This month’s column in the Pennsylvania Law Weekly addresses the contamination risk faced by charities that accept donated land. I particularly treat the problem of charities whose very purpose calls for them to accept environmentally suspect property. Perhaps it has been a vacant lot subject to fly dumping. Perhaps the charity is specifically intended to locate in a risky place or, for example, to do a rails-to-trails conversion. The charity cannot simply avoid risk; the risk has to be managed. Often, that requires the charity to have to be certain it has the financial resources available as well as the real estate.
To read Charities, Donated Land and Environmental Liability, 37 Pa. L. Weekly 532 (June 10, 2014), click here.