vvEPA
AIEO Newsletter
EPA-160-N-23-001
December 2023
Volume 1, Issue 1
EPA's American Indian Environmental Office Newsletter
From left to right: EFA Administrator Michael Regan, Deputy Ad m inistrator Janet McCabe, NTC Vice Chair Scott Clow, AIEO Director Ken-
neth Martin, NTC Region 3 Rep resentativejessi ca Phillips, Region 1 Regional Administrator David Cash, EPASenior Advisor Zea Ian Hoover
INTERVIEW WITH AIEO DIRECTOR, KENNETH MARTIN
1. Tell us a little about your background
I am an enrolled member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indi-
ans which is located in what is now present-day Wisconsin, but, I grew up on the
Menominee reservation where my mother was enrolled and I am a descendant. I
am also a descendant of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin.
I have spent more than eighteen years working in the United States Senate for
four different Senators and two Senate Committees. I have also previously served
as first ever Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tribal Government Affairs at the U.S.
Department of Transportation under the Obama Administration.
2. What brought you to EPA?
As you can see from my work background, I have spent my entire career in public
service. Joining the Biden-Harris Administration here at EPA is the best way that I
can continue to work on behalf of Indian Country.
3. Describe the type of work you do in EPA's American Indian Environmental Office?
The work varies from day to day but my main goal is to ensure that we are work-
ing to uphold the mission of EPA to protect human health and the environment in
Indian Country and uphold our treaty and trust responsibility.
4. What message would you like to send other American Indians/Alaska Natives who
are interested in a career at EPA?
I am so honored to work alongside the AI/AN staff here at EPA. The breadth and
depth of their expertise is vital to carrying out the mission of the EPA. The indige-
nous perspective is critical to everything that we do at the EPA and I am so proud
to see the work that they are doing.
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Tribal Partner spotlight 2
Tribal Project Highlight 3
Climate Corner 4
Active Tribal 5
Consultations
Funding Opportunities 5
AIEO Program Updates 6
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TRIBAL PARTNER
SPOTLIGHT
INTERVIEW WITH
RUSSELL
1,
2.
3,
4,
Russell Hepfer fishing on the Elwha River
Tell us a little about your background,
I am the Vice Chairman for the Lower Elwha Tribal Community
Describe the type of work you do in your office?
This year marks the start of my 9r" 3-year term on our Tribal Council. Most of my council duties are
in natural resources. I have worked for over 25 years on environmental policy for my tribe.
Describe a work accomplishment that you are particularly proud of and explain how it strengthened hu-
man health and/or environmental protection in Indian country.
The proudest accomplishment is the successful effort to remove two dams on the Elwha River. This
took the work of previous council members and elders, most of which are now passed on. The easi-
er part was getting an Act of Congress for the Elwha Act. The hard part was that the Act itself was
unfunded. We had to find the money to deconstruct the dams. The National Park Service figured it
out in the end. Now we have opened up 70 miles of pristine habitat above the former dam sites
within the Olympic National Park boundaries. The water is also clean and the fish are coming back.
In October of this year our tribe had its first C&S Fishery in over 11 years. Our scientists figured out
that we could catch up to 400 Coho salmon. Each one was to be sampled and the data hopefully
will allow a more robust fishery in the near future. We ended up harvesting a total of 205 fish. All
the work was so rewarding.
What message would you like to send other American Indians/Alaska Natives who are considering a ca-
reer in the environmental field?
I would encourage any Indigenous People that are interested in a career in the environmental field
to get involved with their tribes natural resources department. I started out employed as a Water
Quality Technician. Everything fell into place from there. My mentor, Billy Frank Jr always told us to
"Stay the Course!" That would be my advice.
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TRIBAL ENVIRONMENTAL PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
The view from the top of a chat pile at Tar Creek
Celebrating Ten Years of Cleanup at Tar Creek with
the Quapaw Nation in Oklahoma
In the spring of this year, a delegation from the Quapaw Nation, a Tribe in the far northeastern cor-
ner of Oklahoma, invited EPA's Office of Land and Emergency Management (OLEM) to attend a spe-
cial event on their reservation to celebrate 10 years of a unique Tribal, federal, and State partnership
to clean up the Tar Creek Superfund site. At one point, Tar Creek, a former lead and zinc mine, pro-
duced half of the lead and zinc used in bullets and bombshells in WW2 and was critical to the U.S.
war effort. Unfortunately, mining at the site left a terrible legacy on the land. Huge piles of mine tail-
ings called chat, up to 200 feet tall and visible from space, still dot the landscape today. Kids once
climbed and played on these piles, and chat was used extensively throughout the local communities
as gravel and fill in roads and sandboxes and under houses, playgrounds, and sports fields. And it is
loaded with heavy metals, including lead, zinc, and cadmium. Huge underground caverns, another
legacy of the mine, filled with water after the mines closed. When that water eventually came to the
surface, it contaminated local creeks and damaged aquatic life. In 1994, 35 percent of children tested
by the Indian Health Service had elevated blood lead levels. As a result, the EPA and the State of Ok-
lahoma conducted early response and remediation work at the Tar Creek site. Structures in four
towns were purchased or demolished, and residents of those towns were relocated.
Then in 2013, Quapaw Nation was awarded a cooperative agreement to remediate an area called the
Catholic 40. Quapaw Nation owns this 40-acre tract of land, which holds cultural and historical signifi-
cance. This marked the first time a Tribe in the United States conducted cleanup activities at a Super-
fund site on Tribal land. At the Catholic 40 site, the Tribe excavated, hauled and disposed of 107,000
tons of chat. What used to be a wasteland with piles of chat 200 feet high is now a flourishing mead-
ow of native grasses and plants. Since that first remediation effort, Quapaw Nation has taken on pro-
gressively larger portions of the cleanup work and has made impressive progress in the Tar Creek
complex.
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Climate Corner: EPA's Work to
Empower Tribal Communities to Tackle the Climate Crisis
Supporting climate adaptation in Tribal communities is a priority for EPA. For the first time, EPA's
includes "Tackling the Climate Crisis" as a distinct, measured agency-wide goal, EPA has set
an ambitious target to assist at least 400 federally recognized Tribes to take action related to climate
change impacts by 2026. To date, over 275 Tribal governments have utilized EPA resources, through
training, funding, or technical assistance, to anticipate, prepare for, adapt to, or recover from the im-
pacts of climate change.
The AIEO and EPA's Climate Adaptation Program coordinate closely to ensure the implementation of
this goal includes the priorities of Tribal governments through several internal and external efforts.
For example, many Tribes are utilizing General Assistant Program (GAP) funds to develop their own
climate adaptation plans.
Another significant part of supporting Tribal climate adaptation priorities is continuing the dialogue
with Tribes to better understand the challenges and needs so that we can work in partnership to ad-
dress them. To this end, the Climate Adaptation Office has initiated a subgroup of the EPA National
Tribal Caucus and EPA staff to regularly discuss and act on joint climate priorities. The subgroup led a
town hall on September 71 , 2023 to hear more from Tribes about climate needs, and is planning our
second town hall in December. More information will be coming soon.
Finally, on November 9th, the White House announced the Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5).
which highlights the ways in which ail regions in the United States are currently experiencing harmful
impacts of climate change. NCA5 has an updated chapter on
in addition to chapters on climate mitigation, climate adaptation, critical climate
threats, and the impacts of climate change on every region of the country.
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ACTIVE TRIBAL CONSULTATIONS
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
is initiating consultation and coordination with
federally recognized Indian Tribes on the pro-
posed issuance of the National Pollutant Dis-
charge Elimination System (NPDES) Wildfire Gen-
eral Permit (WGP) under the Clean Water Act
(CWA). EPA's WGP is a new NPDES general per-
mit that will propose to cover discharges from
certain Federal operators to waters of the Unit-
ed States from the aerial application of two cate-
gories of wildland fire chemicals, long-term fire
retardants and water enhancers. The draft WGP
will be proposed to have a five-year permit term
and cover all areas where EPA is the NPDES per-
mitting authority.
EPA's consultation and coordination period is
open now through January 28, 2024. Contact
Kenda Conley with the Office of Wastewater
Management by email at conley.kenda@epa.gov
or by phone at 202-564-0306 if you have any
questions about this action.
Learn more about this consultation and other
active tribal consultations at
https://tcots.epa .gov/ords/tcotspub/f?p=106:l
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil
Rights (OEJECR) will propose an updated policy on
public participation - Achieving Health and Envi-
ronmental Protection Through EPA's Meaningful
Involvement Policy (MIP). The MIP updates the
EPA's 1981 Public Participation Policy by strength-
ening EPA's commitment to public participation.
The MIP is being developed to establish an EPA-
wide approach to meaningful involvement and
provides consistency for public involvement in
EPA's decision-making processes. The term
"public" is used in the broadest sense, meaning
the general population of the United States in-
cluding federally recognized Tribes, Tribal Com-
munities, and Indigenous Peoples. The Agency is
offering consultation with federally recognized
Tribes on this proposed policy.
If you are interested in requesting consultation
with EPA, please contact OEJECR to schedule a
consultation. EPA's consultation and coordination
period is open now through January 5, 2024. Andy
Bessler is OEJECR's Tribal Consultation Advisor,
and his email address is bessler.andrew@epa.gov.
Learn more about this consultation and other ac-
tive tribal consultations at
https://tcots.epa .gov/ords/tcotspub/f?p=106:l
Funding Opportunities
EPA's new Environmental and Climate Justice Community Change Grants program (Community
Change Grants) has announced a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for approximately $2 billion
dollars in Inflation Reduction Act funds in environmental and climate justice activities to benefit disad-
vantaged communities through projects that reduce pollution, increase community climate resilience,
and build community capacity to address environmental and climate justice challenges. The NOFO will
be open for a year, closing on November 21, 2024, and EPA will review applications on a rolling basis.
This allows applicants to utilize technical assistance and possibly resubmit a new application if not ini-
tially selected. EPA encourages applicants to apply as early as possible.
Learn more at: Inflation Reduction Act Community Change Grants Program I US EPA
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AMERICAN INDIAN ENVIRONMENTAL OFFICE
PROGRAM UPDATES
NEW AIEO STAFF
Denmi C. Whiteman
AIEO is excited to welcome Denmi C. Whiteman, a
member of the Oglala Lakota and Southern Cheyenne
Tribe, as a valuable addition to the Tribal Capacity
Development team!
She graduated from Haskell Indian Nations University
in 2023 with a Bachelor's degree in Indigenous Ameri-
can Indian Studies, where she showcased her exper-
tise through various accomplishments. Denmi pre-
sented a capstone project on tribal rights and respon-
sibilities of Native Americans, effectively communi-
cating complex technical findings to non-experts. Ad-
ditionally, she demonstrated excellent project man-
agement skills by successfully leading research pro-
jects, setting priorities, coordinating teams, and eval-
uating outcomes.
Please join AIEO in welcoming Denmi; you can reach
her at whiteman.denmi(5)epa.gov.
AIEO LAUNCHING NEW GAP MICROSITE
The AIEO is pleased to announce the launch of a newly redesigned GAP microsite. The microsite is designed
to be user-friendly and easily navigable. It is organized into three priority topics: background documents,
performance management, and training and resources.
As AIEO develops new materials, such as GAP Academy trainings and intertribal consortia resources, they
will be more easily located by the public. We hope that you will find the new microsite to be a valuable re-
source for information about the GAP Grant Program. Check out the new microsite at https://www.epa.gov/
ABOUT AIEO
AIEO leads EPA's efforts to protect human health and the environment in Indian country by supporting
implementation of federal environmental law consistent with the federal trust responsibility and the
government-to-government relationship, as found in the EPA Policy for the Administration of Environ-
mental Programs on Indian Reservations (1984).
Questions for AIEO? Here's our Email.
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