The Florida Department of Environmental Protection recently published the Florida Brownfields Redevelopment Program 2020-2021 Annual Report. A brownfield site can be defined as a property in which the redevelopment is hindered by the actual or perceived presence of environmental contamination. This report highlights accomplishments from 2020 and the first six months of 2021. Twenty five city’s and county’s approved resolutions to designate 28 Brownfield Areas in their communities. With these additional areas, there are now a total of 533 Brownfields Areas in Florida. Thirty five Brownfield Site Rehabilitation Agreements (BSRA) were executed in Florida bringing the total number of BSRAs executed since 1997 to 420. Twenty four Site Rehabilitation Completion Orders were issued by the Department indicating that no further assessment or cleanup is required at the site. In 2020, the Department received 157 Voluntary Cleanup Tax Credit applications totaling $16.2 Million. While no new jobs were generated under the program in 2020, 15,659 new jobs have been created since the inception of this program.
PPM has assisted numerous governmental clients with the development of Brownfields Programs including preparing grant applications, holding community engagement workshops, conducting site inventories, providing environmental consulting services; and preparing all required grant documentation. In Florida, PPM has performed thousands of projects including phase I environmental site assessments (ESA) in accordance with ASTM E1527-13 standards; phase II ESAs/site assessments; remedial actions; storage tank management; soil and groundwater sampling. PPM has established a successful track record of being recognized for cleaning up brownfields sites that lead to successful and sustainable redevelopment. PPM has helped our clients receive two Phoenix Awards in Florida for brownfields remediation and redevelopment. In addition, PPM recently assisted the City of Sanford with the environmental assessment, cleanup, and redevelopment planning for the Heritage Park site which resulted in the city receiving $93,923 from the Voluntary Cleanup Tax Credit Program.
Contributed by:
Amy Guilfoyle
Orlando District Manager
(407) 240-1127