Biden-Harris Administration Announces $3 Million Through Investing in America Agenda to Rehabilitate and Revitalize Communities in Southern California
Funded by $1.5 billion national investment from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to address legacy pollution, advance environmental justice, and create healthier communities through Brownfields projects
SAN FRANCISCO – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced $3 million in grants from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to expedite the assessment and cleanup of so-called brownfield sites – contaminated properties that often constitute blight on a community -- in southern California. This historic investment from EPA’s Brownfields Multipurpose, Assessment, and Cleanup (MAC) Grant Program, funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, will help turn contaminated, vacant properties into community assets and create rewarding jobs, fostering economic revitalization in overburdened communities.
EPA selected the City of Carson, Orange County Council of Governments (OCCOG), and Orange County Transportation Authority to receive three grants totaling $3 million in competitive EPA Brownfields funding through the MAC Grant program. Their work will directly benefit five communities in California.
"With this historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding, the EPA is helping California transform polluted, abandoned sites into thriving community assets," said U.S. EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Martha Guzman, "These grants will not only provide resources to communities seeking to revitalize, but also provide stable, good-paying jobs in areas that have faced underinvestment for far too long."
“Thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we are transforming overburdened, economically stressed communities by cleaning up and revitalizing polluted and underused brownfield lands,” said U.S. Senator Alex Padilla. “These investments in Orange County and the City of Carson will create good-paying green jobs, foster sustainable economic development, and help address environmental and health care challenges that have persistently hurt disadvantaged communities in Southern California.”
“I applaud President Biden and the Environmental Protection Agency’s commitment to revitalizing communities adversely impacted by contamination and waste across southern California,” said U.S. Senator Laphonza Butler. “These federal dollars will enable us to clean up abandoned lots polluting the environment and restore communities, all while creating jobs and opportunity for the entire region.”
“This is excellent news for Carson,” said U.S. Representative Nanette Diaz Barragán (CA-44). “Brownfield sites have long been a burden on our communities, and this funding will help to clean up these areas and revitalize them into thriving community assets that help attract jobs and enhance the quality of life for residents. I want to thank the EPA and the Biden-Harris Administration for working with Democrats in Congress to pass the Infrastructure Law, which invested $1.5 billion into the Brownfields program.”
"Our families have the right to live in safe, unpolluted, and uncontaminated communities. Under the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which I was proud to support in Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency can invest $2.5 million of our federal tax dollars towards expediting environmental cleanup in Orange County," declared U.S. Representative J. Luis Correa (CA-46). "With these community-wide grants, we are undoing harmful pollution, revitalizing our communities, and creating stable, well-paying, and rewarding jobs for the families who need it most."
"The City of Carson is deeply honored to receive the Community-Wide Assessment grant," said the City of Carson Mayor Lula Davis-Holmes. "As a community of nearly 100,000 residents, Carson has a long history of environmental justice issues, and while we have made strides in addressing these challenges, we remain acutely aware of the work ahead. Our newly adopted Economic Development Strategic Plan codified our commitment to becoming a national brownfield remediation and redevelopment leader, and this EPA funding reaffirms our commitment to environmental justice, strategic economic development, and creating a healthier, more equitable future.
"OCCOG is grateful for the award of this $1.5 million US EPA Brownfield Coalition Grant,” said OCCOG Executive Director Marnie O’Brien Primmer. “The funds provided will allow OCCOG and our partners at the Cities of Orange, Santa Ana, and Garden Grove and our nonprofit partner at NeighborWorks OC to conduct Brownfield Inventories, Stakeholder Engagement, Phase I/II Environmental Site Assessments, Regulated Building Materials Surveys, Site-Specific Reuse Planning, and Area-Wide Planning all aimed at cleaning up contaminated sites and promoting a vibrant community here in Orange County.”
California Funding Breakdown:
$1,500,000 for the Orange County Council of Governments
The EPA selected the Orange County Council of Governments to receive a $1,500,000 Brownfields Assessment Coalition Grant to identify potentially contaminated sites in overburdened communities, conduct environmental site assessments, develop cleanup plans, and support community engagement activities. The Council is prioritizing sites in East Anaheim, Orange’s Marlboro neighborhood, Grove’s International West and Harbor Boulevard neighborhoods, and Santa Ana’s Harbor Boulevard neighborhood, all communities that have been overburdened by multiple environmental, economic, housing, and health inequities. The Council has prioritized three sites: a 2.2-acre former metals manufacturing facility, a 10,000-square-foot blighted and vacant restaurant, and a 1.4-acre former furniture manufacturer.
$1,000,000 for the Orange County Transportation Authority
The EPA selected the Orange County Transportation Authority for a $1 million Brownfields Multipurpose Grant to conduct environmental site assessments in and clean up the 18.78-acre OC Connect site in Garden Grove and Santa Ana. The 3.1-mile-long OC Connect site is suspected to be contaminated by prior railway and other industrial operations.
Thanks to this grant funding, the Orange County Transportation Authority will also complete multiple community engagement activities to alert the community to future cleanup work and seek community input when selecting additional sites from the priority list.
$500,000 for the City of Carson
The EPA selected the City of Carson to receive a $500,000 Brownfields Community-Wide Assessment Grant to conduct community engagement activities and identify and prioritize sites in three census tracts. Sites that will be prioritized have been disproportionately burdened by climate change and pollution and lack of access to quality healthcare, affordable and reliable energy, housing, transportation, clean water, effective wastewater systems, and/or problematic workforce development. Two high-priority sites are a former gas station and a former landfill site now used as an automobile auction facility. The grant will also be used to complete environmental site assessments, develop cleanup alternative evaluations, and conduct visioning sessions.
Additional Background:
Thanks to the historic $1.5 billion boost from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, EPA’s Brownfields Program is helping more communities than ever before begin to address the economic, social, and environmental challenges caused by brownfields and stimulate economic opportunity and environmental revitalization in historically overburdened communities.
EPA’s Brownfields Program advances President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative, which sets a goal that 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal investments flow to communities marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution. The Brownfields Program strives to meet this commitment and advance environmental justice and equity considerations in all aspects of its work.
Approximately 86% of the applications EPA selected to receive MAC and other Brownfields program funding included projects in communities overburdened by environmental, health, and other inequities.
EPA has selected these organizations to receive funding to address and support the reuse of brownfield sites to address the health, economic, social, and environmental challenges caused by brownfields. EPA anticipates finalizing all the awards announced today once all legal and administrative requirements are satisfied.
EPA’s Brownfields Program began in 1995 and has provided nearly $2.7 billion in Brownfield Grants to assess and clean up contaminated properties and return blighted properties to productive reuse. Before the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, this program made approximately $60 million available yearly. Thanks to the President’s historic investments in America through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, EPA has increased that yearly investment by nearly 400 percent. More than half of the funding available for this grant cycle (approximately $160 million) comes from the historic $1.5 billion investment from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. This investment has also significantly increased the MAC grants’ maximum award amounts from $500,000 to a new maximum of $5 million per award.
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