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U.S. EPA SELECTS CITY OF COLTON FOR BROWNFIELDS PROJECT

Release Date: 5/6/1998
Contact Information: Lois Grunwald, U.S. EPA, (415) 744-1588

     (San Francisco) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S.EPA) today announced that it has selected the city of Colton to participate in a pilot redevelopment project at former industrial and commercial sites known as brownfields. Colton is one of 36 cities and municipalities  nationwide that were selected today as brownfields pilot projects.

     "Our new partnership with the city of Colton will bring together people who will work to clean up land and help create new, vital areas," said Felicia Marcus, U.S. EPA's regional administrator. "Environmental cleanup can bring life and strength to a community through jobs, an enhanced tax base, and vision for the community's future. We look forward to helping the city of Colton achieve that vision."

     The city of Colton will receive a $200,000 grant over a two-year period. Colton's pilot project will feature the creation of public and private partnerships to address abandoned industrial and commercial properties in the two-square mile City Center-Rancho Mill Street area. Colton will assess environmental contamination at sites and the preparation of plans to restore a portion of this area, located in the Agua Mansa Enterprise Zone. During the past 20 years, Colton has experienced economic decline in commercial, industrial, and residential areas, attributable in part to the closing of Norton Air Force base.  

     In Region 9, U.S. EPA currently has existing brownfields pilot projects in Sacramento, Stockton, Emeryville, Richmond, San Francisco, Oakland, Navajo Nation in New Mexico, Tucson, Santa Barbara, Phoenix, Pomona, San Diego and East Palo Alto. U.S. EPA is also providing assistance to the city of Los Angeles for brownfields redevelopment. With the 36 new projects, there are now 157 brownfields pilot projects nationwide.

     The brownfields initiative was launched to empower states, local governments, and other stakeholders in economic redevelopment to work together to assess, clean up, and sustainably reuse these brownfields properties. The initiative also addresses the concerns of prospective developers and lenders concerned about inheriting cleanup liability for property that is contaminated or perceived to be contaminated.

     Information on the new brownfields pilot grant awards can be obtained from the U.S. EPA's brownfields home page on the Internet at: https://www.epa.gov/brownfields .