UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
 

REGION IX
 

75 Hawthorne Street
 

San Francisco, CA 94105·3901
 

JUN 3 0 2011 OFFICE OF THE 

REGIONAL ADMINISTRATOR 

The Honorable William Rhodes 

Governor of the Gila River Indian Community 

525 West Gu u Ki 

P.O. Box 97 

Sacaton, Arizona 85147 

Dear Governor Rhodes: 

Thank you for your letter of May 20, 2011 to Administrator Lisa P. Jackson requesting government-togovernment consultation to discuss the potential impacts to Indian Tribes of an upcoming rulemaking on 

the Navajo Generating Station and for your letter of February 23, 2010 providing comments on the U.S. 

Environmental Protection Agency's Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on NGS. Because, the 

EPA Region IX office is developing the Federal Implementation Plan to implement the Best Available 

Retrofit Technology requirement of the Regional Haze Rule for NGS, Administrator Jackson has 

detennined that consultation should occur within the Region. My staff will be working with your office 

to schedule a meeting with you and your advisors to initiate consultation, to occur in August 2011 in 

Phoenix, Arizona. 

By letter dated November 13,2009, the Acting Regional Administrator of Region IX invited each Tribe 

in Arizona to engage in consultation on NGS. From the resulting discussions in 2009 and 2010 and 

from your recent letter, I understand that the Gila River Indian Community and other Federallyrecognized Indian Tribes may be affected by the EPA's implementation of BART for NGS. For this 

reason, and in accordance with the Federal trust obligation to Indian Tribes and the EPA's May 4,2011 

consultation policy, consultation between Tribal leaders and senior management at the EPA is critical 

for the EPA to fully understand the unique impact this rulemaking may have on Tribes. 

As suggested in your letter, my staff will be notifying the other Indian Tribes in Arizona of our 

upcoming rulemaking on NGS to provide another opportunity for government-to-govemment 

consultation to Tribes that may also be affected by our action. I understand that in your letter of June 21, 

2011 to Ms. Colleen McKaughan, Associate Director for the Air Division at the EPA Region IX, you 

proposed a detailed consultation format comprised of four phases: initiation, scoping sessions, 

substantive sessions, and reconciliation prior to EPA action. Thank you for providing this outline. To 

facilitate efficient consultation with Tribes concerned about our rulemaking, my staff will coordinate 

individual meetings for me with each interested Tribe during my visit to Phoenix in August. At your 

request, my staff will also invite representatives from the Department of Interior to participate in any or 

all of our consultation meetings. 

We understand the important role NGS serves to the Central Arizona Project, and my staff is working to 

more fully understand the relationship between CAP and the water settlement agreements that are 

unique to each Tribe in Arizona. To that end, I am enclosing a spreadsheet that requests information on 

Printed on Recycled Paper 
your Tribe's water sources, as well as projected volume and cost estimates from 2009 - 2035 for each 

water source. This information will help us document and assess the potential impacts of our rulemaking 

options on all Indian Tribes receiving water from CAP. We respectfully request to receive this 

information early in the consultation process and we are committed to consulting with all affected Tribes 

that request govemment-to-government consultation prior to our proposed rulemaking. 

I look forward to our upcoming discussions as a continuation of the relationship between the Gila River 

Indian Community and the EPA. In the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact me at (415) 947­

8702, or have your staff contact Ms. McKaughan at (520) 498-0118, or Mr. Nate Lau, Associate 

Director for the Communities and Ecosystems Division, at (415) 972-3839. 

Enclosure 

cc:	 The Honorable Ken Salazar 

Secretary, United States Department of Interior 

The Honorable Jon Kyl 

United States Senate 

The Honorable John McCain 

United States Senate 

The Honorable Jeff Flake 

United States House of Representatives 

The Honorable Paul Gosar 

United States House of Representatives 

The Honorable Raul Grijalva 

United States House of Representatives 

The Honorable Ed Pastor 

United States House of Representatives 

The Honorable David Schweikert 

United States House of Representatives 

The Honorable Trent Franks 

United States House of Representatives 

The Honorable Ben Quayle 

United States House of Representatives 

The Honorable Gabrielle Giffords 

United States House of Representatives