Old Contamination, New Regulations, Close Cooperation, and Recent Remediation at a Chicago Lumberyard Brownfield Success, 1998 Environmental Conference Proceedings

Richard G. Berggreen

STS Consultants, Ltd.

Peter H. F. Malsch

Weyerhaeuser

Brownfield site development involves more than the remediation of contaminated industrial property. The redevelopment of this 100 year old lumber distribution center into a new business employing nearly 600 persons was an objective which was of interest to the City of Chicago, the developer, and the owner. Reaching this objective required assessing existing conditions, understanding of the regulations and responsibilities for the various layers of regulatory agencies, and maintaining close coordination with those agencies. The assessment and remediation of the site spanned the time interval when Illinois developed and enacted a new Risk Based Corrective Action program, under which the remediation and clean-up objectives were completed. The concept of sustainable urban ecology as part of urban redevelopment may soon become a familiar part of Brownfield development programs, just as sustainable resource management has become a part of forest products industries management practices.