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Brownfields 2000 Job Training Pilot Fact Sheet

City of Los Angeles, 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 Los Angeles for a
Brownfields Job Training and Development
Demonstration Pilot. The City of Los Angeles'
assessment pilot partner is the City of Los Angeles
Brownfields Showcase Community. The Job Training
Pilot will focus on Los Angeles' federal Empowerment
Zone, which encompasses more than 19 square miles and
200,000 residents. Forty percent of the residents residing
in the Empowerment Zone live below the poverty level.
Lack of education is one of the primary factors
contributing to this economic distress. Almost two-thirds
of residents over 25 years of age did not graduate from
high school.

The City of Los Angeles contains thousands of
properties in need of environmental assessment and
remediation. The majority of these properties are located
within the Empowerment Zone, which includes 7,700
businesses involved in manufacturing and trade. Some of
the potentially contaminated properties are now being
addressed through the Showcase Community brownfields
program; however, many are in an early stage and
numerous sites remain to be addressed. A strong demand
is expected for trained environmental technicians. Local
environmental employers have indicated that they have
had difficulty recruiting skilled employees and are

Pilot Snapshot

Date of Announcement: 05/01/2000
Amount: $100,000

Profile: The Pilot will train 50-70 participants as
environmental technicians. Students will be recruited
from low-income residents of the City's federal
Empowerment Zone, which contains many
potentially contaminated sites that are in the early
stages of redevelopment and numerous other sites
remaining to be addressed.

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: City of Los Angeles,CA
(213)485-9066

Objectives

The City of Los Angeles plans to train 50-70
participants, achieve an 80 percent placement rate, and
support career placement of graduates for one year after
the training is completed. Participants will be recruited
from low-income residents of the City's federal
Empowerment Zone. The Pilot training program will
consist of the 40-hour HAZWOPER training and at
least 50 hours of training in the use of environmental
technologies, including alternative and innovative
technologies. Extended training options are available
through Pilot partners.

The City of Los Angeles' training efforts will be
supported by organizations such as the Mayor's Office
of Economic Development, Rio Hondo College,
Pasadena College, El Camino College, University of

United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, DC 20450

Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105T)

EPA 500-F-00-174
May 00

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interested in hiring graduates from the job training
program.

California-Los Angeles (UCLA), Workforce Investment
Board, One Stop Centers (funded by Workforce
Investment Act and Welfare to Work programs), and a
number of environmental services companies. Local
environmental employers have committed to
participating on an advisory committee to ensure that the
training program will meet employment needs in the
area.

Activities

Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:

•	Conducting outreach to recruit low-income
residents of the City's federal Empowerment
Zone;

•	Conducting brownfields technician training,
including courses in the use of innovative
assessment and cleanup technologies; and

•	Supporting career placement of students for one
year after the job training is completed.

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-00-174

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Protection Agency	Response (5105T)	MaV00

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