Excerpt from the Oklahoman, May 26, 2012. Read the full article here.
Experts at the Oklahoma Brownfields Conference had me scribbling notes and processing the data of the moment.
But Marc Weinreich got me to thinking. He got me to thinking about the present as well as the future of contaminated land — of brownfields (technically, former industrial or commercial sites with a future affected by real or perceived environmental contamination).
The name of the session set the tone for reflection: “Recovering from Our Industrial Past: Redeveloping Heavily Contaminated Properties.” It does have a certain prophetic ring to it.
Weinreich compared land in recovery to people in recovery from substance abuse — and to help people get their heads wrapped around it, he started out by asking a question that can put a lump in your throat, depending on your frame of mind, who you know and your own life experience.