Moline looks for funds to pay tab for sites polluted by businesses

Moline plans to apply for federal grants to help it assess and clean up some of the top brownfield areas in the city.

Tonight, the city council committee-of-the-whole will hear about a recently completed study that identifies 151 brownfield sites in Moline and prioritizes the top 10 areas, which were grouped together because they most likely will be redeveloped together.

A brownfield is contaminated or polluted land that needs to be cleaned up before it can be redeveloped. Most of the sites in Moline are former manufacturing sites.

While the top 10 brownfield areas identified stretch from the border of Rock Island to East Moline, many are in the downtown area or near the proposed Western Illinois University campus where the city plans to develop a high-tech business district.

While this story is likely viewed from a development angle, the fact that it illustrates the direct cost and negative effect of companies and corporations leaving behind land that's so polluted as to be unlivable is the true story. And it's the policy across the country to cover for these corporations and have the federal taxpayer pick up the cost of cleaning up after these businesses.
Run your company, dumping toxic pollution on the property, into the water table, and into the air, then take your profits and walk away, leaving the taxpayers to worry about your toxic mess you've left behind.

Also of note is that the city is only taking action when the polluted tracts are desired by developers who will then reap profits from the property. What becomes of the other 140 likely dangerously polluted sites which impact homeowners and children? While it would surely be cost prohibitive to clean up all the sites within the city, it does seem rather unfair that only sites desired by developers are targeted for clean up, while taxpaying residents living on or near contaminated sites must just live with it. If a person wanted to build a private home on such property, would the city respond the same and seek to find the money to clean the property for the owner?