xvEPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
EPA 560-F-12-006
March 2012
ST. JOHN'S MISSION
Gila River Indian Community
Cleanup Grant
Reusing Idle Land in Ways that Best Serve a Community
ADDRESS: 10060 West Pecos Road, Komatke, AZ 85247
PROPERTY SIZE: 40 acres
FORMER USE: Mission (a church, convent and school run by the
Roman Catholic Church)
CURRENT USES: Diabetes resource center with open recreational space;
Boys & Girls' Club
EPA GRANT RECIPIENT:
The Gila River Indian Community Department of Environmental Quality
received a $200,000 EPA Brownfields Petroleum Cleanup grant in 2004, and
nearly $75,000 in EPA USTfields funding in 2002
The new Boys & Girls' Club, redeveloped on the Mission's former gymnasium.
PROJECT BACKGROUND:
Located just south of Phoenix, the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) is the fourth most populous Indian Reservation
in the United States, with approximately 16,000 tribal residents. Unemployment rates are more than six times that of
the state's, and 65 percent of GRIC households have incomes below the poverty level. Located on more than 160 acres
in the heart of the Community, the St. John's Mission began operating as a Catholic school sometime around the 1920s,
and continued operations all the way to the late 1990s. With awareness that the property might be contaminated due to
underground storage tanks (USTs) related to school bus operations, the owners donated the land and dormant school
facilities to the GRIC in 1997. Two USTs were removed the following year. As the GRIC has the highest adult diabetes rate
of any community in the U.S., at over 50 percent, cleanup and redevelopment of this property into a diabetes resource
center was seen as a way to help address the Community's health issues while generating much-needed jobs. A total of
$74,830 in EPA funds from the Agency's USTfields grant program awarded in June 2002 enabled detailed environmental
assessments to be performed, and a $200,000 EPA Brownfields Cleanup grant awarded in 2004—as well as $l 1,642 from
the GRIC—paid for cleanup of petroleum and VOCs found in areas of the property's soil and groundwater.
KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
• Allowed for assessment and cleanup of a large, idle property at the heart of the Gila River Indian Community
• Created a new Boys & Girls' Club, redeveloped from the idle site's former gymnasium
• Provided a much-needed diabetes resource center for a Community with the highest rate of adult diabetes
in the U.S.
• Redevelopment leveraged more than 10 new jobs
OUTCOME:
Following transfer of the property to the community, the Mission's former gymnasium was converted to a Boys & Girls'
Club for Community children. With assistance from a $6 million Congressional appropriation awarded to the GRIC, the
new diabetes resource center was completed in 2004. To ensure protection of those using the Center, a vapor intrusion
barrier was installed on the building's foundation. The new Center created more than 10 jobs and provides invaluable
assistance for those living with diabetes. The redeveloped site also features a ID-acre, landscaped recreational park with
public gathering spaces and barbeque pits.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Visit the EPA Brownfields website at www.epa.gov/Region9/brownfields/ or call EPA Region 9 at (21 3) 244-1821
For additional data and geographic information for this and other Brownfields Grants, please visit EPA's Cleanups in My Community - http://iaspub.epa.gov/Cleanups/
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