Solid Waste Management on Tribal Lands

Interagency Meeting on Tribal Solid Waste
Inter Tribal Council of Arizona
June 17, 2008

Tribes Present:

Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community - Cynthia Naha

Gila River Indian Community - Margaret Cook; Sandra Miller; Rudy Mix; Alriquez Manuel

Gila River Indian Community Police Department - Sheldon Johns Sr.; Marlin Dixon;

Cocopah - Barkley Root

Ak-Chin - Joseph Smith

ITCA - Elaina Curley

Pascua-Yaqui - William Campbell; Ramon (Sonny) Rivera

Hopi - Rose Polivema

Fort Independence; Richard Stewart

Tohon O'odham Nation - Lorinda Sam; Fred Orosco;

White Mountain Apache - Janet Quintero

Agencies/ Organizations Present:

Indian Health Service - Tom Heitzman

U.S. Environment Protection Agency - Michelle Baker; Heather White

Arizona Department Environmental Quality - Brian Davidson

Bureau of Indian Affairs - not present

US Department of Agriculture - not present

Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community (SRPMIC)

Solid Waste Issues:

• Illegal Dumping by Community and non-Community members is an issue. Majority of illegal dumping is done by non-Community members
• West Nile virus - Mosquitoes breed in stagnant water that collects in waste tires, white goods, and inoperable/abandon vehicles.
• Tires fires can be a potential hazard from the storage of these items in yards, around homes, and at the storage facility at the SR Landfill.
• Very little outreach and education has been done in the past from EPNR about the health risks associated with illegal dumping.
• Hiring contractors to remove tires and vehicles cost money.
• Cultural ceremonies are negatively impacted by illegal dumping and hazardous dumping on sacred sites etc, this is true for any tribe, not just in SRPMIC.

Actions taken by SRPMIC:

• CARP: Community Action Revitalization Project. The purpose of this project is to conduct two phases of a Community-wide cleanup. Each phase will consist of a small and large scale cleanup. The large scale cleanup will include old, burnt out buildings, the removal of abandoned mobile homes, removal of inoperable vehicles, and other large debris. The small scale cleanup will be used for yards, roadways, abandoned lots, and will also include the planting of native vegetation and beautification of the Community.
• Contractors: have been used for removal of waste tires as well as in-operable vehicles. (JJ Tires does good work $1.25 for passenger tires without rims, $4 for passenger tires with rims, and $4 for large semi truck tires.). These waste tires are then taken to be recycled at the Southeast Maricopa County waste Tire facility. Over 8000 waste tires have been removed from the Community to date.
• Collaboration: SRPMIC works with rangers on illegal dumping. If a Community member or non-Community member is caught, vehicles are confiscated and the offender is fined. If the offender wants his/their vehicle back, have to go to court as well as remediate the site.

Gila River

Solid Waste Issues:

• People think the Tribe's open space land is vacant space available for dumping waste.
• Technical Assistance: Illegal dumping is a big issue, and there is a serious lack of technical assistance available to tribes to deal with illegal dumping. Materials dumped include crime related dumping of human bodies and hazardous waste, dumping of households wastes and wastes left behind by undocumented immigrants. There is a need for more technical assistance on E-waste, and newly developed materials as a result of the green revolution.
• Suburban development is coming right up again the reservation.
• Trust Responsibility: The EPA is not fulfilling their Trust responsibility to manage solid waste programs on reservation lands. The EPA has this responsibility because under the Resource and Conservation Act, tribes are not delegated the authority to manage their own programs.
• Abandon vehicles: community members collect scrap metal and dispose of vehicles on the reservation.
• Lack of staff to effectively run the solid waste enforcement program: There are only two full time staff who work out in the field to ensure that all the businesses are in environmental compliance, and who follow up on illegal dumping issues. There is not enough staff to thoroughly cover the entire reservation. Staff time is also needed to find and secure resources for the program and equipment (batteries for radio equipment, fencing, and signage to protect boundaries). Currently local forest rangers help out to protect the reservation boundaries.
• Funding:
• Lack of funding for solid waste management is a big problem. There needs to be more discussion with EPA Headquarters to get more resources to tribes to handle solid waste. EPA GAP funding has been cut in half and there is very little funding for solid waste programs/projects from the EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response.
• Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) has not funded any proposals submitted by Gila River in the last 6 years (if ever). ADEQ continues to solicit proposals from tribes but does not appear to fund many of them in general.
• Tribe cannot do Household Hazardous Waste collection any longer because they do not have funding.
• Theft of valuable resources: Metal in increasingly being stolen off reservation land, from farmers and other people. The metals are likely being sold to scrap metal dealers in Phoenix.
• Fires: North boundary of Gila River burnt a few years ago.
• Methamphetamine labs: sites are repeatedly used as staging grounds for making meth. The mountains are used as drug routes.
• Flooding: A few years ago 68 tons of waste from floods.

FEMA grants allow tribes to build mitigation projects.

Actions taken by Gila River:

• Services: Community can bring 10 tires a year (free program) Department of Public Works.
• Enforcement: work closely with forest rangers. Confiscate automobiles and other belongings.
• Training: Provide training to tribal judges and rangers.
• Ordinances: The Department of Environmental Quality holds workshops on environmental ordinances with everyone involved including judges, attorneys, and tribal council. Hazardous and solid wastes are under the same ordinance.
• Enforcement: Many different tactics of enforcement are used. One notable method has been to confiscate horses and vehicles from people who have violated an ordinance. The ordinance offender needs to meet with a judge in order into reclaim their property.
• Recycling: Abitibi  is a company that pays the tribe for recycled paper and cardboard. The tribe has a great relationship with Abitibi and highly recommends them to other tribes.
• Global Positioning System (GPS): Gila River has GPSed over 100 sites on their reservation.

Pascua-Yaqui

Solid Waste Issues:

• Dump fees: These fees are going up as fuel fees increases. The tribe anticipates more illegal dumping due to the high cost of fuel. More people will just dump in the desert.
• Border Patrol: Border patrol breaks down tribal fences. This weakens the integrity of tribal enforcement abilities.
• Illegal Dumping: Fences are also broken by people who dump illegally on tribal land. Materials dumped include dead horses, trash from transients and tires.

Actions taken by Pascua-Yaqui:

• Collection Fees: The community members are charges for trash service.
• Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP) and Codes: The tribe is currently preparing a SWMP. They are also developing a solid waste code. Currently the tribe pays a lot of money to trash collection contractors. They are thinking about developing their own collection service to reduce costs and generate revenue from recyclables.
• Monitoring: Roll offs in community need to be monitored because any contamination causes tipping fees to go way up, treated as HHW or other special waste.
• Composting: Funding from the EPA GAP program will be used to introduce composting at the tribe's Senior Center.
• Research: Tetra Tech did an analysis of the tribe's waste and found that about 65% was recyclable. (This was done during Easter Weekend, not best time for the Tribe).

Hopi

Solid Waste Issues:

• Illegal dumping: Hopi has many of the same illegal dumping issues that have previously been discussed such as abandon vehicles and meth/medical waste. Also, because garbage fees are going up, white goods are being dumped outside people's homes.
• Funds: Hopi is no longer applying for ADEQ grants because these grants require a 10% match. It is too difficult to obtain the matching funds. Also, the Tribal government does not fund solid waste issues.
• Vague Codes: The Tribe's enforcement and solid waste programs are very vague. They are developing solid waste codes that currently do not define what to do with violations.
• Tribe doesn't fund SW issues.
• No Recycling: Hopi does not have a recycling program.

Tohono O'odham Nation (TON)

Solid Waste Issues:

• Undocumented Migrants: TON shares 65 miles of international boundary with Mexico. It is severely impacted by undocumented migrant workers (UDM), 100s of UDMs sites. There are only two temporary check points. Border patrol practices of creating new roads, tire dragging (to determine if people have crossed over on foot) and cutting fences has eroded the natural vegetation.
• Staffing: There are four enforcement officers. TON also has a ranger program but there needs to be more coordination between the rangers and environmental officers.
• Codes: The Solid Waste codes from 1997 need to be updated.
• Education: There is a lack of environmental education in management and community.
• Abandon Vehicles: Have abandon vehicle problems in really remote areas. Border patrol set vehicles on fire to stop immigrants from using them for entering country. Many other vehicles are often without tires and up on rocks. There are also thousands of abandon bicycles, some are in good condition and donated.
• Illegal Dumping: There are many sources of illegal dumping including from the railroad that goes through the reservation. Dead animals including hawks and eagles have been dumped, even dead human bodies.

Actions taken by Tohono O'odham Nation:

• Resources: TON gets EPA, IHS and tribal funding.
• Collaboration: TON is working with ADEQ to manage the undocumented migrant worker problems.
• Education and Outreach: They have purchased illegal dump signage (through the GAP program). These signs are in multiple languages; English, Spanish and Native Languages.
• Research: EPA funds have been used to do a waste characterization study of undocumented worker waste to see if the waste was re-useable. Unfortunately none was, so more funding was secured to do site clean-ups. Unfortunately waste continues to be left behind by UDMs.
• Regulatory program: TON is working with different agencies and reservations to find responsible parties (RP) of illegal dumping. One RP was found in Texas and had to come back and deal with the illegal dumping. They even found an RP in Patagonia.
• Recycling: They recycle paper and cardboard.

Cocopah

Solid Waste Issues:

• Illegal Dumping: UDMs leave behind many things including inter-tubes, water bottles and jugs.

Actions taken by Cocopah:

• Collaboration: The National Guard is involved in border control.
• Phased Clean Up: Cocopah has a grant from the National Wildlife Foundation for fuels reduction. They are currently in phase two of the project which has lead to cleaning up of illegal dumping. The next phase will be to fence off the area where there was illegal dumping. Dump clean up have lead to the come back of natural species.
• Reclaiming Land: Cocopah was worked with the Bureau of Reclamation to reclaim land.

Ak-Chin

This year sanitation dept is on its own. Joseph is here to get information about what other tribes are doing. The community is never charged to remove trash. The Tribe pays for all this. Joseph wants to start charging community to reduce costs of program.

White Mountain Apache Tribe (WMAT)

Illegal dumping is overwhelming. Janet started working with WMAT two months ago and is here for more information.

Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ):

• Two types of money: recycling and water quality. The recycling event has to be an event in the future in order to be funded.
• Reference ADEQ handout on grant programs. (Passed around at the meeting)
• Funding applications are graded by outside sources.
• Booklets that provide guidance of grant writing.
• ADEQ grants require matching funds. Part of the matching funds need to be monetary, some of the matching funds can be in-kind (non-monetary, such as labor hours).
• Brian is more than willing to go out to tribes and see what ADEQ can do to provide technical assistance.

Indian Health Services (IHS)

$3 million a year for Phoenix area for Water, Wastewater, and Solid Waste projects through the IHS Sanitation Deficiency System (SDS). There are funds available for solid waste projects. To access this money, tribes need to rank solid waste projects as a high priority and the project must have health benefits.

The pertinent links are:

Division of Sanitation Facilities Construction 

Sanitation Deficiency System (PDF) (92 pp, 779K, About PDF) 

Criteria Document March 2003

The Regular projects are in addition to the multi agency (EPA/IHS/BIA) funded solid waste projects.
Training opportunities are supported by Phoenix area through an annual contribution to ITCA and through the IHS Environmental Health Support Center, which funds many training opportunities including a few solid waste courses. They are not offered every year and mostly on expressed need from the Areas.
Environmental Health Support Center(EHSC) 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Each grant program is briefly described below and here is a link to EPA Region 9's Funding Opportunities Web page.

General Assistance Program (GAP)

GAP can fund solid waste implementation projects, including projects to characterize and close open dumps, purchase equipment, characterize sites, and pilot solid waste collection programs. The goal of the GAP is to assist tribes in developing the capability to plan and establish environmental protection programs and to develop and implement solid and hazardous waste programs in accordance with their individual needs.

Solid Waste Assistance Grants/ Tribal Solid Waste Grants

Through the Resource Conservation Challenge Program
These solid waste grants generally fund program development or pilot projects which promote waste reduction, recycled-content products, markets for recycled materials, or assist in the development of solid waste management plans and the clean up of open dumping. The aim of this funding is to support innovative ideas with the goal of fostering positive change. Projects may include studies, surveys, investigations, demonstrations, training, and public education programs. All demonstration projects must demonstrate applications, technologies, methods or approaches that are new, innovative or experimental. This grant program does not fund dump clean ups.

Brownfields Assessment Grants

Tribes are eligible to apply for funding to inventory, assess, conduct planning and community involvement activities related to Brownfield sites. Applicants may apply for funding to address hazardous substance sites and petroleum sites.

Brownfields Clean Up Grants

Tribes are eligible to apply for funding to clean up Brownfields sites. Grants of up to $200,000 per site are available, for a maximum of five sites. The applicant must own the property, and a 20% match is required.

Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund Grants

Tribes are eligible to apply for funds to capitalize a revolving loan fund and to provide sub-grants to conduct cleanup activities. Up to $1,000,000 is available per applicant. Repaid loan funds can be used to make additional cleanup loans. A 20% match is required.

Brownfields Job Training Grants

Tribes are eligible to apply for funding to train residents living near Brownfield sites for future employment in the environmental field. Up to $200,000 is available per applicant.

Water Pollution Controls Grant Program (CWA 106)

The purpose of the Water Pollution Control Program is to assist tribes develop institutional capacity to administer water quality programs and protect natural resources. Solid waste removal plans, outreach, and "trash removal days" can be funded under this program if the waste is a source of water pollution.

Nonpoint Source Pollution Controls Grant Program (CWA 319)

The purpose of the Nonpoint Source (NPS) Pollution Control Program is to assist tribes to develop and implement polluted runoff control programs that address critical water quality concerns. NPS is defined as rainfall, snowmelt, or irrigation that runs over land or through the ground, picks up pollutants, and deposits them into rivers, lakes, oceans, or groundwater. Open dumps that impact water quality as described above can be funded for clean up under this program. Before doing a CWA 319 project, tribes generally have a CWA 106 grant for a few years.

Training program:

EPA just signed a contract with ITEP to develop a tribal transfer station training for small rural communities (sometime in Fall) transfer station
Green casino training, green operations, energy, water. Marketing being a green casino

Outreach documents:

Coming soon...

Print and fill templates for households and businesses. These templates are for tribes to fill household hazardous waste and solid waste management. They should be out for tribal review next month then available on EPA's website.

HHW document for tribal governments

Costing document, current SW costs verses having a transfer station, curbside collection etc.

Auto dismantling guide, finding contractor, recycler

Circuit Rider

Larry, Danos is the circuit Rider for Region 9. He is available to survey dump sites at the request of tribes.

Other Resources:

• Pima County offers small grants to tribes for clean up days, etc.
• Gila River has small company that does clean up. The company is called Solid Ground Clean Up.

Closing thoughts:

"Recycling is something to think about when you don't have other more pressing social ills, like needing food on the table, or dealing with alcoholism, etc. Be cognitive of what people are dealing with."

"Understand how our cultures were 200 years ago, how they gave back to the land, recycled essentially. Incorporate cultural knowledge into our programs. Reference our creation stories and cultural histories."

Action Items

Michelle

Send 501c3 to all everyone; Completed 6/24/08
Contact Bureau of Reclamation, National Wildlife Federation/Foundation.
Send Pascua Yaqui water contacts for information on 106 and 319. Completed 6/27/08
Send Composting documents to everyone: food, green waste, Completed 6/24/08
Grant writing info (capacity building)
Send information about recycling #1-#2

Heather

Find RCRA training
Bi-annual meeting AZ working group meeting.
Next meeting January tentatively Gila River.
Contact Gary Olson about presenting at upcoming EPA conference on Solid waste and undocumented workers.

Brian

In response to the issue of tribal members not being able to participate in county clean-up days etc., Brian will follow up with counties.

Sandra

Look into Gila River hosting the next interagency meeting.