[CPEO-MEF] FORMER SITES, NATIVE PEOPLES: "BLM report catalogues contaminated land conveyed to Native corporations, " Alaska

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

BLM report catalogues contaminated land conveyed to Native corporations

By Molly Dischner 
KDLG Radio (Dillingham, AK)
August 24, 2016

Scattered throughout Alaska are hundreds of pieces of land that have been transferred to Alaska Native Corporations by the federal government. Some of it is the land of Alaska dreams: forests, tundra, river banks –largely untouched. Other parcels are less picturesque, but chosen for an economic development purpose. And some, for whatever reason they were chosen, came with contamination: old schools, tank farms, other structures and even some spills. Getting them cleaned up has been a decades long process, and a new report catalogues those contaminated sites, but leaves some questions about who will orchestrate clean-up – and when.

Storage tanks at the post office site in Iliamna. Soil issues at the Katmai National Park Headquarters. A tank farm in Newhalen. The former school in Pedro Bay. Those are just a few of the 1,000 sites considered contaminated that were transferred from federal entities to Alaska Native Corporations. 

...

The BLM transferred some of the parcels from its own lands, but those are not thought to be contaminated. Instead, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Air Force, the Federal Aviation Administration, and other entities all played a role in causing the contamination, and are likely to be responsible for some sites. But the BLM can’t make them clean them up, said project manager Paul Krabacher.

...

For the entire story and a link to the audio, see
http://kdlg.org/post/blm-report-catalogues-contaminated-land-conveyed-native-corporations#stream/0

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice/Fax: 650/961-8918 
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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