The United States Environmental Protection Agency's Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative is designed to empower Tribes and communities to work together to evaluate, safely clean-up and sustain ably reuse a brownfields site. A brownfield site is a facility with actual or perceived contamination, that has an active potential for redevelopment or reuse. Each Pilot project is a two-year exploration and demonstration of innovative solutions intended to provide the US EPA, States, Tribes and communities with useful information and strategies. In 1997, the US EPA funded awarded $200,000 to the Navajo Nation in support of a pilot project at the Navajo Forest Products Industries facility
The Navajo Nation must convert NFPI into a useable facility, in order to take advantage of new employment opportunities. The abandoned mill properties are believed to contain chemical wastes and transformers with PCBs. By investigating these abandoned wastes for removal and recycling, a remedial plan can be tailored to the community's strategic development plan. After the on-site wastes are addressed, the community will be able to recruit, expand and retain businesses at this under-utilized industrial park.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this initiative is to promote a unified approach among the Navajo Nation EPA, the Navajo Division of Economic Development and the community of Navajo, NM in the areas of site assessment, facility clean-up and redevelopment planning at the NFPI site, so new development can be sustained in this economically-depressed area of the Navajo Nation.
ACTIVITIES
Activities planned under this pilot project will be as follows:
- Developing assessment and cleanup approaches,
- Quantifying costs and evaluating the potential for a voluntary cleanup remedies,
- Helping the Navajo Nation evaluate the clean-up liability, financing mechanisms and development options,
- Establishing clean-up standards for similar abandoned sites,
- Developing a site-specific reuse plan that is consistent with redevelopment opportunities such as: local customs, economic development strategies, community infrastructure needs, environmental and land-use planning requirements and the goals of tribal developers.