Brownfields

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines brownfields as “abandoned, idle or under-used industrial and commercial facilities where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination.”

Usually brownfields are sites of old factories or other businesses. Often brownfields are unsightly and strewn with illegally dumped garbage. There are almost certainly no taxes generated from brownfields.

Brownfields can have all kinds of dangers—debris, dilapidated buildings and even dangerous, toxic chemicals. Some dangers are easy to see—broken windows and glass, rotted wood floors, rusty nails and pipes, and old barrels. Other dangers are not visible and harder to detect—toxic chemicals in the ground that can be harmful to people if they eat them, breathe them, or get them on their skin.