Advancing Tribal-EPA Partnerships for the 21st Century
Right-click on the cover image to download the Beyond Gap (Walking Together) Report
The “Walking Together” report has the following objectives:
- Develop a pathway that identifies barriers and creates solution-based guidelines and mechanisms to support development of tribal program implementation strategies.
- Further relationships that are central to the environmental integrity of our region by engaging partners in designing the next phase of tribal environmental protection programs.
- Design a pathway that best fits the needs of a multi-media tribal program supporting implementation of tribal environmental priorities including: monitoring and scientific research/analysis, issue identification, land-use planning and regulatory approaches, on-the-ground project implementation, participation in environmental processes at all levels, and public involvement and education. All these topics must anticipate the impact of climate change.
- Funding options to support tribal implementation should be identified.
Demonstration Projects
Intent
As part of the Beyond GAP work, pilot projects were identified to create and share implementation tools for environmental protection, restoration and remediation. These pilot projects begin to demonstrate what tribes could do with adequate implementation resources. Each of these reports addresses immediate and important threats to tribal governments, ranging from toxics in the environment to impacts from proposed developments. While these pilot projects are geographically specific, each was designed with the idea that they could be broadly applicable due to similar threats to traditional foods and cultures. The summary reports for each project follow.
- A Manual to Guide Tribal Toxics Monitoring Programs
- Technical Framework for Toxics Reduction – An implementation manual for Tribal staff and other agency staff who develop and/or provide input on permits, certifications, and orders to guide facilities to reduce toxics in their discharge.
- Tribal Guidance Document to SMS and SCUM II – This document provides guidance to tribal technical staff on how to derive site-specific cleanup levels for contaminated sediment sites under Washington State jurisdiction within a tribe’s treaty-reserved usual and accustomed areas using the Sediment Cleanup Users Manual (SCUM) II.
- Coast Salish Impact Assessment – Evaluating Impacts of Proposed Resource Development Projects on Coast Salish Tribes – Robin Gregory – This short report summarizes key considerations in developing a defensible and culturally appropriate approach for evaluating the potential impacts of resource development projects on Coast Salish Tribes.
- Vessel Traffic Impacts on Coast Salish Tribes and First Nations – This project identifies ongoing and proposed energy-related development projects that will increase marine vessel traffic in the Salish Sea and evaluates the risk that each project poses to natural resources important to the Coast Salish.
Success Stories
- Success Stories
- Jamestown S’Klallam – Jimmycomelately restoration
- Jamestown, Nisqually, Stillaguamish – Water quality/Harmful algal blooms
- Lummi Nation – Oil spill preparedness
- Makah – Solid waste/transfer station
- Muckleshoot – Sediment/chinook habitat
- Nisqually – Rain gardens/stormwater
- Nooksack – Sediment/Climate change
- Port Gamble – Nearshore monitoring
- Puyallup – Sediment/salmon habitat
- Quileute – Stream health/insects
- Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe – Fisheries management/staffing
- Skokomish – Estuary restoration
- Squaxin Island – Wastewater/shellfish
- Stillaguamish – Marine survival/Water quality monitoring
- Suquamish – Culvert removal/Habitat restoration
- Swinomish – Air quality
- Tulalip – Rain garden/stormwater/monitoring
- Upper Skagit Indian Tribe – Wastewater treatment