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"Brownfields" grant to help assess contamination on Yankton reservation

Release Date: 5/18/2000
Contact Information:
Kathie Atencio (303) 312-6803 Todd Chaudry (303) 312-7074,

Release Date: 5/18/2000
Contact Information:
Nancy Mueller (303) 312-6602
DENVER– The Yankton Sioux Tribe in southeastern

South Dakota would like to convert a 20-acre site and

abandoned building into an interpretive center, a fisheries

site and a recycling center.


But first the Tribe needs to assess contamination on the site. That task came one step closer to reality today when Vice President Gore announced a grant of $200,000 to the Yanktons under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's "Brownfields"
program.


The Greenwood community in the southernmost part of the 200,000-acre reservation along the Missouri River contains suspected oil, lead and asbestos contamination according to the Tribe's grant application.

The grant will pay for a search of records to reveal past pollution and assessment of the nature and extent of problems. It will also cover expenses for involving the community in site decision making and researching sources of funding for the actual cleanup.

The grant was one of 56 brownfields “assessment” grants totaling $12.2 million nationally announced today. Over the last few years, EPA has helped more than 300 communities to leverage nearly $1.9 billion to clean up and redevelop tainted properties, creating nearly 6,000 jobs in the process.

Brownfields grants are part of the nation's Superfund Program which drives cleanups of hazardous waste sites. Brownfields are idled, abandoned or under-used industrial or business sites where redevelopment is complicated by possible contamination. Fears of liability and cleanup costs often thwart reuse plans. Development then goes elsewhere, leaving parcels behind to slide into blight.