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U.S. EPA awards Brownfields grants - $400,000 to Anaheim, $200,000 to National City

Release Date: 05/14/2007
Contact Information: Dean Higuchi, 808-541-2711, [email protected]

(05/14/07) SAN FRANCISCO -- Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded a collective $600,000 to two Anaheim, Calif. agencies - the Anaheim Redevelopment Agency and the City of Anaheim – and the National City Community Development Commission - for assessment and inventories of Southern California abandoned, potentially contaminated properties.

Nationally, the EPA awarded 302 grants totaling $75.9 million today as part of the agency’s Brownfields program, which provides funding to clean up and redevelop contaminated properties.

"The brownfields program empowers communities to return blighted eyesores into community assets," said Wayne Nastri, administrator of the U.S. EPA's Pacific Southwest Office in San Francisco. "These grants provide jobs, curb suburban sprawl and clean up contaminated properties all at once. We look forward to helping more communities throughout the Pacific Southwest take advantage of this win-win grants program."

The Southern California EPA Brownfields grants are distributed as follows:

$200,000 to the City of Anaheim - with the goal of improving the quality of life in a low income section of the city, EPA funds will be used to assess the 1.65 acre former Homer Oil Company site, once a agricultural chemical supply facility, now likely contaminated with residual pesticides and located next to an elementary school, while involving local residents.

$200,000 to the Anaheim Redevelopment Agency - with the goal of increasing affordable housing, EPA funds will be used to assess environmental conditions at the Atchison Street Housing site, conduct a health risk assessment for the site, with the input and support of local residents.

$200,000 to the National City Community Development Commission - with the goal of providing affordable housing in a low income Latino neighborhood, EPA funds will be used to develop an area-wide inventory of sites, perform environmental assessments and conduct community outreach activities in the Westside neighborhood.
The brownfields program encourages redevelopment of America's estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated waste sites. Since the beginning of the program, the EPA has awarded 1,067 assessment grants totaling more than $262 million, 217 revolving loan fund grants totaling more than $201.7 million, and 336 cleanup grants totaling $61.3 million.

In addition to industrial and commercial redevelopment, brownfields approaches have included the conversion of industrial waterfronts to river-front parks, landfills to golf courses, rail corridors to recreational trails, and gas stations to housing. EPA's brownfields assistance has leveraged more than $9.6 billion in cleanup and redevelopment, helped create more than 43,029 jobs and resulted in the assessment of more than 10,504 properties and the cleanup of 180 properties.

For more information on the grant recipients, go to: https://www.epa.gov/brownfields
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