Brownfields Assessment Pilot Fact Sheet

Orange, CA

EPA's Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative is designed to empower states, communities, and other stakeholders in economic redevelopment to work together in a timely manner to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields. A brownfield is a site, or portion thereof, that has actual or perceived contamination and an active potential for redevelopment or reuse. EPA is funding: assessment demonstration pilot programs (each funded up to $200,000 over two years), to assess brownfields sites and to test cleanup and redevelopment models; job training pilot programs (each funded up to $200,000 over two years), to provide training for residents of communities affected by brownfields to facilitate cleanup of brownfields sites and prepare trainees for future employment in the environmental field; and, cleanup revolving loan fund programs (each funded up to $500,000 over five years) to capitalize loan funds to make loans for the environmental cleanup of brownfields. These pilot programs are intended to provide EPA, states, tribes, municipalities, and communities with useful information and strategies as they continue to seek new methods to promote a unified approach to site assessment, environmental cleanup, and redevelopment.

PILOT SNAPSHOT

Orange, CA

Date of Announcement:
April 2001

Amount: $200,000

Profile: The Pilot targets two sites in the northern and eastern portions of the City of Orange for assessment and planning for redevelopment into usable parkland.

BACKGROUND

EPA has selected the City of Orange for a Brownfields Assessment Pilot. The City of Orange (population 127,600) is located in central Orange County, about 32 miles southeast of Los Angeles. Incorporated in 1888, the older western and central portions of the city are landlocked and fully built out. Growth has continued in the northern and eastern parts of the city around the targeted sites. While the city has adopted the California state standard of three acres of parkland for every 1,000 residents, there has been no park development in the areas around the targeted sites over the last decade. The city has been unable to keep pace with the substantial increase in residential development in the areas around the targeted sites. The Pilot targets the city-owned Cerro Villa site and the Railroad Property, which the city is in the process of acquiring.

Both targeted sites have had a negative effect on the surrounding communities. Portions of the Railroad Property, which currently houses an asphalt batch plant, have been used as a landfill, surface mine, and materials processing plant. The Cerro Villa property, which also is a former landfill, is now surrounded by residential development. Assessment of both landfills is needed to determine the level of contamination that may be present due to prior uses of the property.

OBJECTIVES

The City of Orange plans to create two parks through redevelopment of the targeted sites. Activities at the Railroad Property will be coordinated with the development of Rock Creek Park to the northeast and the planned Santiago Creek trail system to the west. The Pilot will help the city create another 54 acres of developed park space to meet community needs and reduce its parkland deficit.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:

Completing Phase I and Phase II environmental site assessments for the Cerro Villa and Railroad Property sites;
Conducting complete risk assessments for the Cerro Villa and Railroad Property sites; and
Developing remediation plans for the Cerro Villa and Railroad Property sites.

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

CONTACTS

City of Orange
(714) 744-5597

Regional Brownfields Team
U.S. EPA - Region 9
(415) 744-2237

Visit the EPA Region 9 Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/region09/waste/brown/index.html

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

United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, D.C. 20460

Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105)

EPA 500-F-01-260
April 2001

Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5105)

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