What are the disadvantages of building on brownfield sites?
The expense of cleaning up the site is the big one, but developers often shy away from brownfield sites because they don’t want to deal with the controversy of the public opinion surrounding it. People worry that not all the toxins will be removed, but rather disturbed during construction putting them at more risk. In the case of phytoremediation, in which plants are used to help draw contaminants out of the ground, one must wonder what happens with the leaves that drop off those plants in the fall. When the plants are removed, they have to be treated like toxic waste, but in the meantime they are living and growing around people. Never underestimate the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) people making things difficult for any development.
