United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, D.C. 20460
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5101)
EPA 500-F-99-294
November 1999
www.epa.gov/brownfields/
Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5101)
Brownfields Success Stories
New Opportunities in Hazmat
Operations for East Palo Alto
Residents
M
EAST PALO ALTO, CA
ore than one hundred members of the commu-
nity surrounding East Palo Alto, California have discov-
ered a promising future in hazardous waste operations,
thanks to U.S. EPA's Brownfields Initiative, local stake-
holders, community organizations, and the efforts of sev-
eral Stanford University interns.
With nearly 25,000 residents within a 2.5 square-mile area,
East Palo Alto's population is ethnically diverse, with an
86 percent minority rate. The city has no central business
district, and has typically suffered low real estate sales and
property tax revenues. Much-needed redevelopment of the
city's blighted areas has been hampered by the perception
of widespread environmental contamination.
In response to these problems, EPA announced the award
of $170,000 to the City of East Palo Alto in 1997 as part of
the Agency's Brownfields Pilot program in 1997. The Pi-
lot helped to establish a hazardous materials job training
program that same year, forming a partnership that includes
the Occupational Industrialization Center West, the United
Brotherhood of Carpenters, the Center to Protect Workers'
JUST THE FACTS:
• The Pilot worked with many community
members, including interns from Stanford
University, to encourage local youth
participation in a hazardous materials job
training program.
• The first of its kind in the country, the program
offers instruction in Hazardous Waste
Operations and Emergency Response.
• More than 90 percent of the program's 113
graduates are now working in environmental
or carpentry fields.
Partly as a result of the program's suc-
cesses, Vice President Gore announced
East Palo Alto as one of 16 Showcase
Communities, selected from more than
231 applicants by a Brownfields National
Partnership of more than 20 Federal
agencies and other organizations.
ERA'S Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative is designed to empower states, communities, and other stakeholders in economic
redevelopment to work together in a timely manner to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields. A brownfield is
a site, or portion thereof, that has actual or perceived contamination and an active potential for redevelopment or reuse. EPA is funding:
assessment demonstration pilot programs (each funded up to $200,000 over two years), to assess brownfields sites and to test cleanup
and redevelopment models; job training pilot programs (each funded up to $200,000 over two years), to provide training for residents of
communities affected by brownfields to facilitate cleanup of brownfields sites and prepare trainees for future employment in the environmental
field; and, cleanup revolving loan fund programs (each funded up to $500,000 over five years) to capitalize loan funds to make loans for
the environmental cleanup of brownfields. These pilot programs are intended to provide EPA, states, tribes, municipalities, and communities
with useful information and strategies as they continue to seek new methods to promote a unified approach to site assessment, environmental
cleanup, and redevelopment.
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Rights, De Paul University, the Building Trades Council, the City of East Palo Alto, and
EPA Region 9. The first of its kind in the country, the East Palo Alto Brownfields Job
Training Program offers instruction in Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Re-
sponse, underground storage tank removal, lead and asbestos removal, and pre-apprentice-
ship training in carpentry. The first of these classes was funded by the National Institute of
Environmental Health Services, through a grant with DePaul University. Subsequent classes
have been funded by NIEHS through a grant with the United Brotherhood of Carpenters.
The Pilot currently remains on the Job Training program's advisory committee, and pro-
vides the names of graduates to companies looking for employees with related skills.
The first four of East Palo Alto's Job Training classes have been completed, and 102 of the
program's 113 graduates have been placed in either environmental or carpentry fields. The
program also works with the San Mateo County Probation Department to recruit students,
in an effort to turn lives in a positive direction. Demand for the skills of the program's
graduates is expected to increase, as the City of East Palo Alto has three sizable redevelop-
ment project areas.
As a result of the program's successes, Vice President Gore announced East Palo Alto as
one of 16 Showcase Communities selected by a Brownfields National Partnership of more
than 18 federal agencies. Chosen from more than 231 applicants, the city received
another $200,000, and the support of a full-time EPA representative, to ad-
dress additional sites with redevelopment potential. For more infor-
mation on the East Palo Alto Brownfields Pilot, contact Thomas Mix
at (415) 744-2378.
CONTACTS:
City of East Palo Alto
(650)853-3122
U.S. EPA-Region 9
(415)744-2378
Visit the EPA Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/
Brownfields Success Story
November 1999
East Palo Alto, CA
EPA 500-F-99-294
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