Twenty two cities ranging in size from Los Angeles to Port Townsend, Wash., have been awarded federal grants and guaranteed loans totaling $129 million to help them clean up environmentally distressed neighborhoods within the borders.

The funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development comes in two forms $104 million in Section 108 loans and $25 million in Brownfields Economic Development Initiative grants.

Sec. 108 loans allow localities to promote economic development, expand housing opportunities and improve public facilities, all at reduced rates. BECI money allows cities to start the ball rolling on cleaning up such industrial sites as gas stations, oil storage facilities, dry cleaning stores and other business that handled polluting substances.

The funding is expected to generate up to $1.4 billion in private investment to re-energize the economies of the 22 communities. But more important, at least to Uncle Sam, the money also will help create nearly 17,000 new jobs. "Jobs, jobs, jobs; that's what these two programs are all about," said HUD Sec. Andrew Cuomo.

The grants and loans can be used either separately or together. In Buffalo, N.Y., for example, the city will use a BECI grant to pay off an old Sec. 108 loan and a new loan to clean up the old Union Ship Canal and prepare the site for new life, creating some 900 jobs in the process.

Other communities receiving money in this round of funding include: Baltimore; Carson, El Monte, Lynwood, Monterey Park and San Mateo, Calif.; Jersey City and Phillipsburg, N.J.; Kansas City, Kansas; Lowell, Mass.; Montgomery County and Reading, Pa.; Portland, Maine; Provo City, Utah; Rochester and Troy, N.Y.; St. Paul; San Antonio and South Bend.