By Bill Freeborn
(Freeborn is Executive Vice President of the Delaware Contractors Association)
Despite what some of the more extreme members of the environmental community may say, considerable effort was made early on and over the past eight to 10 months to bring environmental interests into the discussion – particularly those organizations who see the importance of balance in this discussion. The more extreme are apparently intractable in their position and have made it clear that they will never agree to any changes to the CZ. Currently, they believe that they have the strength of status quo on their side. Any changes would require them negotiating their interests – at least in their minds. It’s something they will clearly never do.
I am a member of the DEED (Delawareans for Environmental and Economic Development) coalition that was put together to help foster these discussions. Our coalition includes business, labor, trade and business associations, local government and related interest groups with involvement from the more reasonable environmentalists. All interested parties/organizations are welcome to join the DEED organization.
The thought was that this effort needed a much broader collection of interests – beyond the State Chamber of Commerce – to have an impact and to appeal to those legislators and elected officials willing to listen. In parallel, Representative Ed Osienski was working on a bill – with DNREC – to make changes. In fact, Rep Osienski has been working on his effort for nearly three years! And, as you well know, modifications to the CZA were clearly stated as a key economic development initiative during our now, Governor, John Carney’s campaign. And, to this time, we have been in regular contact with Governor Carney, Representative Osienski and others members to share our ideas.
Sites were carefully studied
Our members carefully studied the 14 sites included in Appendix B of the earlier revised Act – and the ones included in the Osienski bill. As a result of this comprehensive review, we believe that the property boundaries as shown in Appendix B do not effectively define the area in question. As a result, we went deeper into the locations and defined the areas using the New Castle County Tax Parcel maps. We focused on the properties North of the canal and did not include the Delaware Pipeline and Storage site South of the canal in our discussion – although we do support the continued efforts of this successful enterprise. The total list of tax parcels relating to these properties includes 92 identified sites. Keep in mind that some of these parcels are less than an acre. So, 92 is not a very large number as some would lead you to believe – and, most important, they link with each of the sites included in the Appendix B document.
The 92 tax parcels comprise a total of 6,800 acres of which 4600 acres are in use as part of the refinery complex. The remaining 2,200 acres are North of the refinery to the Pennsylvania line. These 2200 acres include the sites we all know – Everaz/Claymont Steel, General Chemical, Edgemoor, Croda, etc. – and comprise well less than 2% of the entire Coastal Zone as defined in the CZA. And, interestingly, a number of these sites are not even located on the Delaware River.
The direction urged by the DEED coalition encompasses an area slightly larger than proposed by Representative Osienski…but that’s what this process is all about and I commend him for his initiative and his willingness to listen.
I am angered, however, by the unsupported accusations flung by individuals like Amy Roe. It is unfortunate that she immediately played the race card in this discussion with her assumption that the reactivation/repurposing/reuse of these currently blighted sites will lead to the deaths of nearby residents as more pollutants are “added to the environment”. This is ridiculous hyperbole. The coalition contends that the lack of good paying blue and gray collar jobs and accompanying opportunity has contributed far more to the blight of the surrounding neighborhoods. The loss of the good jobs that fueled Delaware’s middle class for years has devastated these communities.
Amy Roe’s unsupported accusations
All of the identified sites require remediation – some now underway through HSCA and Superfund efforts with the more contaminated sites. These approaches typically follow a cap and contain strategy – leaving a significant number of contaminants on site and preventing any further disturbance of the soils on site. Other properties remain polluted, some abandoned, and most with no hope for cleanup. The only way these sites will be cleaned is by providing the economic incentive for the private sector to make it happen and giving them the opportunity to put them back to economic use. The more extreme environmentalists want these sites capped, contained and unused. It makes no economic or good environmental sense – especially at this critical time in Delaware’s economic existence.
None of us want to adversely impact our coastline. None of us are advocating the destruction of wetlands or the development undisturbed land or greenfields. All of us enjoy the incredible beauty of the coastline and love the benefits of the vibrant and active beach communities. And, equally important, we all want positive growth and economic stability to return to our state – we see this as a first step. Are modifications to the Coastal Zone Act a panacea for our economic development woes? I don’t know. But, what I do know is that unless we try, we’ll be stuck in this downward economic spiral for years to come. And, we are quickly running out of time.
And finally, earlier this year, legislation was introduced to create an endangered species task force. The endangered species not included are the Job Creators and Millennials flocking from our state for better opportunities elsewhere. This should make us all sit up, take notice and move forward with these much-needed Coastal Zone modifications.
