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U.S. EPA awards Little Tokyo agency $200,000 to clean up petroleum contamination Brownfields grant will help create affordable housing in Historic Filipinotown

Release Date: 09/19/2008
Contact Information: Francisco Arcaute, (213) 244-1815, cell (213) 798-1404 arcaute.francisco@epa.gov

(09/19/08) LOS ANGELES – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today presented a $200,000 Brownfields grant to the Los Angeles, Calif.-based Little Tokyo Service Center Community Development Corporation to clean up an oil field drilling site in Historic Filipinotown.

The center is partnering with the Pilipino Workers Center to cleanup and redevelop the site at 153 Glendale Boulevard. The partners plan to develop 48 multi-family affordable housing units at the site, which is contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons resulting from oil operations that took place between 1930 and 1992.

"These Brownfields funds will breathe new life into Historic Filipinotown," said Wayne Nastri, Regional Administrator for the EPA’s Pacific Southwest region. "It’s a pleasure to present this money to the Little Tokyo Service Center Community Development Corporation and support the revitalization of this historic and vital part of Los Angeles."

“The LTSC CDC, in partnership with the Pilipino Workers Center, is grateful for the U.S. EPA’s assistance in revitalizing a contaminated and underutilized site into a much-needed community asset such as affordable housing in Historic Filipinotown,” said Bill Watanabe, executive director.

For over ten years, the center has provided low-income households, particularly Asian and Pacific Islanders, throughout Los Angeles County with affordable housing and linguistically and culturally appropriate social services.

The EPA’s Brownfields program encourages redevelopment of America's estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated waste sites. Since the beginning of the program, the EPA has awarded 1,255 assessment grants totaling more than $ 298 million, 230 revolving loan fund grants totaling more than $217 million, and 426 cleanup grants totaling $78.7 million.

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

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