Green infrastructure refers to, among other things, the utilization of sustainable forestry and agriculture as elements of a cost-effective compliance strategy for meeting the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (“NPDES”) permitting requirements, as authorized by the Clean Air Act (“CWA”), and its state counterparts. Natural systems and processes such as constructed wetlands and phytoremediation have long been used as tools for meeting NPDES discharge standards; however, the advent of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA’s”) more rigorous “Phase II” stormwater management requirements has spurred renewed interest in such systems among a new and more expansive set of permittees.

Under the Brownfields Law of 2002, EPA and other federal agencies have established a variety of programs focused on promoting and funding the repurposing of abandoned mine lands (AMLs), broadly defined as lands, waters, and watersheds in close proximity to where extraction, beneficiation, or processing of ores and minerals has occurred. Among the most promising of these initiatives is EPA’s Re-Powering America Program, pursuant to which EPA has prioritized the development of renewable energy projects on brownfield properties such as AMLs.