Brownfields Assessment Pilot Fact Sheet

Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, WA

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

Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, WA

Date of Announcement:
May 2000

Amount: $200,000

Profile: The Pilot targets two former federal facilities, totaling more than 100 acres, located on the Colville Reservation.

BACKGROUND

EPA has selected the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation for a Brownfields Pilot. The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation was established in 1872 by Executive Order under President Ulysses S. Grant. The Colville Reservation is 2,100 square miles, located in isolated north Washington, near the Canadian border. The reservation is bordered by the Columbia River on the east and south, the Okanogan River on the west, and heavily timbered U.S. Forest Service land on the north. The Tribes have 8,507 members, with more than 50 percent living within reservation boundaries. The community has a 45 percent unemployment rate with 28 percent of the population living below the poverty line.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Indian Health Service (IHS) maintained facilities designed to serve the local population for nearly 100 years. In 1985, BIA and IHS returned these properties to the Tribes. The Tribes took the property, using some of the structures for tribal office space and some for low-income housing; other buildings were left empty because of severely deteriorating conditions (e.g., broken windows, exposed pipes and wires) and have subsequently been abandoned. The Pilot will target two brownfields- the 92-acre Agency Headquarters property and the 20-acre Sub-Agency property- which both have known or suspected contamination.

OBJECTIVES

The Pilot will enhance the Tribes' ability to strengthen and advance self-sufficiency and to protect the human health of the membership and those that reside within the reservation boundaries. The Pilot will investigate potential environmental hazards at BIA and IHS facilities and formulate redevelopment plans for the facilities to foster opportunities for the tribal population. The Pilot will help quantify known and unknown potential health and safety issues so a cleanup plan can be implemented.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:

Conducting Phase I environmental assessments and historical records searches at the targeted brownfields;
Conducting Phase II environmental assessments at the targeted brownfields;
Developing and implementing a community involvement plan to ensure meaningful community input for assessment and cleanup and reuse planning at the targeted sites;
Entering the assessment data to the Tribes' geographic information system (GIS); and
Designing a comprehensive and sustainable reuse plan for the two sites that is consistent with overall tribal cultural and economic plans.

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

CONTACTS

Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation
(509) 634-2419

Regional Brownfields Team
U.S. EPA - Region 10
(206) 553-6523

Visit the EPA Region 10 Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/reg10.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 (5101)

EPA 500-F-00-087
May 2000

Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5105)

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