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U.S. EPA Awards Funds for Local Brownfields in Southern California

Release Date: 6/20/2003
Contact Information: Lisa Fasano, (415) 947-4307

LOS ANGELES   The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today that five southern California communities, along with one community in central California, will receive grants totaling $2.85 million from the agency to promote redevelopment of Brownfields sites   places where environmental contamination or the perception of it has complicated or thwarted redevelopment opportunities.
     These grants are among the first to be awarded under the Brownfields Revitalization and Environmental Restoration Act signed into law in January 2002.  The act authorizes up to $250 million per year for Brownfields grants, including up to $50 million for the assessment and cleanup of low-risk petroleum contaminated sites.
    Those receiving grants in southern California will be the Lula Washington Contemporary Dance Foundation in Los Angeles; the Anaheim Redevelopment Agency; the National City Redevelopment Commission; and Culver City and Carson. In central California, the Bakersfield Redevelopment Agency is the grant recipient.
    "These grants will help turn neighborhood eyesores into community assets, restoring hope and creating opportunity for the people who live nearby," said EPA Administrator Christie Whitman said. "From the signing of landmark Brownfields legislation last year, to the more than doubling of funds made available for Brownfields reclamation, this Administration has proven its commitment to the environmental cleanup and economic revitalization of our nation's communities."
    "The Brownfields Act recognizes that cleanup money is needed to help restore abandoned properties back into productive use by providing local jobs, needed tax revenues and recreational benefits that have been lost,"  said Wayne Nastri, the EPA's regional administrator for the Pacific Southwest region. "These grants represent a committed partnership between federal government and community interests to work together to make these sites whole again."
    The grants are as follows:
         The Lula Washington Contemporary Dance Foundation will receive $200,000 to clean up      petroleum waste at 3773-75 South Crenshaw Blvd., the site of the dance theater's studio.      The building was formerly an ambulance dispatch center and used for automotive repair;
         The Anaheim Redevelopment Agency will receive a revolving loan fund grant $1      million, which will allow the agency to provide loan and subgrants for petroleum and      hazardous substances cleanup;
         The National City Community Development Commission will receive a $200,000      pollution assessment grant for the eastern portion of the city's Harbor district;
          Culver City will receive $50,000 for assessment of pollution at abandoned oil fields;
         Carson will receive $200,000 for assessment of petroleum pollution problems at several      sites in the city;
         The Bakersfield Redevelopment Agency will receive a revolving loan fund grant of $1      million also for loans and subgrants for petroleum contamination and pollution cleanup.
    The money going to southern and central California is part of  $73.1 million being awarded nationally that will fund 117 Brownfield assessment grants totaling $30.7 million, 69 cleanup grants totaling $12 million and 28 revolving loan fund grants totaling $30.4 million.
    In the Pacific Southwest Region of the EPA, $7.9 million is being awarded in California, Nevada and Arizona. Since the Brownfields program began in 1995, $32.9 million in grants have been awarded regionally.
More information about EPA's Brownfields program is available at: https://www.epa.gov/swerosps/bf/index.html
Also visit:
https://www.epa.gov/region09/waste/brown/
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