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Binghamton, New York, and its Broome County suburbs are pockmarked
with crumbling industrial sites. After years of working against each
other, environmentalists and industrial developers are coming
together to try to find a way to reclaim polluted sites.
The City of
Binghamton was once known as Parlor City because the wealthy
business owners there lived in high style. In the county as a whole
jobs were plentiful, and people enjoyed comfortable homes.
Endicott-Johnson Shoe Company, photographic film manufacturer Anitec,
foundries, forging companies, IBM, flight simulator manufacturer E.
A. Link Corporation, and other industries brought steady jobs and
financial security.
Then American shoe factories, including the enormous
Endicott-Johnson, backbone of the community, found themselves unable
to compete with Asian shoe manufacturers. Many throughout New
England closed down, but Endicott-Johnson managed to hold on, though
in drastically scaled-down fashion.
Their ruins, even
a small abandoned dry cleaning shop, litter the landscape, adding to
the depressed mood of the county.
IBM, the bluest of blue chips, underwent several years of big
layoffs. Anitec closed down, and many other industries in the area
shut their doors as well. Broome County lost talented people who
found work in the South, Silicon Valley, and elsewhere, but the
unskilled, who didn’t have the option of moving to good jobs
elsewhere, stayed and depended on welfare or minimum wage jobs.
Left behind, in addition to this potential work force, were large
industrial plants with functional utilities. However, many of them
harbored asbestos, stored toxic substances, and leaks of chemicals
into the ground and air. Their ruins, even a small abandoned dry
cleaning shop, litter the landscape, adding to the depressed mood of
the county.
The Anitec site alone comprises 40 buildings on 38 acres. Asbestos
has already been removed, and the buildings are being cleared, but
the demolition is expected to take up to two years to complete.
These sites are called brownfields. Although the county has
experienced some economic revival in recent years, these brownfields
still sit sadly deteriorating. No industrial developer has wanted to
take on the high cost and liability of cleaning up those sites for
new businesses. The tax incentives offered couldn’t offset the
governmental red tape in store for them.
Instead, developers have been building on unpolluted new sites
called greenfields. The result is similar to the malling of America,
creating a dead or dying urban center surrounded by suburban sprawl,
increased traffic congestion, and citizen protests of the
not-in-my-back-yard variety.
But now representatives of the several sides of the issue are
gathered together as the
Broome County Environmental Management Council. It’s a citizens
advisory board consisting of lawyers, environmentalists, developers,
and others who want the same ends but differ sharply on the means.
One member’s knowledge and experience illustrates the potential
effectiveness of this board in solving such difficult issues.
Kenneth
Kamlet is at present the attorney for Newman Development (see
my previous article about a Vestal shopping center) and was
previously a director for pollution and toxic substances for the
National Wildlife
Federation. Thus, he brings knowledge of both viewpoints to the
table.
However, other
communities have managed to attract redevelopment of old sites
without such agreements, and it remains to be seen how the issue
will be settled in Broome County.
The council’s job won’t be easy. Industrialists claim
environmentalists are actually encouraging greenfield development by
insisting on enormously expensive clean-up intended to bring the
sites back to a pristine condition. To the environmentalists,
anything less is unthinkable.
One proposal has been floated that would have developers sign a
negotiated pre-contract agreement setting exact costs and procedures
up front. With tax incentives and no need to install utilities or
seek far afield for a work force, an affordable, definite plan for
clean-up might persuade developers to take on a site such as the
Anitec site being cleared now.
However, other communities have managed to attract redevelopment of
old sites without such agreements, and it remains to be seen how the
issue will be settled in Broome County. As the members of the
council work to find common ground, bulldozers rumble at the Anitec
site, and pollution continues to seep into the ground at several
area sites.
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