Brownfields 2004 Grant Fact Sheet

Los Angeles, CA

EPA BROWNFIELDS PROGRAM

EPA's Brownfields Program empowers states, communities, and other stakeholders in economic development to work together to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields. A brownfield site is real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. On January 11, 2002, the President signed into law the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act. Under the Brownfields Law, EPA provides financial assistance to eligible applicants through four competitive grant programs: assessment grants, revolving loan fund grants, cleanup grants, and job training grants. Additionally, funding support is provided to state and tribal response programs through a separate mechanism.

ASSESSMENT GRANT

$200,000 for petroleum

EPA has selected the City of Los Angeles for a brownfields assessment grant. Grant funds will be used to conduct two Phase II site assessments: one at a former oil field in Rockwood Park and the other at a railway site in East Wilmington Park. The city will also conduct a petroleum survey and review of noncompliant, obsolete underground storage tanks at targeted sites in disadvantaged communities around Los Angeles.

COMMUNITY DESCRIPTION

The City of Los Angeles was selected to receive a brownfields assessment grant. Los Angeles (population 3.6 million) is a city where unemployment exceeds nine percent and more than 18 percent of the households live below the poverty line. Low-income individuals and families are clustered primarily in heavily minority communities where unemployment and poverty levels far exceed these levels. Both Rockwood Park, a neighborhood within a federal Renewal Community, and East Wilmington Park (total population 475,000) are 97 percent non-white, primarily Hispanic. Approximately 40 percent of the residents in these neighborhoods have incomes below the poverty level. Assessment of these petroleum sites will take the city one step closer to improving the quality of life for the residents of these disadvantaged neighborhoods by providing them with much needed goods, services, and open space.

CONTACTS

For further information, including specific grant contacts, additional grant information, brownfields news and events, and publications and links, visit the EPA Brownfields web site at: www.epa.gov/brownfields.

EPA Region 9 Brownfields Team
415-972-3188
http://www.epa.gov/region09/waste/brown/

Grant Recipient: Los Angeles, CA
213-978-0888

The cooperative agreement for this grant has not yet been negotiated; therefore, activities described in this fact sheet are subject to change.