Arapaho First outlines cleanup, grant and operations plan after years of illegal dumping at reservation transfer sites

Sean Brown, an Arapaho First representative, told the Select Committee on Tribal Relations that Arapaho First has taken on management of multiple transfer stations and undertaken an extensive cleanup effort after years of neglect and open dumping.

"We were able to clean it up. It was a total of 506 tons of, waste that we removed from the EFT transfer station," Brown said, describing a joint cleanup the tribe paid for and partly shared with intertribal partners.

The cleanup and upgrades matter because the transfer stations serve residents across the Wind River Indian Reservation and beyond, and years of fires, damaged canisters and open dumping left sites unsafe or unusable. Brown said Arapaho First sold an asset to raise capital, contracted Hopper Disposals and removed waste that cost roughly $137,000 to clean up, with intertribal partners agreeing to cover half the cost.

USDA grant and equipment

Brown told the committee Arapaho First obtained a USDA grant "which was…