Water Quality on Reservations
The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians has applied to the Environmental Protection Agency for authority under the Clean Water Act to run its own water quality standards program on the reservation east of Ashland, Wisconsin.
They would join the Mole Lake Band of Sokaogon Chippewa and the Fond du Lac Band of Chippewa, both of Wisconsin, as well as the Grand Portage Band of Chippewa in Minnesota, as regional tribes with water quality authority. 37 tribes around the country have been granted the authority to run their own water programs.
The EPA administers provisions of the Clean Water Act within the Bad River reservation, but having the authority to administer the program would give Bad River considerable leeway to set water quality standards, giving them authority similar to that granted to various states.
The Bad River would determine water quality standards applied to any point source discharge on the reservation. Any permits issued by the state to point source discharges upstream could not lower water quality on the reservation. Bad River, and not the Department of Natural Resources, would be responsible for issuing water quality certification on reservation lands for wetland fill permits issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
September 23, 2006 8:09 AM | Category: Politics, Water, Watershed