The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) selected a local coalition, led by the City of Stockton, to receive a $600,000 grant to assist with assessing clean-up required to facilitate redevelopment in areas identified as brownfields. A brownfield site is real property where a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant is present or may be present.
Assessment activities will focus on the City's downtown and waterfront. The grant award is split evenly between evaluating sites with hazardous substances and petroleum contamination; it will be used to conduct six preliminary (Phase I) and five advanced (Phase II) environmental site assessments and to prepare an area-wide plan and three site-specific plans. Grant funds also will be used to update the site inventory, which will include information about the history and use of the site, as well as the current structures and uses that exist at each location. The grant funding will also help to prioritize sites and support community outreach activities.
EPA provides financial assistance to eligible applicants through four competitive grant programs: assessment grants, revolving loan fund grants, cleanup grants, and job training grants. The EPA Brownfields Program empowers local stakeholders to work together to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields.
The City has formed a Brownfield Advisory Committee made up of coalition, community, and government agency partners to leverage the EPA grant amount with
project partner in-kind contributions totaling nearly $150,000. The City's coalition partners are the San Joaquin Council of Governments and the Successor Agency to the Former Redevelopment Agency of the City of Stockton.
For more information about the City of Stockton Brownfields Program visit www.stocktonca.gov/brownfields or call the City’s Economic Development Department at 209-937-8539.