Kansas State gets $2 million to help tribes with cleanup

The Environmental Protection Agency recently awarded Kansas State University (KSU) $2 million to give technical assistance to tribes cleaning contaminated lands known as brownfields.

“Tribes have unique needs in revitalizing contaminated lands for productive reuses,” Mathy Stanislaus, assistant administrator for the EPA Office of Land and Emergency Management, said. “Kansas State University will offer tribes substantive technical assistance as they work to clean up and revitalize lands in a manner they determine is consistent with their culture and governance."

The money will be paid to KSU over the course of five years as it works with the 566 federally recognized tribes across the country, identifying ways to assess and cleanup brownfields, develop reuse plans, and help with financing options.

KSU also will help tribes develop peer networks for brownfield assistance and guide them in implementing tribal response programs, taking into consideration economic, environmental, cultural and social issues.

The EPA and the tribes, which operate as independent, sovereign nations that can institute their own environmental policies, have been partnering to clean up brownfields for more than a decade.