John, I know this was probably a hard decision. I know you will spend the next two years working hard at this job, as will I, and I hope we can work together on brownfields and other issues as a legacy.
Certainly your service on this Committee has been a focal point of your work in the Senate.
Your contributions are many and will long be remembered. You have often been a voice of reason in our deliberations and I hope we can work productively together in the next two years.
Many of the environmental challenges we now face are complex. Your decision to hold these hearings on open space and so-called "sprawl" issues recognize the changing face of America. I also regret the Budget resolution markup has prevented my attendance.
As you know, I have long been interested in the issues of growth, transportation and environmental protection. The bills discussed in this hearing are important, and I have co- sponsored one of them. However, I would also like to call attention to S. 20, my brownfields legislation, which has been mentioned by many of our witnesses.
Mr. Chairman, on January 19, 1999, I introduced S.20, the "Brownfields and Environmental Cleanup Act of 1999," along with 22 other Senators, including many of our colleagues from this Committee.
This legislation is designed to help turn abandoned industrial sites into engines of economic development. Significantly, it would also create open space and avoid sprawl because it encourages smart growth and the re-use of industrial sites.
Mr. Chairman, I have been interested for a long time now in the issue of these abandoned, under-utilized and contaminated industrial sites, commonly known as "brownfields."A brownfields cleanup program can also spur significant economic development and create jobs.
In fact, the nation's Mayors have estimated that they lose between $200 and $500 million a year in tax revenues from brownfields sitting idle, and that returning these sites to productive use could create some 236,000 new jobs.
Despite the traditional connection of Brownfields with cleaning up urban areas, this issue is truly linked with the issues of sprawl, smart growth and environmental quality for all of our citizens. "Brownfields" as we have come to know them, can be found anywhere--in the inner cities, the suburbs and in rural areas.
And every time a business leaves a brownfield behind, and moves to a new location, it creates a contaminated urban "dead zone." It also contributes to sprawl, occupies a "greenfield," with widespread impacts on transportation, air quality, open space, park lands and farmlands.
Re-using brownfields--often lightly contaminated areas-- for industrial purposes is positive from a whole host of perspectives, and I am committed to encouraging it.
This type of cleanup makes good environmental sense and good business sense.
My bill, S. 20, would provide financial assistance in the form of grants to local and State governments to inventory and evaluate brownfields sites, and to establish revolving loan funds for cleanup of these properties. It would therefore enable interested parties to know what would be required to clean the site and what reuse would best suit the property.
The loan funds would be loaned to prospective purchasers, municipalities and others to facilitate voluntary cleanup actions where traditional lending mechanisms may not be available.
The bill also would limit the potential liability of innocent buyers of these properties, and it would set a standard to gauge when parties couldn't have reasonably known that the property was contaminated.
It would also provide Superfund liability relief to persons who own property next door to a brownfields property, so long as the person did not cause the release and exercises appropriate care.
Mr. Chairman, for several Congresses there has been bipartisan interest in addressing bro.wnfields, both in the Senate and in the other body on the other side of the Capitol.
I am hopeful we can move this legislation forward in a cooperative way with support of Members on both sides of the aisle and begin to protect both the health and jobs of our citizens and our open spaces for future generations.
I thank you for the opportunity to discuss this important issue, and I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.