A toxic waste [The Indianapolis Star]

Dec. 27--The streets that run through Pearl J. Carter's Near-Northside neighborhood are dotted with patches of property that, in a perfect world, might be transformed into something special -- businesses that provide jobs and serve the needs of her neighbors, or houses to bring more middle-income earners into the poverty-stricken area.

But these properties -- remnants of decades past when the area was more heavily industrial -- are far from perfect.

Many of them are possibly contaminated from years of industrial use. Others suffer from the sheer amount of chemicals unloaded on the property. Either way, they present enormous obstacles to developers. And, thus, instead of providing opportunities, they are more likely to fall deeper into disrepair month after month, year after year.

Less than a mile north of Carter's Yandes Street home, on Hillside Avenue, a site that used to house a diesel service shop has become a spot for illegal dumping.

A little farther north on 21st Street, an old machinery company lies abandoned and in disrepair.

And a couple of blocks east, the 2100 block of Hovey Street hosts a row of former residences, now illegal dumps stockpiled with junk, debris and trash.

The situation in Carter's neighborhood may be acute, but it is far from unique.

More than 500 such spots, called brownfields, dot the city's landscape from its urban core to the county's outer stretches.

For local government, they've become an enormous obstacle to revitalizing hard-hit neighborhoods and putting blemished properties back on the tax rolls. Mounting delinquent taxes on brownfields in Indianapolis are in the millions.

For residents such as Carter, who has lived in Martindale-Brightwood for most of her 67 years, they bring a host of safety and health concerns, as well as a pervasive pessimism.

"It's been going on forever," Carter said. "It's an issue that should have been taken care of a long, long time ago."

But the situation -- at least in the near future -- seems more likely to become worse than better.

As more businesses close their doors in an era of bankruptcies and foreclosures, some experts say more brownfields appear to be coming on the market. In Marion County, about 1,200 operations could become brownfields if they were to shut down.

There also is the very real concern over funding. The cost to test a brownfield for contamination and clean it can range from about $40,000 for small and relatively clean sites such as gas stations and dry cleaners to millions for sprawling industrial parcels with high levels of contamination.

Because of those costs -- and relatively cheap land available in the Midwest -- developers often require incentives to develop brownfields. That is especially so during a recession when there is greater risk and loans are more scarce.

But state money, which provides about three-fourths of Indianapolis' funds to test and clean up properties, also is becoming more scarce.

In 2005, when Indiana restructured its brownfields program, there was about $8 million in unspent state funds from earlier in the decade that could be doled out to communities for grants to do brownfield cleanup and remediation. The state legislature also allocated $2.5 million for Indiana's brownfields program.

But the $8 million since has dwindled to about $1 million, and the state legislature cut its appropriation for brownfields to $200,000 for next year and 2011.

"It requires resources to address these issues from the legacy of the past," said Chris Harrell, the brownfields redevelopment coordinator for Indianapolis. "As the resources dwindle, that makes it even harder."

The state agency that deals with brownfields has tried to make up the difference by going after federal grants.

"There's a need for more funding," said Jim McGoff, director of environmental programs for the Indiana Finance Authority. "I'm not sure it necessarily has to come from the state. Applying for and trying to obtain more federal funding is a first step that we're focusing on."

But banking on federal dollars is risky because getting them is highly competitive, with only about a third of grant applicants awarded money each year.

This year, the state increased the amount in federal grants it obtained to about $6.5 million -- all in stimulus dollars -- from $400,000 in 2007. But unless additional stimulus dollars are set aside in coming years, the maximum the state could get is $2 million to $3 million a year.

Some Indiana lawmakers say more funding is needed, but it won't be possible to get it from the legislature in a budget crisis.

"People are really supportive of cleaning up these sites and getting them back on the tax rolls," said state Sen. Beverly Gard, R-Greenfield, who authored legislation that allows cities and private entities to go after companies responsible for contamination to get funding for a cleanup. "We would like to see more funding when the state is in sound financial condition again. (But) we're talking about cutting higher and K-12 education. Now is not the time to ask for more funding."

Dollars have been more plentiful in some other Midwestern states with aggressive cleanup programs. Ohio has a fund granted by a taxpayer referendum of $50 million in 2010 to go toward brownfield revitalization and assistance.

Michigan approved a $335 million bond in 1998 to be used over the next decade.

Wisconsin has seen some cuts in state brownfields funding this year, but its legislature still set aside about $6.5 million for brownfield cleanup, with about the same amount expected in 2010.

With state funds dwindling, cities such as Indianapolis are looking for new ways to confront the issue. One is to aggressively pursue legal action against companies responsible for contamination and the businesses' insurers.

Indianapolis is involved in two lawsuits, with more to be filed in the next six months, said Jon Mayes, chief litigation counsel for the city.

The strategy is not foolproof. In some cases, it's difficult to find insurance documents, and some more recent insurance policies exclude coverage.

But at least one of the pending suits appears promising.

In August, a judge found Ertel Manufacturing Corp., which had heavily contaminated groundwater and soil on its Martindale-Brightwood site, liable under Indiana's environmental legal action statute. How much the business -- through its insurer -- must pay the city toward the $5 million cleanup has yet to be determined.

But while the city pursues new sources of revenue, it also must seek out willing developers.

A new online database that will be available in the spring will map about 520 brownfields and the sites that have been redeveloped to provide information about the properties to potential investors.

But in important ways, the city is behind the curve, just as Indiana lags other states.

Indianapolis devotes just one employee -- Harrell -- to the issue, and not a single dollar in the city budget is devoted to brownfield site cleanup.

By comparison, Milwaukee, which estimates it has about 160 brownfield sites and is known for its aggressive cleanup program, has set aside $9.2 million toward brownfield cleanup since 2001 and has three city employees who work on the issue.

Still, Indianapolis has made some progress with limited resources. The city has secured about $3 million in state and Environmental Protection Agency grants, along with about $750,000 in federal housing dollars, for brownfield cleanup and testing since 2004.

Citywide, 44 brownfields have been redeveloped and 16 others are cleaned and ready for reuse.

But the sites that haven't been cleaned still outnumber the success stories 10-to-1.

And each contaminated site that's left brings not only a loss in property tax revenue and lost opportunity to improve neighborhoods, but also potentially significant health issues.

On some brownfield sites, chemicals that have contaminated groundwater can vaporize and be inhaled by nearby residents. Several decades of breathing those chemicals has been linked to cancer and respiratory conditions, said Pam Thevenow, water quality and hazardous materials administrator with the Marion County Health Department.

Such health effects have entered Joanna Lenoir's mind. The Martindale-Brightwood resident lost her mom and brother, who also lived in the neighborhood, to pulmonary fibrosis, a lung condition.

She's hesitant, however, to draw a direct connection between the disease and the neighborhood's contamination -- and the reality is that it is difficult to separate the specific health impact of brownfield contamination from other environmental or behavioral factors.

Lenoir's bigger concerns are the blight and economic development challenges the brownfields bring.

Lenoir, 64, remembers when the neighborhood was thriving with working-class families.

Now, with so many businesses closed, most of the houses on her block of Columbia Avenue are vacant. The neighborhood's stable citizens have been replaced by what she calls "flim-flam" -- drug dealers, prostitutes and troublemakers.

Still, she looks out at the abandoned and trashed lots and sees potential. If only someone would take advantage of it.

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