Five Southern California communities have received federal grants totaling $3 million to help transform contaminated brownfield sites into land safe for development, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced.
The Orange County Transportation Authority received a $1 million grant to conduct environmental assessments and clean up the 18.78-acre OC Connect site in Garden Grove and Santa Ana, which is believed to be contaminated by old railroads and industrial waste. A portion of the site is being considered for a future biking and walking trail that would run along the former Pacific Electric right-of-way corridor, connect the two cities’ downtowns and connect to the Santa Ana River Trail and the provincial OC Loop cycle route.
A $1.5 million grant will go to the Orange County Council of Government, which will work with the cities of Anaheim, Orange, Santa Ana and Garden Grove and the nonprofit housing development organization NeighborWorks Orange County to assess and assess brownfield sites, gather community input and develop plans to clean up contaminated lots.
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The OCCOG will focus much of its attention on three culturally diverse, mixed-income neighborhoods where residents face shortages of affordable housing and quality health care, and are disproportionately threatened by pollution: East Anaheim; Orange’s Marlboro neighborhood; the International West and Harbor Boulevard neighborhoods in Garden Grove; and Santa Ana’s Harbor Boulevard neighborhood.
The municipality has already identified three interesting locations: a 2.2 hectare former metal factory, a vacant 10,000 square meter restaurant building and a 1.4 hectare site formerly occupied by a furniture manufacturer.
NeighborWorks Orange County, which has been providing homebuyer education, homeowner resources and real estate loans since 1977 and has experience working with local governments, will lead the brownfield assessments and study some parcels as potential locations for affordable housing development, the president and chief executive officer , said Helen O’Sullivan.
“If there’s anything we can do to make that land available and secure so that we can build on it affordably, then we want to include that in the assessment process and then work with the cities to plan for that,” O’Sullivan said. .
This is the first time the OCCOG has received a federal grant to study and plan for the remediation of contaminated properties in Orange County, said Executive Director Marnie O’Brien Primmer.
But it wouldn’t be the first time that cities in the region have converted vacant, previously contaminated land into housing. In 2001, the Anaheim Redevelopment Agency led the purchase and cleanup of the site of a former Kwikset Corp. sheet metal plant that tainted petroleum, volatile organic compounds, polychlorinated biphenyls, lead and other toxins. That effort paved the way for the construction of a residential complex with more than 300 homes and an adjacent recreational area.
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The City of Carson received its own $500,000 grant to conduct site environmental assessments in three census tracts where residents have been disproportionately affected by climate change, pollution, a lack of affordable housing, health care, clean water and effective wastewater systems. Two plots are given the highest priority: a former gas station and a former landfill site where a car auction is located.
“Brownfield sites have long been a burden on our communities, and this funding will help clean up these areas and revitalize them into thriving community assets that help attract jobs and improve residents’ quality of life,” the U.S. said representative Nanette Diaz Barragán (D). -San Pedro), who represents California’s 44th Congressional District, which includes Carson, said in a statement.
The EPA’s Brownfields Program began in 1995 to remove toxic waste from blighted properties to prepare the land for new uses. Its funding has increased thanks to a $1.5 billion infusion from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Justice40 Initiative, whose goal is to direct more federal dollars to communities plagued by underinvestment and pollution.
This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
