The City of Los Angeles will use $400,000 in federal grant dollars to check for contamination at more than a dozen industrial or commercial sites around the city, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced on May 28.
Los Angeles is among 171 grant recipients around the country to receive grants this year under the EPA’s Brownfields Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund and Cleanup program.
The pair of $200,000 grants awarded to the city will fund assessments of sites for hazardous substances and petroleum.
The EPA’s grant program is aimed at creating jobs and helping economically disadvantaged communities clean up derelict and abandoned sites.
“Brownfields funding allows communities to innovate new ways to retrofit formerly polluted, unused sites for sustainable new uses,” said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA’s Pacific Southwest regional administrator.
The grants for Los Angeles will cover 10 “Phase I” assessments to determine the likelihood of contamination based on a visual inspection and an investigation into the site’s history, and four “Phase II” assessments that involve collecting soil and groundwater samples.
