The following is excerpted from an article that originally appeared in KTLA.
Three government agencies in Southern California are receiving significant cash infusions from the federal government to clean up multiple severely contaminated sites.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced it would direct $3 million to speed up the process of cleaning up “brownfield sites,” which were described by the EPA as contaminated properties that create a blight on a community.
The funds are provided through the bipartisan infrastructure law, and the federal government says the mission is to rehabilitate those sites and transform them into “community assets” and create jobs.
The Southern California agencies awarded funding to clean up these “brownfield sites” include two in Orange County and one in Carson.
The Orange County Transportation Authority will be receiving about $1 million for environmental assessments and clean up of an 18-acre parcel that comprises part of the OC Connect project, which aims to develop a biking and walking trail along the former Pacific Electric right-of-way corridor in Santa Ana and Garden Grove.
That site is suspected to be contaminated by previous railway use and other industrial operations, the EPA says.
Part of the funding will be used to inform the community about the cleanup and future work and solicit input from the public about which additional sites should be of highest priority.
The grant funding will be used to complete environmental assessments and develop cleanup plans.
Martha Guzman, the EPA’s Pacific Southwest regional administrator, said the grants will help revitalize communities and provide stable, well-paying jobs in areas that have experienced decades of underinvestment.