Vermont is home
to hundreds of brownfields– former industrial or commercial sites where
hazardous materials remain. The
Environmental Protection Agency recently awarded $1 million to four regional planning
commissions in the state to help clean-up their polluted sites. But experts say it can take an average of
$300,000 to clean up just one site. The
state’s Department of Economic Conservation also runs a project to help
prospective land buyers assess sites and fund their clean-up. We talk with the agency’s Brownfields Project
Manager, Don Einhorn, and Sue Fillion, with the Windham Regional Planning
Commission, about funding challenges, and what impact sites have on economic
development. (Listen)
Also, on the eve of Earth Day 2008, we talk with Burlington Free Press environmental reporter Candace Page about what the annual observance has accomplished since it was initiated in 1970. (Listen)
And, we look in on a special springtime tradition in the Green Mountains: saving toads and salamanders from death on the highways. (Listen)