United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, D.C. 20460
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5101)
EPA 500-F-97-023
May 1997
National Brownfields
Assessment Pilot
Navajo Nation,
Outreach and Special Projects Staff (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. Between 1995 and 1996, EPA funded 76 National and Regional Brownfields
Assessment Pilots, at up to $200,000 each, to support creative two-year explorations and demonstrations of brownfields
solutions. EPAis funding morethan 27 Pilots in 1997. The Pilots 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.
BACKGROUND
EPA selected the Navajo Nation for a Brownfields
Pilot. The Tribe's 10-Year Forest Management Plan
expired in 1992, eliminating access to tribal timber
resources. The Navajo Forest Product Industries
(NFPI) mill site in Navajo, New Mexico, closed in
April 1995 because of the cost of using off-reservation
timber and is now abandoned. There are 300
unemployed mill workers in the local tribal community
of 2,293 people. Most NFPI employees were from the
Tribe's Red Lake Chapter. The 10.5 acre site included
aparticle-board factory andmillworks with machinery
and maintenance shops. A site inspection has revealed
clear evidence of potentially hazardous substances in
the environment, including PCBs, acids, solvents,
and batteries. Employment for local residents is needed
to replace jobs lost from the closed mill.
OBJECTIVES
The Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency
outlines five overall obj ectives: 1) identify all hazardous
substances on-site or in groundwater; 2) assess public
health and environmental risks; 3) educate the
community aboutthe problem; 4) develop an effective
and affordable remedial design; and 5) after the two-
year grant period, clean up and revitalize the NFPI
industrial complex. The Navajo Nation and the local
people want to lease part or all of the site facilities to
PILOT SNAPSHOT
Date of Award:
September 1996
Amount: $200,000
Site Profile: The Pilot
targets a10.5 acre, former
timber mill site in the
eastern third of the Navajo
Nation
Navajo Nation, Arizona
Contacts:
Lorenda Joe
Acting Director
Navajo Nation
Environmental
Protection Agency
(520)871-7692
Steve Simanonok
U.S. EPA-Region 9
(415)744-2358
simanonok.steve@epamail.epa.gov
Visit the EPA Brownfields Website at:
http://www.epa.gov/brownfields
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a lumber milling company and recall as many of the
laid off employees as possible. The logging operation
can take place while the new 10-Year Forest
Management Plan is being developed.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES
The Pilot is:
• Scoping the local community's needs and concerns,
including a door-to-door outreach and education
campaign conducted in the 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.
National Bmwnfields Assessment Pilot Navajo Nation, Arizona
May 1997 EPA 500-F-97-023
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