Brownfields Assessment Pilot Fact Sheet

Fort Belknap Indian Community, MT

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

Fort Belknap Indian Community, MT

Date of Announcement:
April 2001

Amount: $200,000

Profile: The Pilot targets several potential brownfields sites on the reservation, where the unemployment rate is 70 percent.

BACKGROUND

EPA has selected the Fort Belknap Indian Community for a Brownfields Assessment Pilot. The Fort Belknap Indian Community has 5,138 members, half of whom live on the 653,940-acre reservation. The reservation, whose residents suffer from a 70 percent unemployment rate and a 45 percent poverty rate, is located in north-central Montana, 30 miles south of the Canadian border. The community already has identified several landfills, illegal dump sites, abandoned buildings, and an abandoned rock quarry as potential brownfields.These sites threaten to contaminate groundwater and surface water, including wetlands areas and the Milk River, which serves as the community's drinking water supply.

OBJECTIVES

The Pilot's objective is to assess the environmental conditions of brownfield sites and prepare a comprehensive development plan that protects the health of residents and sustains the Fort Belknap Indian Community's land base. The Pilot will identify, prioritize, and assess brownfield sites on the reservation, with close involvement of the tribal community and administration. Community members also will assist in developing an affordable, sustainable, long-term remedial design for reuse.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:

Preparing an inventory of brownfields on the reservation and prioritizing them;
Disseminating information to the public through newspaper articles, radio announcements, and newsletters;
Seeking input from tribal members regarding the brownfields identification, inventory, and prioritization process; and
Conducting Phase I and Phase II environmental site assessments on high-priority sites.

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

CONTACTS

Fort Belknap Environmental Program
(406) 353-8429

Regional Brownfields Team
U.S. EPA - Region 8
(406) 457-5018

Visit the EPA Region 8 Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/region08/land_waste/bfhome/bfhome.html

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-01-278
April 2001

Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5105)

Quick Reference Fact Sheet