“First Project Under New NY Law.”
Brownfield News. March 2004.
Making the first cleanup project under New York’s new Brownfield Cleanup Program, the commissioner of the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Erin M. Crotty announced that an application has been received to clean up and redevelop a brownfield site in the city of Kingston, NY.
“This cleanup project illustrates the benefits that a community can realize through the historic legislation recently passed by the legislature and signed by Governor Pataki,” Crotty said in a press release.
Crotty made the announcement during a press conference held at the brownfield site in Kingston. The project comprises three contaminated and under-performing properties on the main commercial thoroughfare in the city including an abandoned dry cleaning facility that contaminated its site and the two adjacent parcels with perchlorothene. The adjacent properties are an old gas station and a trolley barn that were converted to use as a bus garage. Both have leaking underground petroleum storage tanks contaminating soil and groundwater.
Under the Brownfield Cleanup Program, Stearns & Wheler Redevelopment of North America (S&W) will work with the city and the school district to clean up and redevelop the site. The school district will transfer the gas station and bus garage to S&W, plus a contribution to defray remediation costs. In return, the school district will be relieved of all future financial and legal liability for the properties by S&W.
The city will foreclose on the tax-delinquent dry cleaner and transfer the property to S&W to complete a supplemental investigation and remedial action to mitigate site contamination under the new program.
Once a Certificate of Completion is obtained, S&W will sell the property to Walgreens, Inc., for construction of a new drugstore. Both the city and the school district expect to receive a return on their investment in about three years as a result of the taxes generated from the new store.
The law passed in October of last year creates a new brownfield program to foster the cleanup of thousands of contaminated properties while encouraging new investment and redevelopment of these sites across New York State. The legislation provides an annual appropriation of $135 million to the State Superfund Program, expands the scope of the State Superfund Program to include hazardous substances, creates a new State Brownfields Cleanup Program to encourage private investment through liability reform, tax incentives, and a predictable process for cleaning up and redeveloping brownfields. The law also establishes a comprehensive package of tax credits with an estimated annual value of $135 million to offset costs associated with real property taxes, site preparation, water treatment expenses, and property improvements for sites remediated under the Brownfields Cleanup Program.