Brownfields Update for the Pacific Northwest

Whenever he shows someone the map listing the 56 properties in downtown Boise with potential petroleum contamination, Scot Oliver of the city’s urban renewal agency makes sure to reiterate to the public that just because a property is listed doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with it. The little red dots on the map can be intimidating to some people, he admits, but he isn’t trying to frighten anyone.

Oliver wants people to know that the inventory created by the Capital City Development Corporation (CCDC) is designed to help landowners and developers. In some cases, developers are better able to get incentives for revitalization projects if the property is listed, he says.

“We have from the beginning let people know this isn’t a regulatory program but a redevelopment program,” Oliver says.

Let’s face it: No property owner wants to see his land on a list of potential brownfields. Fears still remain out there that such a designation could lead to the devaluation of property; or, on the other end, a lawsuit for the creator of the inventory.

Still, the CCDC moved forward with a local inventory of potential sites in its three urban renewal districts in downtown Boise, believing it was important to identify sites being underused because of a real or perceived environmental liability. The CCDC received from the EPA two brownfields assessment grants of $200,000 each. Money from the grants has been used to create these inventories of properties with potential petroleum and hazardous substance contamination in an area that includes about 500 acres.

The petroleum list has been completed and published in the CCDC newsletter as well as on its Web site (http://www.ccdcboise.com/BFinventory.htm). A disclaimer on the Web site reads, “The presence of a property on any of these lists should in no way be construed to indicate that contamination actually exists on a property.”

When compiling this list, officials kept it simple to avoid problems. “In our case, we didn’t have anything that wasn’t on the public record,” Oliver says. “Or that you couldn’t observe by driving by the site.”

“We stuck to the basics,” agrees Mary Garner, an environmental specialist with Tetra Tech Inc., in Boise, the firm that helped the CCDC with the inventory.

The inventory process began by reviewing historic land use records, such as Sanborn fire insurance maps, Polk directories and underground storage tank inventories available from the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, EPA and the city. The information was complied into a geographic information system and combined with parcel data. More than 300 potential sites initially were flagged. About two-thirds of those were eliminated because they had been redeveloped over the years, Oliver says. At this point, the data wasn’t publicized because it could be spooky for some people, he says.

Officials continued to work on narrowing down that list by evaluating current uses of the identified properties. Locations that were realizing their highest and best use were removed from the list, as were those where plans for redevelopment already exist or are in the works. In other cases, documentation confirmed old storage tanks had been removed from the property and the site received a clean bill of health. And, in some cases, property owners had no interest in participating in the brownfields program.

This process eventually culminated in a list of 56 sites, which have been prioritized. The inventory includes photos of the sites and lists such information as address, parcel number, owner’s name and current occupant. It lists any federal or state designations, such as if there is a known leaking underground storage tank, if it is required to submit an annual toxic chemical release report or if the site is listed as having past or present clean-up activity associated with hazardous materials. On some listings, there is a summary of tank information. For example, one property, now being used as a parking lot, is described as having “13 tanks, 3,000 gallons or less, registered between 1949 and 1995. One tank listed as abandoned, two as closed.”

The next phase in the project is asking owners if they are interested in having an assessment completed on the property. These properties may be eligible for grant dollars through the CCDC. Work also continues on the inventory of properties with potential hazardous substance contamination, which has about 50 listings too.

The CCDC has had no complaints from people after the inventory was published, Oliver says. And they’ve found that these properties have no difference in value than their neighbors, he adds.

“(Brownfields) don’t have the negative consequences that they used to,” Garner says.