The Environmental Protection Agency is giving the Blackfeet Community College in Browning a $188,000 Brownfields Job Training Grant.

The money will provide at least 30 students with a 246-hour training program in hazardous materials management, lead risk assessment, asbestos and mold abatement and geographic information systems.

The Blackfeet Indian Reservation is one of 12 communities across the nation that will share a total of $2 million in grants designed to help individuals develop the skills they need to secure jobs in environmental assessment and cleanup activities.

This new round of Brownfields Job Training Grants will teach environmental-cleanup job skills to individuals living in low-income areas near brownfields sites in 10 other states besides Montana, including: Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virginia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Washington.

Since 1998, EPA has awarded more than $20 million in brownfields job-training funds; more than 2,600 people have completed training programs and more than 1,600 have obtained employment in the environmental field, earning an average wage of $13 per hour.

"These grants focus on achieving results by training people for real jobs that help restore their neighborhoods," said EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson. "The brownfields job training program builds new partnerships for environmental progress that will go a long way in protecting public health and building stronger communities."

EPA's Brownfields program encourages redevelopment of America's estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated waste sites.

Since the beginning of the Brownfields Program, EPA has awarded more than 850 assessment grants totaling roughly $220 million, more than 200 revolving loan fund grants totaling more than $183 million and more than 230 cleanup grants totaling roughly $42 million. EPA's brownfields assistance has attracted more than $7.2 billion in private investment and helped attract more than 34,000 jobs. The Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act of 2002 authorizes up to $250 million in funds annually for brownfields grants.