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Brownfields 1999 Assessment Pilot Fact Sheet
Ventura, CA
EPA Brownfields Initiative
EPA's Brownfields Program empowers states,
communities, and other stakeholders to work together to
prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse
brownfields. A brownfield site is real property, the
expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be
complicated by the presence or potential presence of a
hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. On
January 11, 2002, President George W. Bush signed into
law the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields
Revitalization Act. Under the Brownfields Law, EPA
provides financial assistance to eligible applicants
through four competitive grant programs: assessment
grants, revolving loan fund grants, cleanup grants, and
job training grants. Additionally, funding support is
provided to state and tribal response programs through a
separate mechanism.
Background
EPA has selected the City of Ventura for a Brownfields
Pilot. The Westside Community of Ventura (population
11,684) is one of the city's oldest and most diverse
neighborhoods, where approximately 50 percent of the
population is Hispanic. It also has an unemployment rate
of 8.6 percent, which is double that of the city rate. There
are 19 hazardous waste sites per square mile in the
Westside area, compared to just one per square mile in
the rest of Ventura.
Ventura is a city better known for its beaches than its
brownfields. It was a small agricultural community up
until the 1920s when oil was discovered in the hills
beyond the city limits. By the 1930s, the population had
doubled and the Westside neighborhood became home to
the industry that supported oil production. The Westside
area is approximately 1.68 square miles and contains
such sites as an ammonia nitrate plant, a large salvage
and metal recycling operation, an abandoned rocklite
mine, and various heavy commercial and industrial
operations. In the 1990s, however, the oil industry had
abandoned the Westside area, leaving behind vacated
industrial facilities and causing the unemployment rate to
rise. The city estimates there are approximately 30
known brownfields sites in the Westside neighborhood,
many with unknown levels of contamination. Many of
these parcels are adjacent to residential neighborhoods,
Pilot Snapshot
Date of Announcement: 06/01/1999
Amount: $200,000
Profile: The Pilot targets the 1.68-square-mile
Westside Community of Ventura, containing
approximately 30 brownfields sites.
Contacts
For further information, including specific grant
contacts, additional grant information, brownfields
news and events, and publications and links, visit the
EPA Brownfields Web site
(http ://www .epa.gov/brownfields).
EPA Region 9 Brownfields Team
(415)972-3091
EPA Region 9 Brownfields Web site
(http ://www .epa.gov/region9/brownfields)
Grant Recipient: Ventura, CA
(805) 654-7819
Objectives
The city's goal is to revitalize the Westside area
according to the master plan developed by the Westside
Community Council (WCC), a non-profit,
community-based organization dedicated to addressing
the neighborhood's social and economic issues. The
Westside Revitalization Strategy calls for attracting and
retaining high-tech industries that can "plug in" to the
community's existing technological infrastructure. The
Pilot's objective is to conduct environmental
assessments on former industrial properties in the
Westside area in order to leverage their cleanup and
redevelopment. By removing any environmental
uncertainty from the sites, the Pilot can help make the
sites more attractive to prospective developers. The
additional jobs and tax revenues created by these new
businesses would begin to reverse the decline of the
Westside area
Activities
Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:
United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, DC 20450
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105T)
EPA 500-F-99-161
Jun 99

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school, parks, and open space; specifically, the ammonia
plant is located near the Ventura River.
•	Performing Phase I site assessments across the
Westside Community and Phase II site
assessments at sites that warrant them;
•	Performing a benchmark study before the Phase I
and II assessments to document current
conditions in the Westside area;
•	Creating a cleanup plan;
•	Conducting public outreach targeted to
under-represented populations; and
•	Conducting an Insurance Archeology Feasibility
Study for the Westside area to determine
insurance status of the properties.
The cooperative agreement for this Pilot has not yet
been negotiated; therefore, activities described in this
fact sheet are subject to change.
The information presented in this fact sheet comes from
the grant proposal; EPA cannot attest to the accuracy of
this information. The cooperative agreement for the
grant has not yet been negotiated. Therefore, activities
described in this fact sheet are subject to change.
United States	c
Environmental	anri Fmpflpn™	EPA 500-F-99-161
_ . .	and Emergency	.
Protection Agency	Response (5105T)	Jun 99
Washington, DC 20450	^ v '

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