GRIJALVA PARK AT SANTIAGO CREEK
City of Orange, CA
Assessment and Cleanup Grants
Greening Orange County: Creating Greenspace in the City of Orange
ADDRESS: 368 North Prospect Avenue, Orange, CA 92867
PROPERTY SIZE: 27 acres
FORMER USE: Landfill site
CURRENT USE: Grijalva Park at Santiago Creek
EPA GRANT RECIPIENT:
The City of Orange received a $200,000
EPA Brownfields Assessment Grant in
2001 and a $200,000 EPA Brownfields
Cleanup Grant in 2006
PROJECT PARTNERS:
Orange County Health Care Agency
(OCHCA), Regional Water Quality
Control Board (RWQCB), Community
Foundation of Orange, Santiago Creek
Greenway Alliance
For additional data and geographic
information for this and other
Brownfields Grants, please visit EPA's:
Envirofacts - www.epa.gov/enviro/html/bms/
bms query.html
Enviromapper - www.epa.gov/enviro/bf
PROJECT BACKGROUND:
The City of Orange is located in central Orange County, approximately 32 miles from Los Angeles. With little new park development over
the past 15 years, the city was in need of open space; it also had no indoor recreational areas, no community center and only one
community pool for a population of 135,000. In 2001, the city received a $200,000 EPA Brownfields Assessment Grant to assess closed
landfills on a former railroad site with the intention that open space and parks could be developed there and on the adjacent property.
While the landfills were not municipal landfills, they were used for construction debris resulting from surface mining; additionally, they had
been closed for 40 years. The Phase II assessment of the landfills revealed lead contamination; however, it did not indicate the presence of
methane gas - a common byproduct of landfills. To address the lead contamination, the city received a $200,000 EPA Cleanup Grant in
2006. As assessments were being conducted on the landfill sites, the first part of Grijalva Park at Santiago Creek was built on the nearby
property in a separate effort.
KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
• Completed Phase I assessments at two landfills and a Phase II assessment
that revealed lead contamination. While no methane was discovered in six
months of testing, at the request of OCHCA, the city will continue to
monitor for methane gas for several years.
• Constructed a five-acre soil monocover (cap) overthe landfill, successfully
capping the lead contamination and preventing any migration; this was
conducted in less than six months.
• Leveraged $800,000 in private donations, $3.9 million from State
Proposition 40 Park Grants and $4.6 in developer commitments;
$1 million of which went to design and technical studies for the gymnasium,
the remaining funds will be spent on construction.
• Provided an opportunity for the creation of 42 acres of needed greenspace.
OUTCOME:
With regulatory approval from OCHCA, RWQCB and support from the two community groups, the City of Orange used its Cleanup
Grant to plan and construct a soil monocover over a portion of the Grijalva Park site. EPA Cleanup funds were granted in early 2006 and
the city completed construction of the cap in October of that year. The cap covers the former landfill, containing the contamination and
preventing leaching into Santiago Creek. The five-acre capped area of the landfill property (which totals 27 acres) will be used for a
portion of a 25,000 square-foot gymnasium and accompanying parking lot. Additional construction on the entire Grijalva Park site includes
a 50,000 square-foot aquatic center, a skate park, a community center and open space. Construction will begin in September 2007.
This 5-acre cap in the City of Orange was constructed over a
former landfill to make way for greenspace, parking and planned
development at Grijalva Park.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Visit the EPA Brownfields Web site at http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/ or call EPA Region 9 at (415) 947-8000
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