Brownfields Assessment Pilot Fact Sheet

Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma

EPA's Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative is designed to empower states, communities, and other stakeholders in economic redevelopment to work together in a timely manner to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields. A brownfield is a site, or portion thereof, that has actual or perceived contamination and an active potential for redevelopment or reuse. EPA is funding: assessment demonstration pilot programs (each funded up to $200,000 over two years), to assess brownfields sites and to test cleanup and redevelopment models; job training pilot programs (each funded up to $200,000 over two years), to provide training for residents of communities affected by brownfields to facilitate cleanup of brownfields sites and prepare trainees for future employment in the environmental field; and, cleanup revolving loan fund programs (each funded up to $500,000 over five years) to capitalize loan funds to make loans for the environmental cleanup of brownfields. These pilot programs are intended to provide EPA, states, tribes, municipalities, and communities with useful information and strategies as they continue to seek new methods to promote a unified approach to site assessment, environmental cleanup, and redevelopment.

PILOT SNAPSHOT

Date of Announcement:
May 2000

Amount: $200,000
Greenspace: $50,000

Profile: The Cherokee Nation will use Pilot funding to focus on the redevelopment of three sites within the tribal boundaries-the Cherokee Nation Hog Farm, the Cherokee Nation Landfill, and the Cherokee Nation tribal lands in Kay County, Oklahoma.

BACKGROUND

EPA has selected the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma for a Brownfields Pilot. The Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma was also selected to receive additional funding for assessment of properties to be used for greeenspace purposes. The Cherokee Nation serves a population with an average unemployment rate of 5.2 percent, with 20.2 percent of the population living below the poverty line. The Pilot will focus on the Cherokee Nation Hog Farm, the Cherokee Nation Landfill, and the Cherokee Nation tribal lands in Kay County, Oklahoma.

OBJECTIVES

The Pilot will use the funding to assist the Cherokee Nation in establishing sustainable programs that would assist rural communities in redeveloping sites that are contaminated or perceived to be contaminated. The funding will enable the Cherokee Nation to assess redevelopment options for Indian lands.

The Pilot will use greenspace funding to conduct Phase I and Phase II environmental assessments on the Sequoyah landfill, an area adjacent to the Cherokee Nation's Pow-Wow grounds. The site is being redeveloped into a public park illustrating the life of the Cherokee Nation.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:

Conducting Phase I and Phase II environmental assessments on the three targeted sites;
Forming a Brownfields Advisory Committee comprising tribal and community leaders, state and federal officials, representatives of nonprofit organizations, developers, and other interested parties;
Conducting economic redevelopment studies on a site-specific basis to evaluate possible site reuses;
Identifying additional federal, state, and private funding sources for redeveloping brownfields sites; and
Conducting Phase I and Phase II environmental assessments on the site of a landfill that will be redeveloped into a public park.

The cooperative agreement for this Pilot has not yet been negotiated; therefore, activities described in this fact sheet are subject to change.

CONTACTS

Cherokee Nation's Office of Environmental Services
(918) 458-5496

Regional Brownfields Team
U.S. EPA - Region 6
(214) 665-6736

Visit the EPA Region 6 Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/earth1r6/6sf/bfpages/sfbfhome.htm

For further information, including specific Pilot contacts, additional Pilot information, brownfields news and events, and publications and links, visit the EPA Brownfields web site at: http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/

United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, D.C. 20460

Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105)

EPA 500-F-00-085
May 2000

Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5105)

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