WASHINGTON -- A bill to make it easier to clean up toxic waste sites -- pushed by the political odd couple of Democratic Salt Lake Mayor Deedee Corradini and Rep. Merrill Cook, R-Utah -- passed the House Transportation Committee Thursday.
The bill would exempt innocent landowners and prospective buyers from Superfund liability for site cleanup -- an obstacle to redevelopment of many abandoned areas in cities nationwide. It also authorized a grant program to help clean up toxic sites.Corradini and Cook have spoken together in Washington at two rallies to push the bill -- which they say will aid Salt Lake City's "Gateway Project" to redevelop rail yards and industrial areas on its west side.
Cook, a member of the committee, praised passage saying, "We have one of the largest sites that will benefit from these funds -- the old Union Pacific rail yards by the Delta Center.
"These funds could be used to aid in the cleanup of the site, as well as to redevelop the land. The Gateway Project will include shops, restaurants, the north-south light rail line and Olympic housing that will be turned into condominiums after the Olympics," he said.
Corradini earlier told Congress, while appearing as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, that valuable farmland and other green space is disappearing to urban sprawl, while possible toxic-waste sites sit unused because potential buyers worry they might be forced to pay huge cleanup bills if they buy them.
"Between 1982 and 1992, we used up 13.8 million acres of land; 4.3 million of those acres was prime farmland. That's equivalent to combining (all land in) Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware and half of Maryland," Corradini said at a congressional rally.
"It's easier to use up greenfields . . . than it is to redevelop land in our cities, which are our 'brownfields,' " Corradini said.