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The Keweenaw Bay Indian Community is getting some federal money to help identify pollution problems on the L’Anse reservation.
The $75,000 award comes from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Justice Small Grants program. It will help the Tribe identify polluted areas, and assess the risk they pose.
The EPA notes that water pollution can pose higher risks to tribal nations, who harvest significant amounts of native fish.
The area around the L’Anse reservation includes several industrial facilities.
Legacy pollution from past copper mining operations have left contaminated byproducts that include heavy metals such as mercury, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, phthalates, coal tars, nitrates, and ammonia compounds.
