U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, Region 7
901 N. Fifth
St., Kansas City, KS 66101
Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Nine Tribal
Nations
EPA Region 7 Tribal Program Awards Grants to Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska for Response
Program, Environmental Capacity Building
Contact Information: Chris Whitley, 913-551-7394, whitley.christopher@epa.gov
Environmental News
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Kansas City, Kan.,
July 9, 2012) - EPA Region 7’s Office of Tribal Affairs has awarded two grants
to the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska to support a brownfields tribal response
program and increase the capacity of its environmental protection department to
protect human health and the environment.
The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, headquartered at the Village of
Winnebago, occupies approximately 120,000 acres of reservation land in Thurston
County in northeast Nebraska, About 2,600 members of the tribe reside on the
reservation.
A $94,298 grant, expressed through a cooperative agreement, will
allow the tribe to continue the process of establishing a brownfields tribal
response program to address contaminated sites on the reservation with the goal
of returning them to beneficial reuse.
A $15,000 grant to the tribe’s Environmental Protection Department
will help the department build its overall capacity to protect human health and
the environment. Specific work to be funded by the grant includes expansion of
the tribal solid waste program, including tire removal; research for additional
funding opportunities; the mapping of abandoned homesteads; and working with the
tribe’s land management office to plot no-till acreage.
EPA provides financial assistance to states and tribes to help them
implement environmental programs. States and tribes may receive these funds in
individual environmental program categorical grants, or choose to combine grants
in a performance partnership grant.
The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska is one of nine federally recognized
tribes within EPA Region 7.
# # #
