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The Jersey City Redevelopment Agency (JCRA) will receive three federal grants through the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) brownfields program, which helps local groups and municipalities clean up sites that are unable to be developed due to toxic pollution.

The JCRA’s grants, which total $600,000, are part of $2.3 million in grants to New Jersey cities announced last week by the EPA. The JCRA also received $600,000 in brownfields program grants last year for sites in the same general area.

“Not only will these cleanups protect the health of area residents, they will provide opportunities for development projects that benefit communities, produce jobs, and improve the quality of people’s lives,” EPA regional administrator Judith Enck says in a statement.

Hazardous substances grant funds totaling $400,000 will be used to clean up the 1.2-acre Berry Lane Park Hit or Miss site at 942-946 Garfield Ave., and the Berry Lane Park MA & OK site at 968 Garfield Ave., which is less than an acre. Both sites were formerly junkyards, and are contaminated with polyaromatic hydrocarbons and metals. The federal funds will be mostly used to import clean soil to serve as a cap at the property.

Meanwhile, $200,000 in petroleum grant funds will be used to clean up the .3-acre Berry Lane Park Purple Fish site at 990 Garfield Ave. The site was formerly a gas station, and is contaminated with petroleum and polyaromatic hydrocarbons. Most of the money will be used to remove an above-ground storage tank and up to five underground storage tanks.

The sites fall in a particularly toxic area of Ward F, where heavy industry has left a legacy of pollution that is still being wrestled with. When they are cleaned up, the city plans to redevelop them as part of Berry Lane Park.