United States Office of
Environmental Protection Solid Waste and
Agency Emergency Response
Publication: EPA SOO-F-9G-OT5
June 1996
dEPA Brownfields Pilot -

Navajo Nation, AZ

Office of Outreach and Special Projects (5101)
Quick Reference Fact Sheet
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 plans to fund over fifty
Brownfields Pilots in 1995 and 1996, at up to 2200,000 each, to support creative two-year explorations and
demonstrations ofbrownfielda solutions. ThePilots are intended to provideEPA, States,Tribes, municipalities,
and communities with useful information and strategies as they continue to 6eek new methods to promote
a unified approach to site assessment, environmental cleanup, and redevelopment.
OVERVIEW	the local people want to lease, part or all of the site
facilities to a lumber milling company and recall as
EPA has selected the Navajo Nationfor aBrownfields many of the laid off employees as possible. Hie
Pilot The Tribe's 10-Year Forest Management Plan logging operation can take place while the new 10-
expired in 1992, eliminating access to tribal timber Year Forest Management Flan is being developed,
resources. The Navajo Forest Product Industries
(NFPI) mill site in Navajo, New Mexico, closed in ACTIVITIES
April 1995 because of the cost of using off-reserva-
tion timber and is now abandoned. There are 300 Activities planned as part of this pilot include:
unemployed mill workers in the local tribal commu-
nity of 2,293 people. Most NFPI employees were
from the Tribe's Red Lake Chapter. The 10.5 acre site
included a particle-board factory and millworks with
machinery and maintenance shops. A site inspection
has revealed clear evidence of potentially hazardous
substances in the environment, including PCBs, ac-
ids, solvents, and batteries. Employment for local
residents is needed to replace jobs lost from the
closed mill
OBJECTIVES
TheNavajoNation Environmental Protection Agency
outlines five overall objectives: 1) identify all
hazardous substances on-site or in groundwater; 2)
assess public health and environmental risks; 3)
educate the community about the problem; 4) develop
an effective and affordable remedial design; and 4)
after the two-year grant period, dean up and revitalize
the NFPI industrial complex. The Navajo Nation and
•	Scoping the local community's needs and
concerns, including a door-to-door
outreach and education campaign conduc-
ted in 1he Navajo language;
•	Assessing the site to determine the cleanup
status of each component of the NFPI
facility;
¦ Conducting a public tribal meeting to
secure a Letter of Decision commitment by
the Red Lake Chapter to lease all or part of
the site to help finance remediation of
NFPI facility; and
•	Preparing a site remediation plan.
The cooperative agreement for this pilot has not yet been
negotiated; therefore, activities described in this fact
sheet are subject to change.

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