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
Sac & Fox Nation of Missouri for Water Monitoring, Radon
Protection
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 a pair of
grants to the Sac & Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska to support
the tribe’s environmental protection efforts.
The Sac & Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska,
headquartered at Reserve, Kan., occupies approximately 18,000 acres of
reservation land in southeast Richardson County, Neb., and northeast Brown
County, Kan. The tribe has more than 400 enrolled members, and a reservation
population of 217.
A $135,000 performance partnership grant, expressed through a
cooperative agreement, will provide administrative flexibility and support to
the tribe’s Environmental Department, which has intermittently conducted surface
water monitoring in partnership with EPA Region 7 since
2003.
Under this grant, the tribe will build on its existing water quality
monitoring program to better inform the tribal council on the quality of the
waters on the reservation. Creeks, rivers and ponds that exist on the
reservation or its boundaries will be monitored for nutrients, turbidity,
sediment and macroinvertibrate populations.
A separate grant of $32,712 will help to provide tribal members with
current guidance, information and assistance related to radon safety, awareness,
assessment, mitigation and preventive methods. Radon is an odorless
naturally-occurring gas that can infiltrate homes and other buildings and pose
serious health risks.
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 (PPG). PPGs, such as the one awarded to the
Sac & Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska, streamline
administrative requirements, give states and tribes greater flexibility to
direct resources to their most pressing environmental problems, and make it
easier to fund efforts that cut across program
boundaries.
The Sac & Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska is one of
nine federally recognized tribes within EPA Region 7.
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