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EPA SELECTS ELY SHOSHONE TRIBE AS BROWNFIELDS PROJECT

Release Date: 7/15/1998
Contact Information: Lois Grunwald, U.S. EPA, (415) 744-1588

     (San Francisco) -- Vice President Al Gore and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) today announced that the Ely Shoshone Tribe in Nevada has been selected as a pilot project for redevelopment of former industrial and commercial sites known as brownfields. The tribe is one of 71 cities, states, towns, counties and tribes  nationwide that were selected today as brownfields pilot projects.
     
     Brownfields are abandoned or under-used industrial or commercial areas where redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination. Property owners, lenders, investors and developers fear that involvement with these sites will make them liable for contamination they did not create.

     "There is no greater example of the environment and the economy working hand in hand to benefit the American people than the Administration's efforts to clean up and revitalize Brownfields," said Vice President Al Gore. "Across the nation, cities are coming back to life with new jobs, new opportunities, and new hope."

     "Cleaning up and reusing these sites can be a key element to a community's economic vitality," said Felicia Marcus, U.S. EPA's regional administrator. "This underused area of the Ely Shoshone Nation has the tremendous potential of becoming an integral part of the community."

      The tribe will receive a $200,000 grant over a two-year period. The tribe will assess the extent and type of contamination at the Old Ely landfill. Following cleanup, the tribe will work with three Nevada counties to establish a multi-county recycling facility.

     Other EPA western region brownfields pilots selected today include the cities of Long Beach, Montebello, Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Hoopa Valley Tribe, California Trade and Commerce Agency, and Alameda County. In Region 9, U.S. EPA currently has existing brownfields pilot projects in Sacramento, Stockton, East Palo Alto, Emeryville, Richmond, San Francisco, Oakland, Navajo Nation in New Mexico, Tucson, Tohono O'odham Nation, Phoenix, Santa Barbara, Pomona, Colton, San Diego, and Las Vegas. With the new projects, there are now 228 brownfields pilot projects nationwide.
 
     The brownfields initiative was launched to empower states, local governments, and other stakeholders in economic redevelopment to work together to assess, clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields properties. The initiative also addresses the concerns of prospective developers and lenders concerned about inheriting cleanup liability for property that is contaminated or perceived to be contaminated.

     Information on the new brownfields pilot projects can be obtained from the U.S. EPA's
brownfields home page on the Internet at: https://www.epa.gov/brownfields/pilot.htm.