ABSENTEE SHAWNEE TRIBE (EPA Region 6)
Providing Environmental Training by Coordinating EPA Brownfi elds Resources
The Absentee Shawnee Tribe provided environmental
Location: Central Oklahoma job training to 65 students to date, with 91% obtaining
Size: More than 12,000 acres in parts of employment and an average post-training hourly wage
Pottawatomie, Oklahoma and Cleveland Counties of $13.50. Before graduating, students are trained in:
Population: Approximately 3,000 asbestos remediation, HAZWOPER, emergency confined
Website: http://www.astribe.com/OEP.htm space training, first aid and CPR, National Incident
Management System (NIMS), and an inspector contractor
supervisor class. The Absentee Shawnee job training
program, in partnership with the Gordon Cooper Technology Center and East Central University of Oklahoma, is one
of three accredited asbestos training programs in Oklahoma and the only one that provides free training.
A $200,000 EPA Brownfields Job Training grant awarded in 2006 provided the main funding source. Students then
developed skills on actual assessment and cleanup projects. This coordinated effort gave students real life experience
and supports site specific efforts of the tribes’ Section 128(a) funded brownfi elds program.
The tribe’s brownfi elds office and job training classroom is located on a 21-acre property that was the focus of an
EPA Brownfields Assessment grant awarded in 2004. The property is a former pipe supply business with hazardous
substances and petroleum contamination on portions of the site. Students use this and other nearby brownfi elds with
illegal dumping, asbestos and mold issues to learn a range of skills, including how to: conduct site screenings; conduct
mold assessment and inspections; use a global positioning system (GPS) to mark properties; and use equipment such
as underground survey instruments. The students’ practice provides information to the brownfi elds office and supports
assessment and cleanup activities.
The tribe’s Office of Environmental Protection hired some graduates to work within its brownfields program. For
example, one student is now an asbestos trainer and another entry level staff member has been promoted to help with
assessment and cleanup activities after going through the program. Other graduates have obtained employment in the
asbestos and solid waste field, with some working for the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
For more information regarding the Absentee Shawnee’s environmental job training and brownfields efforts, please
contact Renee Hood at reneeh@astribe.com or (405) 273-9966.
“Many companies have been impressed with our
graduates because due to their extensive training
beyond just asbestos remediation, they are able
to recognize additional issues such as emergency
confined space problems.”
– Renee Hood, Absentee Shawnee Environmental Director
Release date: 07/08/2009
Contact Information: Dave Bary or Anthony Suttice at 214-665-2200 or r6press@epa.gov
(Dallas, Texas – July 8, 2009) The Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma will have improved access to vital water services through funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s Indian Health Service (IHS) today announced $90 million nationwide in ‘shovel ready’ infrastructure projects designed to better protect human and environmental health in Indian Country.
“EPA and Oklahoma tribes share a common interest when it comes to caring for people and the environment,” said EPA Acting Regional Administrator Lawrence E. Starfield. “The Recovery Act is helping us fund more projects by the Eastern Shawnee and other tribes that will deliver long-term benefits for their communities and respective lands.”
The project benefiting the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma will involve making connections to drinking water supplies.
Continuing a tradition spanning 20 years, EPA and IHS’s combined effort to improve water services in Indian Country contributed to their identification of 95 wastewater and 64 drinking water priority projects to be completed by IHS’s Sanitation Facilities Construction Program through EPA Recovery Act funds. The projects exceed the Recovery Act requirement that 20 percent of the funds be used for green infrastructure, water and energy efficiency improvements and other environmentally innovative projects.
President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 on February 17, 2009, and has directed that the recovery act be implemented with unprecedented transparency and accountability. To that end, the American people can see how every dollar is being invested at recovery.gov.
More information about all the EPA Recovery Act water efforts:http://www.epa.gov/water/eparecovery/
For more information on EPA’s implementation of the Recovery Act in EPA Region 6, please visithttp://www.epa.gov/region6/
