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Oil site cleaned up, makes way for Culver City, Calif. dog park

Release Date: 04/25/2006
Contact Information: Francisco Arcaute, (213) 244-1815

LOS ANGELES - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Culver City, Calif., announced today the grand opening of “The Boneyard,” a dog-friendly public park built over a former oil pumping site cleaned at a cost of $290,000, with help from an EPA Brownfields grant.

Located at the corner of Jefferson Boulevard and Duquesne Avenue, the nearly one-acre site is Culver City’s first off-leash dog park using $85,000 raised by The Friends of Culver City Dog Park, a non-profit group of Culver City residents. Though the construction is funded through the Friend’s donation of funds to the City, the dog park will be open to the general public.

"The transformation of a contaminated site into a public park demonstrates the tremendous potential of all Brownfields properties," said Jeff Scott, EPA Waste Management Director. "Thanks to the recent cleanup, Culver City now enjoys the benefits of a neighborhood dog park, proving how the EPA’s Brownfields program benefits communities by returning contaminated sites to productive uses."

“It has always been the Friends dream to build a dog park for the enjoyment of the entire community, and we are very excited to see it has become a reality” stated Vicki Daly Redholtz, Chairperson of the Friends and City Parks, Recreation and Community Services Commissioner. “I would like to thank the Friends Board members, volunteers, donors, City staff, and especially Valley Crest Construction who has agreed to forego their usual profits by donating a substantial amount of their time and energy to build the dog park for the amount of funds the Friends have raised.”

In 2003, the EPA’s Brownfields program awarded Culver City a $250,000 grant to perform environmental investigation and cleanup of the Jefferson Boulevard oil-contaminated soil.

During the cleanup, managed by Joe Susca of Culver City’s Public Works Department, 1,200 tons of oil-contaminated soil was removed and treated, and 655 feet of abandoned cast iron oil pipelines were removed and recycled. Clean, fresh soil taken from nearby Benedict Canyon was used to backfill the areas where the oil-contaminated soil had been removed.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department Health and Hazardous Material Division-Site Mitigation Unit performed oversight of investigation and cleanup activities at the site.


For more information on Culver City’s cleanup, please visit:
https://www.epa.gov/region09/waste/ust/lustcleanup.html#culver (additional photos)

http://www.culvercity.org

For information on the Friends of Culver City Dog Park, please visit http://www.culvercitydogpark.org

For more information about the EPA Brownfield’s program visit: https://www.epa.gov/brownfields