Bear Paw receives grant to assess contaminated property

Tim Leeds Havre Daily News [email protected]

Several hundred thousand dollars more of federal economic recovery money will pour into the region this fall as the local economic development agency receives funding to assess possible contaminated sites in its five-county region of operations. Paul Tuss, executive director of Bear Paw Development Corp., said the federal Environmental Protection Agency has awarded Bear Paw $400,000 through the brownfield program, used to identify and clean up property so it can be used commercially. “That's the goal of the brownfield program, taking property that's contaminated or perceived to be contaminated and putting it back on the tax rolls, making it available for industrial development,” he said. Christin Hileman, director of the loan services at Bear Paw who will administer the funds, said the money is from the first part of the EPA brownfield program. “These funds will only be used to assess property in the Bear Paw region,” Hileman said. “No money will be used to clean them up.” The award is actually two grants: a $200,000 grant to assess contamination by petroleum products and a $200,000 grant to assess contamination by hazardous substances. The EPA has a three-stage program, Hileman said. The first is to assess sites. Other grants are available to help clean up the sites. ARevolving loan program is available to help fund development on the sites, she said. Hileman said Bear Paw will appoint a steering committee to oversee the process and will hold public meetings later in the fall. The first part of the threeyear grant is expected to be available in August, Hileman said. She said testing of reported sites will probably start next spring. Hileman said there are many potential sites in Bear Paw's region, which includes Hill, Blaine, Liberty, Chouteau and Phillips counties as well as the Fort Belknap and Rocky Boy's Indian reservations. The region includes 11 Superfund sites, eight reported methamphetamine laboratories and 275 reported leaking underground storage tanks, she said. Tuss said those sites can be a real problem. “There are a significant number of properties throughout our territory that are idle, that could be put back into use in some fashion,” he said. Sites which are contaminated or perceived to be contaminated often cannot be developed, with businesses unwilling to locate on sites and funding complicated by the problem, Tuss said. Banks often are unwilling to give loans to put a business on one of those sites, he added. That can happen even if a site is not contaminated, he said. Just the reputation of contamination can be enough to preclude development. Tuss said Bear Paw has been working to get its foot in the door of the highly competitive brownfield grant program for some time. The successful grant applications this year were Bear Paw's third try at receiving funding, he said. The grant s Bear Paw received, paid for through the federal American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, were two of eight grants awarded in the EPA's multi-state Denver Region, he said. Tuss said he expects this to be just the start of a long process of brownfield identification and cleanup. The program, started during the administration of President Bill Clinton, has continued to receive support in Washington during the administrations of President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama, he said. “I don't see this as a one-time thing,” Tuss said. “I see this as a process we will hopefully be able to continue.”