HOUSINGNEWS REPORT
FEATURED ARTICLE
First, CERCLA created liabilities where none existed before. No longer could companies pollute and scoot. Under the legislation, the EPA can force responsible parties — typically past owners — to perform clean- ups or reimburse the government for the clean-up money it spends. Second, CERECLA is a jobs bill. There are Superfund sites widely disbursed among the states and congressional districts. They represent not only an opportunity to clean up environmental hazards but also a way to bring new dollars and employment into local communities. Third, underlying the legislation is an unusual goal. Ancient alchemists tried to turn lead into gold; modern lawmakers have a somewhat similar vision: they
want to convert real estate rubbish into high-value property that’s safe, usable and taxable. Unlike the alchemists, there is evidence that the Superfund effort has actually worked. How do we know? Nearly 400 sites have been cleaned-up and removed from the Superfund list. Uncle Sam. With claims going back to the Revolutionary War, many federal holdings are extremely well-located, properties acquired long before today’s cities and suburbs evolved. While we routinely think of government property in terms of vast national parks or the Federal Triangle, the reality is that a lot of government land has been military property. The FUDS Factor The largest U.S. land owner of all is
The FUDS program is part of the Defense Environmental Restoration Program (DERP) and cleans up properties using the standards established under CERCLA.
However, FUDS sites are counted separately from Superfund sites.
According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the FUDS program exists to clean up former military properties — and there are a lot of them. It’s estimated that more than 10,000 properties can potentially be included in the FUDS program, but the government says “only about 2,700 properties require some type of cleanup.”
Given that the term “some type of cleanup” may seem a little vague, the government
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