I was able to take a tour of the VW site in Chattanooga last week. This is truly a great story. The site was an old ammunition factory during WWII and was horribly polluted. Chattanooga paid big bucks to reclamate the site and now they have attracted VW to set up shop on the restored brownfield.

I took the tour with Bill Phillips who is a wetland specialist. Though the site was being prepared and was mostly shaved ground, he took me to the back of the property to see the areas that are slated to become conservation easement greenspace.

Apparently, VW asked some hard environmental questions to the Chattanooga decisionmakers before making their decision to move here. They WANTED a brownfield site to build on. This is good corporate sponsorship if ever there was one!

Now to see if they honor the requirements of their permits. We’ll be watching…

RvH

The Stormwater Quarterly, published by the National Stormwater Center, talks candidly about stormwater enforcement. Recently, EPA lowered the boom on four large construction companies for polluting water. EPA is now under court order to establish national standards for the construction industry.

TCWN believes that if someone has to get a permit to pollute, he/she must monitor the water they are discharging into and keep their facilities clean. Up to this point, developers have never had to monitor their sites, take water samples or otherwise keep from polluting. Unlike, other industries that must submit daily monitoring reports, detail any violations and notify the state of the violations and how they plan to fix them.

Finally, the playing field will be level for all of industry.

For more details, The Stormwater Quarterly Spring issue .

RvH