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OWCM Model for Alaska Community-Based Environmental Protection The EPA Region 10 Office of Waste and Chemical Management (OWCM) is piloting a promising new community-based program for environmental protection in partnership with the Louden Village Council (LVC) Tribe, Galena, Alaska. The Louden Village Council, like many Alaskan Tribal communities, is confronted with multiple chemical and waste management problems. These problems cannot be solved in isolation. To assess impacts to the Louden Tribe and determine a course of action, LVC will need cooperation from other agencies, technical and financial resources and up-to-date information about environmental and human health effects from contamination of their subsistence diet foods. Background One of the most obvious chemical and waste management problems in Galena involves past military practices which left the area strewn with hundreds of fuel drums, contaminated soils and ground water. The Tribe is also concerned that the effects of this contamination may extend to their subsistence food items--big and small game, fish and locally harvested plants. Even now, anecdotal evidence suggests there may be impacts to fish from the Yukon River which are part of the Tribe's subsistence diet. And, while the Air Force definitely strives to work with the Louden Village Council to address many of these issues--the Tribe worries about its future. The OWCM Community-Based Program The OWCM has developed a community-based strategy to assist the Louden Village Council clean-up chemical and waste management problems in their area. The model program is a holistic approach to waste and chemical management. Elements of the OWCM Community-based strategy include: Assist the Louden Tribe to identify the full range of chemical and waste management problems/risks in their community; Support informed decision-making and risk assessment by providing the Louden Village Council and other Alaskan Tribes with a computer web site which describes current knowledge about contamination to their subsistence food sources;* Assist the Louden Tribe to develop a collaborative problem solving method to work with key stakeholders to manage community-wide contaminant issues; Develop a holistic approach to focus OWCM (lead, asbestos, PCBs, hazardous and solid waste) program resources on a community basis; Coordinate assistance from other key EPA Offices, such as Office of Solid Waste (OSW) financial support and hydrogeological and risk management assistance from the Office of Environmental Assessment; Transfer lessons learned in the Louden Village Community-Based effort via a documentary which will be distributed to other Alaska Tribes; and Adapt the OWCM community-based model to entire sub-regions, such as the Yukon Flats, to reach a wider audience of communities faced with similar, interrelated waste and chemical management problems. * External Data Management Web Site on Subsistence Harvest Contamination Currently, information on contamination to subsistence food sources, which comprise a major portion of the diets for rural Alaskan communities, is scattered, incomplete and difficult to access. This information is essential to a critical evaluation of contaminant issues in the arctic. In a project entitled "Alaska Native Use of Local Food Resources: Harvests, Contaminants, Concerns and Cultural Importance," OWCM has awarded a grant to the University of Alaska, Anchorage (UAA) to develop an easily accessible database concerning the contamination of subsistence resources in Alaska. Information for the database will be collected from a wide variety of national and international scientific sources and from first-hand information from Alaskan Tribes. The database will be available to 226 Alaska Tribes and other interested parties on a web site. The project will compile information on: contribution of different local food resources to the diets of Alaska Natives; measured levels of contaminants in these local food resources and what is known/not known about the health effects of ingesting these foods; the cultural importance of local resource foods that are most likely to contain contaminants at levels posing a threat to human health; document Alaska Native concerns about contaminants and ideas on how these concerns can be handled most effectively in a risk assessment format; and, point to research needed to better understand contamination to Alaska Native subsistence harvests. Other Activities to Support Community-Based Efforts in Alaska Grassroots Solutions Waste Management OWCM awarded the Alaska Native Health Board (ANHB) $300,000 to enhance waste management capacity among Alaska Tribes. ANHB will award approximately forty $2000 - $7000 grants to Alaskan Tribes for the purpose of developing grassroots solutions for managing waste in arctic conditions. (Solicitations for these grants have already been completed.) In parallel, ANHB has hosted two (1995 and 1996) Alaska Tribal Conferences on Environmental Management to disseminate information on environmental issues in Alaska. Unit: Resources Mgmt. & State Programs Unit Fran Stefan E-Mail: stefan.fran@epamail.epa.gov (206) 553-6639 Phone Number: (206) 553-6639 Last Updated (mm/dd/yy): 05/18/2006 Working with States http://yosemite.epa.gov/R10/OWCM.NSF/states/cbepgalena