The Building Owners and Managers Associations also applauded the vote. "Private sector involvement in brownfields has been stymied for too long by the unintended consequences of Superfund law," says BOMA president Richard D. Baier, managing director of CB Richard Ellis in Kansas City. "By providing liability protection for blameless parties, such as prospective purchasers, innocent landowners and contiguous property holders, Congress can remove a tremendous disincentive for redeveloping brownfields."

The legislation, originally sponsored by Sens. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), Robert C. Smith (R-NH), Harry Reid (D-NV) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA), had 69 Senate cosponsors by the time it went to a full vote, as well as the support of President Bush, the US Conference of Mayors and the Trust for Public Land. The measure would ease real estate owners' and prospective purchasers' environmental cleanup liability under the 1980 Superfund law, including the liability that faces landowners whose properties become contaminated by pollution migrating from adjacent sites. According to the Real Estate Roundtable, it would provide real estate owners with a greater sense of closure on voluntary brownfields cleanup projects approved by state authorities. The bill would also give financial incentives to investigate and clean up brownfield sites.

Under current law, companies that own or buy brownfields could be liable for the cost of removing hazardous substances on those sites even if they didn't cause the pollution. Experts estimate there are approximately 400,000 mildly contaminated brownfield sites throughout the country.

"We applaud Senate lawmakers for acting to encourage private-sector investment in the nation's brownfields and look forward to similar action by the House," says Jeffrey DeBoer, Roundtable president and chief operating officer. House lawmakers say they will use the Senate bill as a starting part for their brownfields legislation.