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Riverside gets $200K to assess petroleum contamination

Release Date: 08/04/2006
Contact Information: Francisco Arcaute, 213-244-1815

Funds will be used for cleanup and redevelopment of contaminated properties

LOS ANGELES -- Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded a $200,000 Brownfields grant to the City of Riverside, Calif. to investigate a downtown area for possible petroleum contamination.

The eight-block area is bounded by Eleventh, Almond, Fourteenth, Main and Market Street and can not be developed until a determination is made regarding the possible extent of petroleum contamination left from past activities.

"Today's Brownfields grant will help accelerate the redevelopment of idle properties, providing jobs and revitalizing downtown neighborhoods," said Wayne Nastri, the EPA's regional administrator for Pacific Southwest region. "The EPA's Brownfields program enables communities to develop idle land into productive community assets."

As part of the $200,000 EPA Brownfields grant, over the next two years Riverside will investigate the eight block area, which calls for the development of a full block of new office buildings and one full block of new office and retail properties.

Two years ago, the EPA provided Riverside with $400,000 Brownfields grants to conduct a property assessment for the second phase of the Riverside Marketplace Development Project, which when completed, will bring a business park expected to spur redevelopment of nearby parcels, generate new jobs, and increase tax revenues.

The EPA's Brownfields program encourages turning America's estimated 450,000 problem properties to productive community use. Since the beginning of the Brownfields program, the EPA has awarded 883 assessment grants totaling $225.4 million, 202 revolving loan fund grants totaling $186.7 million, and 238 cleanup grants totaling $42.7 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 $8.2 billion in private investment, helped create 37,525 jobs and resulted in the assessment of 8,374 properties and the cleanup of 93 properties.

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