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Estimating Community Economic Impacts from the Reuse of Contaminated Properties
A workshop organized by RFF in conjunction with Industrial Economics, Inc. (IEc) and NCEE.

The reuse of contaminated sites is not only a central focus of the EPA and state brownfields programs, but it is also a component of other federal, state, and local programs that address contaminated properties. These include EPA’s Superfund, RCRA, and underground storage tank programs, as well as efforts aimed at cleaning up contaminated sites owned and operated by federal agencies, such as the Departments of Defense and Energy, and voluntary cleanup programs in individual states. A key question each of these programs faces is how to measure the economic impact of reuse on local communities and how to distinguish the economic impacts of cleanup and reuse from their social welfare benefits.

On February 26, 2004, RFF, EPA's National Center for Environmental Economics, and Industrial Economics, Inc, (IEc) sponsored a one-day workshop to address these issues. Held at RFF's conference center at 1616 P St, NW, in Washington, DC, participants discussed the available approaches for estimating the impact to communities when contaminated properties are reused, what these estimates mean, and what should be done with them. The workshop brought together approximately 50 economists, other academics, practitioners from the private and public sectors, and senior EPA managers from all of the major cleanup programs (Participant List).

If you have any questions, please contact Kate Probst of RFF at probst@rff.org or 202-328-5061, or Kelly Maguire of EPA at maguire.kelly@epa.gov.

Agenda
(including speaker bios and speaker presentations)

Welcome and Introductions: Purpose of the Workshop

  • Kate Probst, Resources for the Future | Bio
  • Marianne Horinko, Assistant Administrator, Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, U.S. EPA | Bio

Session I: Setting the Context for Land Reuse

  • Characterization of Reuse Activities in OSWER Programs
    Angela Vitulli, Industrial Economics, Inc. | Bio | Presentation
  • Community Impacts of Land Reuse: A Conceptual Framework
    Charlotte Dougherty, Industrial Economics, Inc. | Bio | Presentation
  • Overview of Existing Studies on Community Impacts of Land Reuse
    Kris Wernstedt, Resources for the Future | Bio | Presentation
  • Audience Questions and Discussion

Session II: Measuring Local Economic Impact

  • The Economic Impacts of Land Reuse—Economic, Fiscal, and Property Value—Carefully Specifying Actual Versus Perceived Impacts
    Robert Burchell, Rutgers University | Bio | Presentation
  • In or Out? How Measures Influence Milwaukee's Investment in Brownfield Projects
    Beverly Craig, Milwaukee Economic Development Corporation | Bio | Presentation
  • Comments
    Peter Meyer, University of Louisville | Bio
  • Audience Questions and Discussion

Session III: Measuring Property Values

  • Using Hedonic Techniques to Measure Property Values:
    What Do (and Don't) They Tell Us?

    Katherine Kiel, College of the Holy Cross | Bio
  • How Developers Value Land Reuse
    Ira Whitman, The Whitman Companies | Bio | Presentation
  • Comments
    V. Kerry Smith, North Carolina State University | Bio
  • Audience Questions and Discussion

Session IV: Social and Environmental Impacts*

  • Ways to Think about Gentrification
    Maureen Kennedy, Maureen Kennedy & Associates | Bio
  • The Economic Benefits of Parks and Open Space
    Kathy Blaha, Trust for Public Land | Bio | Presentation
  • Comments
    Gerrit Knaap, University of Maryland at College Park | Bio
  • Audience Questions and Discussion

* A representative of the environmental justice community was scheduled to be on this panel to provide her views on reuse from an environmental justice perspective, but had to cancel at the last minute due to a family emergency.

Conclusions: Where do we go from here?

  • Milton Russell, University of Tennesee | Bio
  • Ramona Trovoto, U.S. EPA | Bio
  • Kate Probst, Resources for the Future | Bio
  • Audience Questions and Discussion


 
 
   

Workshop Overview and Agenda

Speaker's Biographical Information

 

Participant List


Link to RFF's Brownfields Page

In a three-part series on Wisconsin's brownfields policies, RFF Fellow Kris Wernstedt and CPEO's Robert Hersh look at the implementation of programs to clean up and redevelop contaminated properties.

Link to RFF Report Success for Superfund: A New Approach for Keeping Score

Success for Superfund: A New Approach for Keeping Score RFF researchers Kate Probst and Diane Sherman recommend more meaningful measures of success for the nation's Superfund Program.

Link to RFF Press Book Superfund's Future

Superfund's Future: What Will It Cost?
Katherine N. Probst and David M. Konisky with Robert Hersh, Michael B. Batz, and Katherine D. Walker | July 2001

This report to Congress examines the annual and cumulative costs of the Superfund program and estimates the future costs to the U.S. EPA of implementing the program.

Linking Land Use and Superfund Cleanups: Uncharted Territory
Katherine N. Probst, Robert Hersh, Kris Wernstedt, and Janice Mazurek | June 1997 | Summary of Findings

For a complete list of RFF's work in this area, see Research Topics: Hazardous Waste, Land Use, and Superfund.