DEP Releases Brownfields Program Annual Report

TALLAHASSEE - The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) recently released the Florida Brownfields Redevelopment Program 2009 Annual Report. Submitted each year to the Governor, President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives, the report describes DEP’s progress and level of activity in implementing the Florida Brownfields Redevelopment Act established in 1997. The report documents the Program’s continued success in revitalizing brownfield areas despite current economic challenges.

“The Florida Brownfields Program empowers communities, local governments and other stakeholders to work together to assess, clean up and reuse brownfields,” said Mimi Drew, DEP Deputy Secretary for Regulatory Programs. “The program has created nearly 30,000 new direct and indirect jobs and resulted in almost $1.68 billion of capital investment over the last 11 years.”

Brownfields are properties where expansion, redevelopment or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of environmental pollution. There are now 252 brownfield areas designated statewide. Highlights for the period from January 2009 through June 2010 include:

• Twenty municipalities and county governments approved local resolutions that designated 24 additional brownfield areas.
• Eighteen brownfield site rehabilitation agreements were executed, bringing the program total to 146.
• Ten brownfield sites completed cleanup of contamination. Thirty-five brownfield sites have completed cleanup since inception of the program.
• DEP received 43 tax credit applications, totaling almost $5 million for site rehabilitation work completed at brownfields sites in 2009.
• From January 2009 through June 2010, 2,336 new direct jobs, 3,392 new indirect jobs, and nearly $387 million in new capital investment were attributable to the Florida Brownfields Redevelopment Program.

To view the report, please visit: www.dep.state.fl.us/waste/categories/brownfields/default.htm.