In the United States, our most contaminated properties are on a list that is generally referred to as the Superfund list. These are the properties that have been identified as representing the most dangerous, most toxic places in the country. Whether in fact that is true is another story, for another time.

Every State has its Superfund listed sites and in Pennsylvania, one of the most notorious was called the Harper Drive Superfund Site, located in Millcreek Township, Pennsylvania. This Superfund site was at one time pristine, freshwater wetlands. But over a forty-year period, industries and municipalities used it as a dump and it ultimately housed volatile organic compounds, and metals such as copper and lead.

The site has been tainted with rusted automobiles, abandoned appliances and, of course, the signature of all dumps, leaking 55-gallon drums of toxins. Here is perhaps the best from rags to riches story in the Superfund world. This former toxic dump is no more. After removing 100 drums of hazardous waste, crushing 600 other drums and removing tons and tons of debris and contaminated soil, the site is now a nine-hole golf course. The golf course is going to open this spring.

The new golf course is separated from the shadowy underground by a cap, which consists of a layer of clay with a plastic liner. So, those playing golf are completely risk-free. Caps, which are in effect high tech hats, are used with increasing frequency throughout the U.S. to isolate people from hazardous materials, without actually having to pay the cost of taking the hazardous materials away.

The golf course is part of the actual cleanup. You see the way landfills are frequently cleaned is that the most dirty and vile substances are removed, leaving behind certain materials that can remain in the ground forever without really hurting anybody. They are then covered with a cap, so that when it rains, whatever is left behind does not pollute the groundwater. The golf course was developed on top of the cap.

The responsible parties, in other words those companies and municipalities that contributed the toxins to the site over the years, actually paid for the removal of the substances, the construction of the cap, and the creation of the golf course. They also paid for a groundwater treatment plant and continued groundwater monitoring to make sure that this golf course cap continues to protect the groundwater. They are not paying for golf club memberships, however.

This is not the fist golf course, or for that matter the first recreation area,that has been constructed on top of a landfill. Landfill reclamation is now big business. All over the country, municipalities and businesses that have old, polluted dumps are looking at their landfills as potential redevelopment locations. The model works.

By taking out the harmful substances and creating a cap, viable reuses can be constructed on top of these landfills. While parts of the country that do not have significant redevelopment pressures are not looking to their landfills as redevelopment meccas, many parts of this country that already are heavily developed see landfills as large, vacant spaces with huge redevelopment possibilities.

Remember that in the "old days", in other words during the last several hundred years up until the early 1970s, it was commonplace throughout the United States for municipalities to have their own "town dump". This was the place where local residents, local businesses, and just about anybody else with five dollars in their pocket could take just about anything and have it covered up. Literally and sometimes figuratively. Contaminated as they might be, many of these old dumps still have not been properly cleaned, which means that they represent an ongoing source of contamination to the groundwater. Since many of these dumps are located close to where everybody lives, they were user-friendly. People could simply take a very short drive over to the dump and get rid of whatever they had. That is also what often makes these old dumps good redevelopment locations.

Does your municipality have a local dump that was used through the mid 1970s and not properly closed? If so, you should consider asking your local governing body to evaluate this dump. Perhaps a redevelopment option should be considered. It can be a recreational facility, it can be a senior citizen facility, it can house light industry.

There may be gold located in these old town dumps. Make sure that your locality is adequately protecting your local environment and encouraging this kind of redevelopment consideration.

The information provided in this column is written by Stuart Lieberman,a practicing environmental attorney, and is for general information purposes only. It is not legal advice and should not be used in place of legal advice.

Stuart Lieberman, Esq., and IRED.Com, Inc., will not accept any responsibilty for any reliance on the information in this column or any damages whatsoever resulting from reading this column.