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Environmental Law
We have substantial experience representing tribes on a broad range of environmental matters, including tribal regulation for environmental protection.
Our representation of tribes has included work under all the major environmental statutes as well as under state environmental statutes and programs. We represent tribal industries and tribal economic development projects dealing with environmental issues. We have helped tribes establish treatment-as-state status and to draft and implement environmental ordinances. The firm is proud of our success in helping tribes address environmental threats to their members and lands.
Examples of Tribal Environmental Work by Statute or Issue
Clean Air Act
Clean Water Act
Endangered Species Act
Environmental Justice
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA)
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
Safe Drinking Water Act
Superfund
Drafting Ordinances
State Law
Clean Air Act We have helped tribes achieve the protective Class I status for their reservations and have worked with tribal environmental departments seeking approval of a Tribal Implementation Plan to implement tribal air programs. The firm has also addressed asbestos contamination issues regarding buildings on tribal lands.
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Clean Water Act
The firm has helped tribes achieve treatment as state status and to draft and implement water quality standards. We have also represented to a successful conclusion a tribe involved in a contentious Section 404(B) wetlands permitting process.
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Endangered Species Act
Several firm clients have faced significant challenges because of endangered species. We have assisted these tribes in developing comments and in conducting reviews regarding ongoing Endangered Species Act proceedings.
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Environmental Justice
The firm has worked extensively on issues related to environmental justice and the protection of tribal cultural resources and practices. This has included analyzing issues under the Executive Order on Environmental Justice as well as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Our attorneys have worked closely with ethnographers, as well as with tribal elders and cultural leaders.
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National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
Our lawyers have represented tribes required to comply with NEPA for tribal business projects. We have also represented tribes participating in NEPA reviews as both cooperating agencies and as interested parties.
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National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA)
Linked to our work on environmental justice, the firm has conducted detailed analyses of cultural and historic properties protected by the NHPA.
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Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
We have helped tribal industries comply with RCRA and have worked with EPA to enforce RCRA's requirements for non-native businesses on tribal land.
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Safe Drinking Water Act
The firm has successfully obtained treatment-as-state status for one tribe and worked with another seeking the ability to administer and enforce the Underground Injection Control provisions of the Act.
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Superfund
We have obtained treatment-as-state status for a tribe to administer the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know provisions of the Superfund law. We also represent a tribe that is lead trustee in an effort to assess natural resource damages caused by mining.
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Drafting Ordinances
Our attorneys have worked with tribal clients to draft and help implement ordinances dealing with issues including clean air, hazardous waste, land use, pesticide handling, and solid waste.
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State law
Many federal environmental programs can be administered by states (or tribes). Thus, to address some off-reservation environmental threats, tribes have to work with state governments. We have helped tribes work with states on issues ranging from wetlands protection to mine permitting and remediation to underground storage tanks.
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