The Blackfeet Tribe is one of three Northern Montana tribes selected to receive a sizable grant that will assist with costs associated with the assessment, cleanup and revitalization of brownfield properties identified by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

Brownfield properties and lands for which the expansion, redevelopment or reuse may be complicated by the presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant. The Environmental Protection Agency’s brownfield program, which launched in 1995, provides funding to return these blighted properties into productive reusable areas.

The grant for the Blackfeet Tribe totals $300,000. According to a press release, the funds will “prepare an updated inventory of brownfield sites and conduct 10 Phase I and nine Phase II environmental site assessments” and will help to “develop five cleanup plans and support community outreach activities.”

Assessment activities will focus on several abandoned sites in Browning and throughout the Blackfeet Reservation. Priority sites include the vacant Free School, four abandoned tribal government and maintenance buildings and the cattle dip vat at the Skate Park Trail, which was filled with an arsenic solution and used to eradicate ticks from cattle.

“We will use the resources to expand our work to protect the lands and the people on the Blackfeet Reservation with the support the Tribe has received over the past 30 years from EPA. We will be putting this grant award to positive and constructive work in much needed areas on the reservation to bring impacted lands back into economic and green space production,” said Gerland Wagner, director of Blackfeet Environmental Programs.

The Bear Paw Development Corporation and Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribe also received $300,000 grants to address various brownfield assessments and cleanups. The three grant recipients are among 151 communities across the nation collectively receiving over $65 million in EPA brownfield funding.

The EPA estimates there are currently more than 450,000 brownfield properties in the U.S.. Since the program’s inception, nearly $1.6 billion has been provided for assessment and cleanups.

Reporter Kianna Gardner can be reached at 758-4407 or kgardner@dailyinterlake.com