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- By Chez Oxendine
- Energy | Environment
The Environmental Protection Agency has approved the Yurok Tribe Environmental Department’s application for Treatment as a State (TAS), giving the tribe authority to set and enforce water quality standards on the Yurok Reservation in northern California.
The designation, based on a 1987 amendment to the Clean Water Act, allows the department to administer federal environmental laws including the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act within reservation boundaries. The approval applies to 44 miles of the Klamath River and its tributaries, according to a Yurok news release.
Under TAS, the tribe may determine beneficial water uses based on local cultural, environmental and community considerations.
“We now have the authority to determine beneficial uses of water based on our cultural values, environmental priorities, and community needs,” said Yurok Tribe Environmental Department Director Louisa McCovey. “This achievement is the result of a multigenerational effort to regain our sovereign right to govern the natural resources of our homelands.”
Josh F.W. Cook, EPA’s Pacific Southwest Region administrator, presented the signed certificate reflecting this authority to the Yurok Tribe at the Regional Tribal Operations Committee meeting in San Francisco, according to an EPA press release.
“We are pleased to recognize – and formalize – the Yurok Tribe’s authority to protect rivers and streams on their tribal lands,” Cook said in a statement. “The Yurok will now be able to more directly safeguard their tribal communities and natural resources. The goal of EPA is Indian self-determination, self-governance and returning regulatory responsibilities back to the tribes.”
The EPA’s decision follows a formal review of the department’s ability to manage environmental programs at a level comparable to state governments.
The tribe’s Water Quality Program has monitored river conditions since 2002, examining issues such as nutrient pollution, pathogenic bacteria and macroinvertebrate populations. The program also certifies federally and state-funded projects that may affect reservation waterways under the National Environmental Policy Act and California Environmental Quality Act review.
Thirty-two tribes in EPA's Pacific Southwest Region now have this authority. With this approval for the Yurok, all Klamath River Basin tribes in the Pacific Southwest, including the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation, Karuk Tribe, Quartz Valley Indian Reservation and the Pulika Tribe of Yurok People, have achieved this status, according to the EPA. (The EPA website contains a full list of tribes with TAS authority.)
Yurok Chairman Joseph L. James praised the EPA’s decision.
“The Lower Klamath River serves as the spiritual, cultural, and ecological foundation of our existence,” James said in a statement. “Treatment as a state significantly increases our capacity to protect and restore it.”
