As the name might suggest, a brownfield is an "abandoned, idled or under-used industrial and commercial facility where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contaminations." Simply put, these brownfields are sites big and small where former gas stations, paint manufacturers and other industrial businesses left a legacy of pollution that make them a dangerous health threat to surrounding communities. In New York City alone, there are over 6,500 of these undeveloped and contaminated sites.

In 2003, the New York state legislature passed a monumental brownfields clean up program unlike any other in the nation. Environmentalists and public health groups praised the bill and its high standard of cleanup. However, when the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation introduced the rules that implemented the legislative fix, the program fell far short of what that state's lawmakers envisioned.

Late last month, Earthjustice, representing Sierra Club, New York Public Interest Research Group, Environmental Advocates of New York and Citizens' Environmental Coalition, appeared in New York Supreme Court to argue that the NYDEC cleanup standards don't match what state law requires. Passed under former Gov. George Pataki, the brownfield regulations weakly define these sites as "property with an onsite pollution source," rather than the much stronger legal definition of a brownfield as, "any property with pollution, even leaked there from a polluting source on another property."

As reported by the Associated Press, "The difference can be significant. Allowing only property with a source of pollution on site could significantly limit how many properties can be cleaned up using the brownfield state law."

The case is now awaiting judgment in the state Supreme Court.