FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                         ENR
TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 1996                             (202) 616-2771
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888

                                 
         COURT REAFFIRMS TRIBAL ENVIRONMENTAL SOVEREIGNTY
            REJECTS MONTANA CHALLENGE TO EPA AUTHORITY


WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In the first case of its kind, a federal
judge in Montana rejected a state challenge to a decision by the
United States Environmental Protection Agency to treat an Indian
nation in the same manner as a state for setting environmental
standards within an Indian reservation, the Department of Justice
announced today.    The decision was seen by Department officials
as a significant victory for tribal sovereignty over
environmental matters.

     In a March 28 decision, the court rejected arguments by the
State of Montana that two tribes there lacked inherent authority
to apply its clean water standards to the activities of
nonmembers of the tribes.  

     "We believe that the judge ruled correctly," said Lois J.
Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Environment
and Natural Resources Division.  "The decision affirms EPA's
ability to recognize that Indian Nations should be primarily
responsible for defining the quality of the reservation's
environment." 

     The State of Montana sued EPA on May 4, 1995, after EPA
Region 8 Administrator Bill Yellowtail approved the Confederated
Salish and Kootenai Tribes' application to be treated "in the
same manner as a state" for purposes of setting water quality
standards under the Clean Water Act on the Flathead Indian
Reservation.  

     At the heart of the lawsuit was whether or not an Indian
nation could be authorized to set standards that must be met by
all reservation residents, or whether an Indian nation's
standards would apply only to tribal members.  The court's
decision means that EPA can continue to apply the Tribes' water
quality standards when it issues pollution discharge permits. 
Montana argued that tribal standards should not apply to non-
Indian activities on the reservation.  

     The decision sets an important precedent because it involved
the first challenge to a "treatment-in-the-same-manner-as-a-
state" decision by EPA under the Clean Water Act.  Since 1991,
EPA has approved more than one hundred and forty tribal
applications for "treatment as a state" status for purposes of
grants or program authorizations.  Sixteen of these approvals
have been for water quality standards programs.  

     Since January, the State of Wisconsin has filed two separate
actions challenging EPA decisions approving similar applications
for two Indian tribes in Wisconsin.

     Under the Clean Water Act Amendments passed in 1987, EPA is
authorized to treat Indian nations in the same manner as states. 
EPA has issued regulations that have allowed Indian nations to
apply for the power to exercise the same authority as states
under a host of environmental provisions under the Clean Water
Act.  EPA's regulations require Indian nations to show first that
they have regulatory authority over all relevant activities
within the reservation boundaries, including the activities of
nonmembers on privately-owned lands.  To do so, an Indian nation
must demonstrate that the activities of nonmembers pose a serious
and substantial risk to the health or welfare of the tribe.  Once
a tribe makes such a showing, EPA recognizes the tribe's
authority to set water quality standards for all surface waters 
within the reservation.

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