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TAHLEQUAH, OK - The Cherokee Nation recently received a $100,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish a website to post local environmental test results.

"We'll be able to post the pollutants in the air and the quality of the water in our area", said Randy Gee, environmental specialist with the Cherokee Nation.

The grant will be used to purchase hardware and software to enable the Cherokee Nation’s computer system to communicate and exchange data with the EPA’s computers. This will allow the Cherokee Nation to post the environmental information on their website at the same time the EPA's monitors are detecting it.

According to a press release from the EPA, this announcement is an important step in the President's E-Government Initiative, which uses Internet technology to improve the delivery of government services to citizens, streamline businesses’ paperwork and increase cooperation among federal, state and local authorities.

"The grants announced today will move us closer to a network that gives EPA, its partners and citizens the best environmental data possible", said Christie Whitman, EPA administration, "Completion of this network will consolidate air, water, waste and toxics data, simplify industry’s reporting requirements, and provide the public with meaningful, real-time access to environmental information. By combining different types of data, citizens will have access to a complete picture of environmental conditions where they live and work."

"We want to make it easier for tribal members to assess this data", Gee said. "They need to know the quality of their water and ozone levels her in Tahlequah. We can provide a more regional picture of the environment now."

The Cherokee Nation environmental services website should be launched in 2003. Until then, you can access environmental quality information for the state of Oklahoma by accessing the EPA's web site, URL: EPA.gov.