BTI Receives EPA Grant

The grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is through the agency’s Brownfields Job Training Program.

Brownfields are properties contaminated by such things as petroleum products or toxic waste.

“We’ve been involved in Brownfields in the past,” BTI President Doug Dalton said. “Historically, we’ve had classes and we have a partnership with EOU that has a class around providing hazardous waste clean up for properties.”

“We’ve wanted to take that to the next level, because when we have students out there and all these people who work with heavy equipment and they’re testing hazardous materials, and they’re doing all these things, those are all high pay, high wage, skilled trades jobs, which is what BTI does outside of our Brownfield,” Dalton said.

BTI is located on the Baker High School campus.

Dalton said BTI will use the $500,00 EPA grant to start two environmental construction academies, one in Central Oregon and one in Western Oregon.

Students who complete the academies will earn certifications that can help them find jobs, such as the federal hazardous waste operations and emergency response certificate.

Students will also get their OSHA-10, First Aid CPR for construction, forklift operator certification, an introduction to environmental site assessments, confined space training, heavy equipment operator certification, asbestos awareness, lead-based paint awareness and certification, and environmental career information and planning.

“Some, if they choose, are going to then pursue their commercial driver’s license, in addition to all of that,” Dalton said. “They will have their CDL and be able to transport hazardous waste.”

Dalton said BTI will tailor trainings at the academy toward environmental and hazardous waste. The goal is to have 60 students certified to run heavy equipment and oversee construction techniques during Brownfield cleanups.

“They are going to graduate with all of these stackable skills and be ready to enter the workforce job ready,” Dalton said.

There is high demand for such workers now, he said.

Dalton said BTI is trying to attract traditionally underrepresented people for the academies, including those living in rural communities, minorities, and people who had a traditional lack of access to this kind of training or traditionally underrepresented in these types of jobs.

The training is focused on students in Polk, Marion, Linn, Benton, Crook, Jefferson and Deschutes counties, specifically tribal members and low-income and unemployed individuals, according to a press release from the EPA.

“We’re pretty excited about it,” Dalton said. “I think it ties a lot of things together that we do as far as focusing on the skill trades and the Brownfield curriculum.”

Local projects

BTI is currently working on a Brownfield project at the Central Building in Baker City, the former Baker High School building on the Baker Middle School campus near Washington Avenue and Fourth Street.

BTI is also working with the city of Umatilla on a Brownfield project in that city.

BTI also has received a $600,000 EPA Community Wide Assessment Grant designed for the cities of La Grande and Baker City.

“What we do is, we identify properties and work with property owners to do a phase one or phase two EPA assessment to determine if they have hazardous building materials or if there’s some sort of Brownfield-related issue with their property,” Dalton said.

He said BTI is assessing properties in both cities now.

Past projects

The Brownfield clean up program started about a decade ago when the owners of a Baker City property, contaminated by petroleum products, donated the property to the Baker School District.

The district received a $200,000 federal grant to clean up the property, which was the site of a former machine shop. After the clean up, which students participated in, the district sold the property for $45,000.

Later the district did a similar project at the Odd Fellows Building on Main Street, parts of which were contamined by lead and asbestos.