POLICY & LEGISLATION

New Laws Ring in the New Year

In 2011, all 50 states and territories met in regular session and enacted close to 40,000 new laws on issues across the board. Laws do not always become effective on Jan. 1, however. State constitutions or statutes usually establish when they go into effect, or sometimes, an effective date is written into the specific piece of legislation. The complete article can be viewed at National Conference of State Legislatures.

EPA Grant puts Roanoke Cleanup on Track

The EPA funds will go toward a plan to spruce up brownfield areas along the city's rail lines. The idea behind the plan, and the reason the EPA issued the pilot grants to Roanoke and 22 other recipients nationally, is to tailor brownfield cleanup to each site's future use. A tract slated for industrial use, for example, will require less work than one that will become a playground. The complete article can be viewed at Roanoke.com.

How Slow is Slow when it Comes to New U.S. Brownfield Policies?

If you do an online Google search on Brownfield Policies, the results from recent searches bring up about 20 news items. Perhaps not surprisingly because of the budget impass and arduous negotiations within the U.S government, only about 2-3 of the news items refer to situations and policies in the United States. The majority originate from the United Kingdom. Check out the latest search at Google.com.