

...

The demolition plans are not final. Another possibility raised in the plan is the demolition of just the vacant warehouse and the excavation of soil around the remaining buildings. That option would require government checkups every five years, the plan said, with maintenance costs “in perpetuity.”

...

The health risks from the radiation at the site are small, said Dr. David Brenner, the director of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University Medical Center, who reviewed the E.P.A.’s risk estimates at a reporter’s request. If no further remediation were done at the site, a future resident would see an increased risk of cancer of about 0.005 percent, the plan predicted.

Walter Mugdan, an acting deputy regional administrator for the E.P.A., acknowledged that the site’s tenants “are not in any significant danger at all.” But the agency’s goal, he said, is to ensure that the site can be used in the future, perhaps even for residential development.

...

Any demolition would not be undertaken until 2019 or 2020 at the earliest, Mr. Mugdan said. About two dozen Superfund sites are ready for cleanup at any given time, he said, but because of limited funding, usually work begins on only six to eight each year. The projected cost of the government’s preferred plan for the Wolff-Alport cleanup is more than $39 million.

The E.P.A. often seeks to hold companies responsible for the contamination financially accountable for the cleanup, but Wolff-Alport has been defunct for decades. Mr. Mugdan said his agency would try to determine if the company ever sold itself to any existing firms.

The protracted timeline for demolition offers small consolation to the site’s current tenants. “The rent is crazy. I can’t find a place like that,” said Mr. Rodriguez, who pays $3,600 a month in rent.... The E.P.A. will offer small businesses up to $25,000 to help them set up at another location....

...

FOR FULL STORY GO TO:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/04/nyregion/queens-epa-superfund-radiation-businesses.html

By VIVIAN WANG

The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com

August. 4, 2017

Also see

The Most Radioactive Place in New York City

Queens' Hottest New Bar Is "The Most Radioactive Place in New York City"

https://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/6427a6b7538955c585257359003f0230/609e310b78c3ef7a85257cd20055a13a!OpenDocument

https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/cursites/csitinfo.cfm?id=0206479

https://ny.curbed.com/2014/7/3/10079546/ridgewoods-radioactive-superfund-site-worries-neighbors

Court Orders Owners of Former Plating Company in Richmond to Pay $5.2 Million for Hazardous Waste Violations

The Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) was recently awarded $5.2 million in civil penalties from Marion Patigler and the estates of her parents, Gerhard and Ingrid Patigler, for years of hazardous waste violations.

The judgment took into account the more than $500,000 in enforcement costs incurred by the California Attorney’s General Office and $300,000 in cleanup costs incurred by DTSC. Marion Patigler was also permanently banned from engaging in any future hazardous waste management practices in California.

Marion Patigler was sentenced to three years in jail for her failure to complete the cleanup of hazardous waste left at the facility in Richmond in 2015. For many years Electro-Forming operated as an electroplating and metal polishing company located in a mixed-use residential neighborhood in Richmond.

State investments in brownfields yield 14-fold return, UW-Whitewater study finds

Efforts to investigate, clean up and redevelop Wisconsin brownfields, fueled by $121.4 million in state grants and leveraged by local and federal incentives, have cumulatively recouped $1.77 billion, a more than 14-fold return on investment.

Those are among the findings of a University of Wisconsin-Whitewater study that analyzed the economic impact of the incentives. Over half the state revenue outlay is recouped in state tax revenues from construction activities generated by the investments alone, and redevelopment of the properties directly or indirectly resulted in the retention of 54,483 permanent jobs.

Economists from UW-Whitewater’s Fiscal and Economic Research Center calculated that local governments gain $88.5 million annually in tax revenues from redeveloped brownfields, not including property taxes derived from the new or renovated buildings. On average, post-redevelopment assessed values exceed pre-development values at a ratio of 3.5 to 1.

“There are a lot of brownfields still sitting idle,” said Russ Kashian, UW-Whitewater professor of economics and co-author of the study. “This study demonstrates that when the state has the capacity to expand the program, it would be a smart investment.”

Brownfields are defined as “abandoned, idle or underused industrial or commercial facilities or sites, the expansion or redevelopment of which is adversely affected by actual or perceived environmental contamination.” One example is the former Allis Chalmers plant in West Allis, now known as Summit Place. Redevelopment of the site led to 2,700 permanent jobs in 630,000 square feet of converted office space.

“As a direct result of this brownfields cleanup initiative,” said West Allis Mayor Dan Devine. “The once-contaminated and dilapidated property is now the city’s largest taxpayer and the city’s largest employment center.”

Since 1998, the State of Wisconsin brownfields funding programs have assisted 703 sites, resulting in 4,713 acres of contaminated land that was assessed, cleaned up or both. Also in 1998, the state established the Wisconsin Brownfields Study Group to evaluate Wisconsin’s current brownfields initiatives and recommend changes, as well as propose additional incentives for the cleanup and reuse of abandoned or underused properties.

“The study shows that for a relatively small investment, the state recoups benefits that far outweigh the costs,” said Nancy Frank, associate professor of urban planning at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and appointee to the study group, which commissioned the study. “And the state’s investment was critical to these sites getting cleaned up and put into productive use.”

                             http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/brownfields/
Frank pointed to the fact that brownfields redevelopment had tangible benefits to the public, unlike some economic development initiatives.

“When you clean up a brownfields site you can see it in the landscape,” said Frank. “You can also see the new businesses moving in, so you know it’s having an economic impact. And with this study, we can measure it.”

The full report is available free of charge at http://www.uww.edu/documents/uww/FERC_BROWNFLDS.pdf.

http://tinyurl.com/hmy3r5q

University of Wisconsin https://www.wisconsin.edu

Posted on November 18, 2015