| On March 27, 2008, in a letter to the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), Region 4 of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) acknowledged that MDEQ has demonstrated that the Mississippi Brownfield Program meets the requirements of CERCLA Section 128(a) for a State Response Program. Under the existing federal brownfield law, Congress expressly provided a federal enforcement bar under CERCLA §106(a) or §107(a) to all landowners/developers who have enrolled their brownfield site into the State Response Program and who are successfully completing (or have completed) the state prescribed remedial actions. This bar on federal enforcement was Congress’ method of streamlining the administrative process, reducing delay, and providing landowners/developers the prerequisite regulatory clarity needed to undertake brownfield redevelopment. Under the existing federal brownfield law, Congress recognized the primacy of state brownfield clean-up programs to both determine clean-up standards for brownfield sites and confirm when those clean-up standards have been successfully achieved. With the issuance of this acknowledgement letter, the partnership between EPA and MDEQ is further strengthened allowing for greater clarity and less uncertainty in the assessment, cleanup, and reuse of sites moving through the Mississippi Brownfield Program. | |||
