Analysis of TAS Processing Times

EPA analyzed whether the presence of nonmember-owned fee lands on a tribal reservation affected the 

time for the tribe and EPA to develop and review an application for the tribe to be found eligible to be 

treated in a similar manner as a state (TAS) to administer a water quality standards program and a 

section 401 water quality certification program pursuant to the Clean Water Act. The analysis consisted 

of four steps:

1. EPA first compiled information on tribal TAS applications that were approved by EPA on or after 

March 1998.1 TAS reviews after that date were subject to specific internal EPA procedures 

designed to enable sound TAS decisions that can be defended successfully. See the “CannonPerciasepe memorandum” elsewhere in the docket for this proposed interpretive rule.2 A total 

of 29 applications met these criteria.

2. For each tribe, EPA calculated the processing time, in years, between the date the tribe 

submitted a TAS application to EPA for review and the date that EPA approved the application.

This time typically includes tribal work to refine the application and provide any additional 

materials needed for EPA’s review, and EPA’s work to review the application according to 40 

CFR 131.8 and to prepare decision documents.

3. EPA used readily available information to determine which of the 29 tribal reservations included 

nonmember-owned fee lands. A total of 14 tribes had such lands, 12 tribes did not. Such 

information was not readily available for the remaining 3 tribes.

4. EPA found that the mean processing time was 1.6 years longer for tribes with nonmemberowned fee lands than for tribes without such lands on their reservations. 

5. EPA performed a one-tailed t-test and found that the difference in means is unlikely to have 

occurred by chance (P < .07).

The results of the analysis are shown on the next page.

Thus, EPA’s information on tribes that it has found eligible to administer WQS and section 401 

certifications indicates that tribal applications for reservations with nonmember fee lands, which require 

an analysis of tribal inherent authority under Montana, took 1.6 years longer to be approved, on 

average, than applications for reservations without such lands.

 

1

Such information is available from EPA’s website, 

http://water.epa.gov/scitech/swguidance/standards/wqslibrary/approvtable.cfm

2 Adoption of the Recommendations from the EPA Workgroup on Tribal Eligibility Determinations, memorandum 

from Robert Perciasepe, Assistant Administrator for the National Indian Program, and Jonathan Z. Cannon, General 

Counsel, EPA, March 19, 1998. 
Tribe

Fee 

Lands?

Elapsed 

Yrs with 

fee lands

Elapsed 

Yrs w/o 

fee lands

Elapsed 

Yrs w/o 

fee land 

info

A Yes 1.84

B Yes 1.96

C Yes 2.34

D Yes 2.49

E Yes 2.49

F Yes 2.62

G Yes 3.32

H Yes 3.69

I Yes 4.28

J Yes 6.16

K Yes 6.38

L Yes 7.57

M Yes 7.84

N Yes 11.99

O No 0.55

P No 0.61

Q No 0.72

R No 1.40

S No 1.48

T No 2.50

U No 2.70

V No 4.39

W No 4.53

X No 5.24

Y No 5.84

Z No 6.68

AA No report 1.26

BB No report 1.53

CC No report 4.61

MEAN YEARS TO COMPLETION 4.64 3.05 2.47

n 29 14 12 3

% increase for tribes w/fee lands

Years increase for tribes w/fee lands

t-Test: Two-Sample Assuming Equal Variances

Elapsed 

Yrs with 

fee lands

Elapsed 

Yrs w/o 

fee lands

Mean 4.64 3.05

Variance 8.82 4.82

Observations 14.00 12.00

Pooled Variance 6.98

Hypothesized Mean Difference 0.00

df 24.00

t Stat -1.53

P(T<=t) one-tail 0.07

t Critical one-tail 1.71

P(T<=t) two-tail 0.14

t Critical two-tail 2.06

0.52% longer

1.59 years longer