Get Tribal Case Study - Epa

Indian water rights settlements ensure Tribes acquire federally-reserved rights to water supplies to meet domestic, economic, and cultural needs.

Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 518(e) expressly provides for Indian tribes to play essentially the same role in Indian country that states do within state lands, authorizing EPA to treat eligible federally recognized Indian tribes in a similar manner as a state (TAS) for implementing and managing certain environmental ...

The United States has a trust responsibility to federally recognized tribes that includes the protection of the sovereignty of tribes. indigenous peoples throughout the U.S. and others living in Indian country are considered during the development of EPA actions and/or decisions that may affect tribal interests.

On May 2, 2024, the EPA released the Tribal Reserved Rights Rule, a final rule that formalized a process for states and the federal government to consider water-dependent tribal reserved rights when setting water quality goals and pollution limits for rivers, lakes, and streams under the Clean Water Act (1972).

EPA Announces Final Rule to Protect Water Quality Where Tribes have Treaty and Reserved Rights. WASHINGTON – Today, May 2, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a final rule that will help protect water quality where Tribes hold and assert rights to aquatic and aquatic-dependent resources.

Since 1987, federally recognized tribes have had the right to apply for and obtain treatment as a “State” authority under the Clean Water Act. Tribes can then adopt water quality standards on their reservations, just as states can do within their own borders.

The rule requires that if a Tribe asserts a Tribal reserved right in writing to a state and the EPA for consideration in establishment of WQS, the state must, to the extent supported by available data and information: (1) take into consideration the use and value of its waters for protecting the Tribal reserved right ...