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Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians
Choctaw Tribe Assesses Soil Erosion and Siltation -
Proposes Water Quality BestManagement Practices
The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians is proposing to develop a Water Quality
Best Management Practices (BMPs) plan to address the problems of soil erosion
and siltation resulting from various silviculture, construction, and resource
extraction activities on the Choctaw reservation. Forestry, construction, and
mining activities add to soil losses Source assessments indicate that land uses
are the major pollution problem on tribal lands. In particular, three land uses
account for most critical areas. They are
- silviculture, especially harvesting and reforesting activities without
appropriate residue or groundcover management;
- construction, especially for highways, bridges, and roads (sometimes in
connection with forestry or mining activities) but also for housing,
industrial, and
- commercial development; and
- resource extraction and development, especially surface mining, or topping
pits.
Thus, soil losses to erosion in some upland (hilly) areas may be as high as
40 to 50 tons per acre per year. In some places the land is devoid of adequate
tree, brush, or grass cover; in others, skid rails, fire lands, and roads have
created gullies that cause annual soil losses in excess of 100 tons per acre
per year. Siltation resulting from these identified nonpoint sources is the
primary pollutant of tribal waters.
Pollution prevention
The following activities -- a mixture of pollution prevention, source controls,
structural and nonstructural remedies (such as ordinances)-- are proposed in
the BMP plan for tribal lands:
- Develop a nonpoint source (best management practices) plan to address
erosion and siltation problems that affect water quality on the Choctaw
reservation.
- Hold meetings with stakeholders to discuss and implement pollution
prevention activities and this plan. These stakeholders will serve the tribal
chief in an advisory capacity to help prevent nonpoint sources of pollution on
the Choctaw reservation and to implement and enforce tribal ordinances.
- Conduct monitoring activities to identify discharge points, drainage
patterns, direction of flow, water quality at surface water bodies affected by
discharges, locations of significant materials exposed to stormwater, and
structural control measures to control erosion and siltation.
- Formulate and pass tribal ordinances, adopt erosion and sediment controls
for disturbed areas, and enforce selected BMPs.
- Evaluate the success of pollution prevention activities to include the
following activities:
- Annual site compliance evaluation to be conducted by qualified personnel to
evaluate the effectiveness of BMPs.
- Revise the BMP plan as needed.
- Implement a pilot project demonstrating the effective use of BMPs selected
and comparing this site to a project where no pollution prevention activity is
implemented.
The tribe will also evaluate its current environmental management plans for
consistency, and determine which, if any, provisions should be strengthened and
incorporated in the Pollution Prevention Plan.
CONTACT: Bernadette Hudnell
Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians EPA Program
(601) 656-5251 |
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