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EPA Orders BIA to Complete Cleanups on Navajo Nation

Release Date: 9/30/2002
Contact Information: Wendy L. Chavez, U.S. EPA, 415/947-4248, [email protected]

     SAN FRANCISCO -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday amended a 1997 order  requiring the Bureau of Indian Affairs to complete the necessary cleanup actions identified at schools and facilities on the Navajo Nation in Arizona by years end.  

     As part of a supplemental environmental project under the original order, the BIA Fort Defiance Branch of Roads Maintenance Facility was required to hire a third-party consultant to perform environmental audits at schools and facilities.  The BIA agreed to correct identified deficiencies and spend at least $223,353.    
     
     The BIA failed to address 374 out of the 1,304 deficiencies that were identified, which included unidentified hazardous waste and unlabeled drums at schools, underground tanks and aboveground tanks that were potentially leaking, and contaminated soil.    

     "This action will ensure that the BIA will meet the requirements of this order and that the schools and facilities will now be cleaned up and made safe," said Jeff Scott, the director for the EPA's Waste Management Division for the Pacific Southwest region.
 
     The BIA has agreed to clean up high priority facilities identified by the EPA and the Navajo Nation EPA and hire a second independent contractor to verify all cleanup actions completed under the original order.      
   
     The 1997 order alleged that BIA was operating a hazardous waste storage facility without a permit, stored paint waste on-site for longer than one year, and failed to file an hazardous waste activity notification to the Navajo Nation EPA.