DTSC at the National Brownfields Training Conference 2019 in Los Angeles
DTSC’s Site Mitigation and Restoration Program is pleased to announce that the National Brownfield Conference will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center on December 10-13 2019. The National Brownfields Conference is a forum for California to share our innovation in regulatory and technical approaches to transform under-utilized fallow brownfields and blighted properties to productive economic uses and viable community spaces. National and international brownfield practitioners look to California as the leader in brownfield renewal, and they develop environmental approaches based on our best practices. The National Brownfields Conference is a dynamic educational program of speakers, discussions, mobile workshops, films and other learning formats that are calibrated to provide attendees with case study examples, program updates, and useful strategies for meeting their brownfield challenges head on. Featuring dozens of educational sessions and mobile workshops including many showcasing Californian projects and the redevelopment in the surrounding region, the exceptional training offered by the conference has something for both beginners and seasoned experts who are involved with environmental decision making and directing investigations, cleanups and long-term mitigation.
DTSC will be hosting several educational sessions, including a 6-hour pre-conference workshop on Vapor Intrusion. DTSC senior staff and management will also be present at our booth in the USEPA neighborhood in the exhibit hall. For more information on where to find DTSC at the National Brownfields Conference, please click below:
Brownfields
Among other types of properties, Site Mitigation and Restoration Program staff provides regulatory oversight for the evaluation and cleanup of brownfields. Brownfields are properties that are contaminated, or thought to be contaminated, and are underutilized due to perceived remediation cost and liability concerns. Many of these properties are in the urban core, near transit and often in underserved communities with housing and economic development needs. Cleaning up brownfield properties not only eliminates the threat to residents and neighborhoods from hazardous substances, it frees this abandoned or underutilized land for productive reuse. Redevelopment of brownfields also takes development pressures off previously undeveloped property, thereby preserving open space and agricultural land.
The State of California and DTSC realize the need for and importance of brownfield redevelopment. To support this priority, DTSC has created programs and administrative vehicles to formalize and streamline the engagement and oversight process. DTSC has several types of voluntary agreements that can be used to provide regulatory oversight for brownfields and other types of properties as well. Note that the decision-making process and environmental assessment and/or cleanup steps under voluntary agreements and for enforcement actions both follow all applicable regulatory requirements and demand the same rigor and scientific scrutiny to ensure the protection of human health and the environment. Both voluntary agreements and enforcement actions are subject to the same public participation process, and DTSC’s public participation process will vary based on the level of community interest in the project or property.
The oversight and engagement process is shown graphically in the flowchart below and accessed via the links in this Quick Reference Guide:
Download PDF version of this diagram.
This document is intended to be guidance only and it does not supersede or implement laws or regulations. The information in this advisory is intended solely as guidance and as educational reference material and should not be considered enforceable or regulatory in nature.