Ensuring Climate Resilience in Site Assessments and Cleanups
A shared goal across Federal, State, and Tribal contaminated site cleanup programs is ensuring the actions we take assessing and cleaning up sites are protective of human health and the environment, regardless of future climate conditions. This a particularly important goal when contaminated sites are located near or impact tribes, Native villages and indigenous peoples who have unique relationships with their land and the surrounding environment. Climate resilient remedies can help protect the plants, animals, natural phenomena, landscapes that are of importance to tribes as well as hunting, fishing, trapping, agriculture, forestry and culturally-unique flora/fauna that may be part of tribal lifeways. Tribes are likely to bear greater risks and burdens from climate-driven extreme events and to have a more difficult time recovering. Considering climate resilience when assessing or cleaning up contaminated land will enable tribal communities to pursue future beneficial use or reuse of resources for economic, environmental, traditional, and cultural purposes. The session on Ensuring Climate Resilience in Site Assessments and Cleanups is designed to share information on policy, guidance, tools, and experiences assessing climate vulnerabilities at site cleanups to ensure their protectiveness continues into the future under changing climate conditions. Participants will learn to identify key questions they should consider at their sites regarding climate impacts, what findings might trigger further climate vulnerability assessments, and which tools can help the site team ensure continued protectiveness and resilience. The session includes examples and lessons learned from sites across cleanup programs. Presenters: Amanda Van Epps, USEPA OSRTI; Erika Wilson, EPA OLEM; and Ann Carroll, USEPA OBLR
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Tribal Interests at Federal Facility CERCLA Cleanups
This first part of this session will focus on providing an overview of federal facility cleanups under Superfund. The roles of federal agencies and tribal governments in federal facility Superfund cleanups, EPA’s Federal Facility Tribal Program, and approach to developing partnerships will be discussed. The second part of this session will discuss Technical Assistance Grants and Technical Assistance Services for Communities, including how these programs have been used. Presenters: Emily Royal and Gregory Gervais, USEPA FFRRO
This presentation was delivered as part of the Tribal Lands and Environment Forum in August 2022.
