CHICAGO, Ill. — Tuesday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it has awarded $75,000 to the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community under the Environmental Justice Small Grants program. The funding will help to identify legacy and current environmental pollutants, conduct an environmental risk assessment, and create materials to spread the findings.
“EPA’s Environmental Justice Small Grants program helps tribal nations to better understand possible health risks from environmental contamination,”Debra Shore, EPA Regional Manager. “This funding supports these communities in taking action to ensure that people are protected from environmental risks and potential health hazards.
“This EPA EJ funding opportunity will assist KBIC with the completion of a health risk assessment focusing on environmental contaminants,” said KBIC President Kim Klopstein. “This study will analyze the impacts of risk values set for the general population that are not reflective of our tribal lifeways and those members who rely on the environment to hunt, fish, and gather.”
Tribal nations such as the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community can be more at risk from environmental pollution that damages water quality. They harvest large quantities of native fish species for their families and use them in ceremonies and other cultural practices. The area around the KBIC L’Anse reservation is subject to multiple stressors from current industrial facilities, such as a mixed-fuel power plant, and historical legacy pollutants. Legacy pollution from copper mining operations in the past has left contaminated byproducts including mercury, polycyclic aromatic carbons, polychlorinated phenyls. phthalates and coal tars. Nitrates and ammonia compounds.
The EJSG project will increase community capacity to understand and educate about possible exposures and risk from pollution. The project’s results could be used to develop future community guidelines, recommendations, and research studies as well as program planning.
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