I don’t know about all of you, but I think these past few days in Edmonton were just what I needed. Spring is now officially here and after months of grey and drab, we’re finally seeing the green appear. Leaves on trees, plants coming back to life, grass becoming ungross and unbrown. (Those probably aren’t words, I know.)

But not everything in the city is green and alive. Some things are still brown and dead. Like the contaminated brownfields that litter Edmonton. These spots once were the sites of things that contaminated the ground – old gas stations, industrial sites, factories. Many times, it is simply cheaper for the company that owns the land to just keep it dead and vacant than to clean it up and make it available for another use.

I walked by one such brownfield today, the site of an old gas station on Whyte Ave owned by Imperial Oil. It’s one of the better known contaminated sites in Edmonton, mostly because thousands of people pass by it every day. But there are others: the city says there are over 50 sites in the city that used to be gas stations and are now vacant. Not to mention the other industrial sites.

A couple of reports found their way to the city’s brownfield taskforce this week. One of them focused on the reasons that the companies that own these sites don’t actually fix them up. The cost is an obvious one, of course, but the city reports lists a handful of others: things like lack of knowledge on how to decontaminate the land or the fear that it might create a negative perception when people see the work being done.

The city has tried to fix that, through education programs and grants to help pay for cleanup. Still, a lot of companies remain resistant. It’s obvious that it’s going to take a long time to convince the some of the more stubborn owners.

On that note, another report looked at some of the things that could be put on these brownfields temporarily, while in negotiations to get them fully reclaimed. (Both reports are included at the bottom of this page.) The city took a look at some approaches that have been tried in other places.

Beautification

Be it through the use of public art, historical markers or even just turning and area in to a green space, it’s a simple matter of turning these brown lots in to something more pleasing to the eye.

The cost and scale of these would all depend on the actual space and what they city wants to put in to them. Although the level of contamination could factor in to when it comes to growing things. And seeing as the eventual hope is to have these places cleaned up and turned in to something else, an eye would have to be kept on making things temporary.

Vendors

A lot of places, like Portland, allow vendors to set up stalls in their areas that need to be reclaimed. Things like food vendors are a popular option, but all kinds of small retailers – clothing, art, produce – could find a temporary home on a brownfield. It’s an especially attractive option for places like Whyte Ave or Alberta Ave, with heavy foot traffic and a lot of activity nearby.

Relatively little infrastructure is needed to make the site acceptable to temporary vendors, and the possibility of rent payments means an immediate benefit for the those who own the site. That might make it a bit of an easier sell.

Mini-power plant

Some places, like this brownfield in Massachusetts, find these empty fields as the perfect place to set up small-scale solar farms. The initial cost of the panels can be a bit steep, but they’re cheap to install and run. The report also mentions that the panels could be moves from site to site as things (hopefully) get cleaned up. Some places are making the panels pretty, which combines the public art and the solar farm concepts in a one-two punch.

These are a few of the big ideas tossed around, but they certainly aren’t the only things that could be done. In fact, almost anything would end up being better than a ragged old lot.

Personally, I’d love to see something involving the human race’s greatest invention – waterslides. But we’re interested in hearing your opinions. What are some of the brownfields in the city that are just screaming for attention? And what should be done on those spots – either long-term or temporarily? Let us know in the comments.

Here are the two reports we mentioned:

City Document: Brownfield Owners Unwilling to Sell or Remediate

City Document- Uses for Contaminated Properties