UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

REGION I
5 POST OFFICE SQUARE, SUITE 100
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02109

- 3912

MEMORANDUM

SUBJECT : Tribal Consultation : Maine Water Quality Standards Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point an d Indian Township

- Tribal Boundaries

FROM : Michael Stover , EPA Region 1 Indian Program Manager

TO : file

DATE: March 31, 2016

On Thursday, September 10 2015 from 1:00pm

– 2 :00pm , a conference call was held with the

P assamaquoddy Tribe

– Pleasant Poin t and Indian Township reservation representatives regarding tribal boundaries as they relate to the application of water quality standards pertaining to waters in Indian lands

in Maine

. Present on the conference call were:

Vice Chief William Nicholas, Pas samaquoddy Tribe at Indian Township Marvin Cling, Environmental Director, Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point Martin Dana, Environmental Director, Passamaquoddy Tribe at Indian Township Trevor White, Assistant Environmental Director, Passamaquoddy Tribe at Indian Township Corey Hinton, Attorney Akin Gump ( Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point ) H. Curtis Spalding, Regional Administrator, EPA Region 1 Deb Szaro, Deputy Regional Administrator, EPA Region 1 Carl Dierker, Director, Office of Regional Counsel, EPA Region 1 Tim Williamson, Deputy Director, Office of Regional Counsel, EPA Region 1 Ken Moraff, Director, Office of Ecosystem Protection, EPA Region 1 Ralph Abele, Water Quality Branch Chief, EPA Region 1 Jeanne Voorhees, Water Quality Standards Coordi nator, EPA Region 1 Matt Hoagland, Branch Chief, Wetlands, EPA Region 1 Michael Stover, Indian Program Manager, EPA Region 1 Tod Siegal, Office of General Council, EPA Headquarters Pete Ford, Office of General Council, EPA Headquarters Nicole Shao, Office Research and Development, EPA Headquarters Glynis Hill, Office of the Administrator, EPA Headquarters Claudia Fabiano, Office of Water, EPA Headquarters Andrew Baca, American Indian Environmental Office, EPA Headquarters Bella Wollitz, Office of the Solici tor, Bureau of Indian Affairs



### During the conference call, the Regional Administrator explained that EPA seeks the Tribe ’s input on how EPA will factor tribal boundary information as EPA move s forward in preparing for promulgation of water quality standard s pertaining to waters in Indian lands in Maine

.

The Regional Administrator then provided the background and status of the water quality

standards issue: EPA issued three sets of disapprovals to the State on February 2nd, March 16th

and June 5th. The Clea n Water Act requires EPA to promulgate federal standards if water quality disapprovals are unaddressed for more than 90 days. The 90

- day period expired for all three sets

of decisions. However, EPA has communicated to the state that EPA’s strong prefe rence is for

the S tate to address the issues by making the necessary revisions to its standards, and EPA is

### willing to work with the state beyond that 90

- day period if the state is diligently working to put protective criteria in place. The Regional Administrat or indicated that EPA has an upcoming meeting with the state DEP on September 21 , 2015 to discuss the S tate ’s plans to address some

or all of the issues EPA identified in our decisions.

The Regional Administrator explained that a s a backstop, in the event DEP decides not to move forward to address these issues, or is unable to do so for reasons beyond its control, EPA needs to have a process in place that will ensure a timely remedy to the issues identified in EPA’s decisions. Therefore, EPA has initiated a federal promulgation process to address the issues identified by EPA’s disapprovals. EPA is moving forward with proposing protective standards pertaining to waters in Indian lands in Maine

, and seeks to have this discussion with the Tribe regarding triba l boundaries that will ultimately become the geographical basis for proposing such protective standards.

The Tribe’s legal counsel discussed how the 1794 Treaty and the Maine Implementing Act characterized

the islands in the St Croix that were reserved fo r the Tribe. The 1794 treaty language was discussed: “... the Commonwealth of Massachusetts... do hereby assign and set off to the aforesaid Indians, the following tract or parcel of land lying and being within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, viz: all those islands lying and being in Schoodic River, between the falls at the head of the tide, and the falls below the forks of said river where the north branch and west branch parts; being fifteen in number, containing one hundred acres more or less ...”

T he Main e Implementing Agreement definition of “ Passamaquoddy Indian Reservation" referencing the

islands was discussed: “... those lands reserved to the Passamaquoddy Tribe by agreement with the State of Massachusetts dated September 19, 1794, excepting any parcel w ithin such lands transferred to a person or entity other than a member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe subsequent to such agreement and prior to the effective date of this Act. If any lands reserved to the Passamaquoddy Tribe by the aforesaid agreement hereafte r are acquired by the Passamaquoddy Tribe, or the secretary on its behalf, that land shall be included within the Passamaquoddy Indian

Reservation those 15 islands in the St. Croix River in existence on September 19, 1794 and located between the head of th e tide of that river and the falls below the forks of that river

. ” The Tribe indicated that the fifteen islands could be upstream ( some may be submerged) or downstream of Woodland Dam, and the Tribe intends to “reacquire” islands in the future.



### Trevor Whi te mentioned an island in the “flowage” of the St Croix River referenced by two names ( Taylor Island and Pine Island) that is in dispute, as well as lost land at Baileyville. The Tribe is seeking compensati o n for lost lands . The Tribe recommended that addi tional information may be available from the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, Donald Soctomah.

EPA thanked the tribal representatives for the information and will follow up with Donald

Soctomah.

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