Yu-Cheng Liang

Capstone Project

Brownfields—abandoned or underused industrial areas affected by pollution—remain a challenge for sustainable development in the United States. While federal programs like CERCLA and the EPA’s Brownfields Program have helped address contamination, many sites are still left behind because of high cleanup costs, liability issues, and complicated regulations. This policy brief explores why brownfields continue to persist and what can be done at the local level to fix the problem.