Existing Tribal Programs
If you are a Tribal member or a new employee at the Tribe, you may not know the extent of the existing environmental programs managed by your Tribe. Start by looking at your Tribe’s website to learn about the various environmental programs and what each program does for your community. Tribal capacity varies widely throughout the country, therefore, a Tribe may have one employee that manages an environmental program or numerous employees that work in various environmental programs, including the following examples:
- Indian Environmental General Assistance Program (GAP)
- Superfund / Contaminated Sites
- Remediation & Restoration
- Regulatory / Compliance
- Emergency Management / Preparedness & Response
- Brownfields
- GIS / Mapping
- Integrated Resource Management Planning (IRMP)
- Water Quality
- Water Rights & Permitting
- Watershed Management
- Hazardous Waste / Waste Management
- Pollution Prevention
- Air Quality
- Fish & Wildlife
- Tribal Historic Preservation Office
- Climate Change
- Education & Outreach
Program Funding Sources
Tribes are often creative with funding sources and it may not be obvious that a particular program is working on a specific project. Therefore, it is important to familiarize yourself with all environmental programs and departments that the Tribe has developed. For example, your Tribe’s emergency management program or water quality standards may have been developed with Indian Environmental General Assistance Program (GAP) or Brownfields funding. Reach out to someone new today – creating additional contacts and relationships will build a better future.
See EPA’s Creating Tangible Environmental Results With Tribes Webpage for GAP examples.
What kind of site do you have?
There are multiple regulatory programs with program specific resources that apply to different types of contaminated sites. See TLAC’s Contaminated Sites webpages to identify which program(s) is applicable to your site. For example, if a site is determined to be a Superfund site, planning, site investigation, cleanup, and community engagement procedures are subject to the requirements of that program. Additionally, you can learn more at EPA’s Cleaning Up, Protecting and Preserving Tribal Lands website and EPA’s Basic Information about Cleanups website.
Who responds to spills?
The information and resources available through the Tribal Lands Assistance Center (TLAC) is specific to Tribal emergency management programs that develop mitigation and preparedness plans, respond to incidents, and initiate and sustain recovery efforts. This is often a different Tribal program from the emergency services that you may be more familiar with: firefighters, police officers, and emergency medical technicians (EMTs)/paramedics.
Tribal emergency management staff within environmental departments are often trained as first responders to assist firefighters and police officers in securing a site to minimize dangers to the public. However, their primary job duties may include, but are not limited to: securing funding and sources for cost recovery, developing statutory authorities, conducting site assessments and risk assessments, determining cleanup strategies for protecting community members and the environment from short and long-term effects of hazardous substances, developing health and safety plans, conducting soil, water, and air sampling and analysis, providing oversight throughout the cleanup process, and keeping the community informed and engaged as needed.
Watch the first minute of Colville Confederated Tribes’ Tribal Response Program Manager, Don Hurst’s presentation describing Colville’s Tribal Response Program in the video shown.
Hazardous Material Spill Response
Hazardous Material Spill Response at the Corner of Tribal Response Programs and the Oil Pollution Act (35-minute recording at the Tribal Lands and Environment Forum in 2017) includes Mr. Hurst’s experience cleaning up legacy sites (currently under the Tribe’s Brownfields program) and working with local responders, federal on-scene coordinators, and contractors during a spill on the Colville reservation.
To learn more about US EPA’s Superfund removal actions and US Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) resources for Tribal responders see TLAC’s Preparing for and Responding to Spills webpage.