In 1988, the Joint Business Council of the Eastern Shoshone and the Northern Arapaho Tribes (JBC) created the Wind River Environmental Quality Commission (WREQC) to investigate and report on matters of the Health and the Welfare of the Reservation residents and protect of the Environment.  JBC also designated WREQC to be the primary point of contact between tribes and federal agencies charged with the protection of the Reservation Environment.  As such, WREQC is the agency responsible for the implementation of the Brownfields Program on the Wind River Reservation.

Don Aragon is the Executive Director of WREQC and is responsible for the overall management of the Reservation’s Brownfield Program and Supervision of WREQC staff. Everett McGill is the WREQC Brownfields Coordinator.  He is the primary point of contact between WREQC and the other organization/individuals participating in the Brownfields Program, including the U. S. EPA, Contract Laboratories, and consultants assisting with implementation of the Brownfields Program.  The Brownfields Coordinator is responsible for the oversight of the Program tasks including data collection and maintaining the (QAPP), Quality Assurance Project Plan.

The Brownfields Tribal Response Program (TRP) for the Wind River Indian Reservation is very vital for the Tribes and the Wind River Environmental Quality Commission (WREQC) because of all the old economic development, mining, oil fields and other business ventures. They were abandoned and left for the future generations to come along and clean up. 

This is even more pronounced today, because the WREQC’s programs have been doing other environmental sampling and work along the rivers & streams and often come across these pitiful sites.  WREQC also is doing work out in the back- country, and often come across these old abandoned mines.  Currently, the WREQC office has located and GPS’ed and documented many of these hazardous old sites.

A Brownfields Site is a property where future use or development is hindered or limited because of the presence or perception of hazardous substances, pollution, or contaminants.  On the Wind River Reservation, this includes many former commercial and industrial sites that are now abandoned or under-utilized.  Brownfields sites are areas that are not being addressed by other environmental clean-up and restoration programs.  The Purpose of the Brownfields Program is to safely identify, assess, and cleanup these sites on the Reservation so they may be reused.