State Brownfields conference this week

The 2018 Oklahoma Brownfields Conference continues in Oklahoma City through Sept. 28, 2018, at the Skirvin Hotel, located at 1 Park Ave.

The conference will attract realtors, developers, attorneys, architects, and engineers to hear about redeveloping property with environmental impacts, managing liability, and reconnecting projects to the community. Topics will include Redevelopment and GIS, Historic Reuse, Reconnecting the Community, and new tools for encouraging redevelopment, including the BUILD Act and Opportunity Zones.

The conference is hosted by the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) in coordination with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, EPA Regions 6 and 7, and public and private sponsors.

A brownfield is a property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. It is estimated that there are more than 450,000 brownfields in the U.S. Cleaning up and reinvesting in these properties increases local tax bases, facilitates job growth, utilizes existing infrastructure, takes development pressures off of undeveloped, open land, and both improves and protects the environment.