FAQs

What are brownfields?

Brownfields are properties whose environmental problems – confirmed or suspected – make development more difficult.

Environmental problems can include pollution to the land, water or air, or the presence of hazardous materials at the site, such as asbestos in building materials or drums of hazardous waste stored on-site.

Federal law can hold property owners responsible for the cleanup of brownfields, so many sites sit idle, underused or even abandoned by previous owners.

Where do brownfields come from?

Brownfields are often former gas stations, industrial facilities, auto repair shops or dry cleaners. While many were small commercial sites, large industrial sites compose most of the acreage of brownfields.

Where are Portland-area brownfields?

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality lists 580 brownfield sites within the greater Portland area. The real number is estimated to be much higher, however. Because owning a property with known contamination comes with legal and financial liabilities, many property owners are reluctant to report possible problems.

Brownfields are three times more likely to be located in an underserved community, and 50 percent of sites are close to environmentally sensitive areas.

Brownfields take up a lot of land that greater Portland needs but cannot fully use.

Why should we clean up brownfields?

Brownfields can impact human health and safety and contribute to a decreased quality of life for the community. Multiple studies show that the most vulnerable members of our region are disproportionately bearing the impacts of these hazards. Pollution can also cause persistent environmental degradation that takes decades to reverse.

Properties that sit vacant or underused don’t contribute to local budgets as much as they could and even hurt neighbors’ property values. Vacant properties don’t create revenue for local schools, parks and other public services.

Communities lose opportunities to build new housing that could take pressure off of the region’s increasingly unaffordable market or business opportunities that could create new jobs in places that already have good services and infrastructure.

What if all brownfields in greater Portland were redeveloped?

The 2012 Metro Brownfields Scoping Project found that redeveloping the region’s brownfields would do the following:

• Bring in 69,000 additional jobs, resulting in $3.3 billion in new annual wages
• Increase dwellings in mixed-use development by 138,000 units
• Provide 234 million square feet of new development
• Raise up to $427 million in new property tax revenue to support local schools and services (a 17% increase)
• Greatly reduce carbon dioxide emissions – the equivalent of removing 30,000 cars off the roads each year
• Save $480 million in public infrastructure costs by redeveloping brownfields instead of developing greenfields near the urban growth boundary

Are there any resources to help clean up and reduce brownfields?

Yes! There is the Oregon Brownfields Redevelopment Fund, administered by Business Oregon, which provides low-interest loans; programs at the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality that reduce a developer's liability; and a variety of local programs that can provide grants, loans or tax breaks to help make cleanup happen. You can also contact the Oregon Brownfield Coalition for any specific questions or inquiries about local resources.