Liability Relief Central to Superfund Site Reuse, Investors Say

Liability concerns may scare off investors interested in renovating Superfund sites, which could hobble the EPA’s new effort to woo third parties to clean up the properties.

Enticing companies to redevelop properties with contaminated groundwater or soil would likely require the Environmental Protection Agency to protect landowners from long-term cleanup liabilities, building on similar provisions commonly used for less-contaminated brownfields, people involved with the Superfund program told Bloomberg BNA.

The EPA’s Superfund task force recommendations, released in July, emphasize leveraging private investment to clean up Superfund sites for reuse, much as the agency’s Brownfields Program provides grants to developers ...