COLUMBIA RIVER INTER-TRIBAL FISH COMMISSION

700 NE Multnomah Street, Suite 1200

Portland, Oregon 97232 F (503) 235-4228

(503) 238-0667

F (503) 235-4228

www.critfc.org

Putting fish back in the rivers and protecting the watersheds where fish live

 

December 23, 2014

Gina McCarthy, EPA Administrator

USEPA Headquarters

William Jefferson Clinton Building

1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.

Mail Code: 1101A

Washington, DC 20460

Re: EPA Promulgation of Washington Water Quality Standards

Dear Administrator McCarthy:

On behalf of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission’s (CRITFC) member tribes—the 

Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm 

Springs Reservation of Oregon, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, and the 

Nez Perce Tribe—I want to thank you for your decision to begin the federal process to promulgate 

water quality standards for the State of Washington. It is an appropriate and timely use of EPA’s 

statutory authority.

To date, Washington has not revised its water quality standards on a timely and effective basis. Our 

tribal members depend on clean water that nourishes and supports the fish on which they depend. 

Thus, it is essential that water quality standards adequately protect them and others who regularly 

consume fish. I am confident that EPA’s engagement will establish fair environmental policies that 

will lead Washington to respect its Native citizens and others relying on the bounties of the 

Northwest’s aquatic ecosystems.

Our member tribes have been alarmed by the growing trend to weaken acceptable risk levels for 

political reasons. This is what Washington did and Idaho is exploring. Diminishing the longstanding, widely-accepted cancer risk levels (1 in 1 million) is not acceptable. Doing so to meet the 

needs of the polluting community and not those of the people and resources, is not tolerable. EPA 

has widespread tribal support for your decision to promulgate Washington’s water quality 

standards. This support is demonstrated in the attached National Congress of American Indians 

(NCAI) resolution, Resolution ATL-14-31, “Supporting EPA Promulgation of Surface Water 

Quality Standards for States that Fail to Adopt Standards that Adequately Protect Tribal People 

Who Practice Subsistence Lifeways.”

NCAI Resolution ATL-14-31 also requests that EPA uphold its commitment to Environmental 

Justice and amend its guidance for setting water quality standards to eliminate the provision that has 

been misconstrued to suggest that states may use a cancer risk level as high as 1 in 10,000 for socalled “sensitive sub-populations.” Tribes were not consulted in the development of the guidance 
Gina McCarthy, EPA Administrator

December 23, 2014 Page 2 of 2

document and it is inappropriate to imply that the 1 in 10,000 standard is sufficiently protective for 

tribal fish consumption. I respectfully request the EPA amend the guidance document as soon as 

practical.

CRITFC joins the member-tribes of NCAI in support of the actions requested of EPA and other 

federal agencies in this resolution. Your December 2014 memorandum, “Commemorating the 30th 

Anniversary of the EPA’s Indian Policy,” clearly recognizes that the treaties of CRITFC’s member 

tribes hold the same legal force as federal statutes and that EPA has an obligation to ensure that 

actions taken by EPA “honor and respect tribal rights and resources protected by treaties.” CRITFC

is working hard to address degraded water quality that impacts the ability of our member tribes to 

fully exercise their rights to the consumption and use of resources guaranteed by treaty.

Again, I thank you for your decision to initiate a process to revise water quality standards for the 

State of Washington. As we did during the water quality standards’ revision process in Oregon, 

CRITFC’s member-tribes are prepared to meet and work with leaders and stakeholders from the 

regulated community to find solutions to reduce toxic contaminants in our watersheds. The tribes

are ready and willing to assist in whatever way we can to better protect the health of our nations’ 

waters and the people who rely on them. If you would like to further discuss how our organization 

can work with EPA on this issue, please contact me or Paul Lumley at 503-238-0667.

Sincerely,

Carlos Smith

CRITFC Chairman

Attachment

Cc: Dennis McLerran, Administrator, EPA Region 10

Stan Meiburg, Acting Deputy Administrator

 Ken Kopocis, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Office of Water
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

PRESIDENT

Brian Cladoosby 

Swinomish Indian Tribal Community 

FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT

Randy Noka 

Narragansett Tribe 

RECORDING SECRETARY

Robert Shepherd 

Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate

TREASURER

Dennis Welsh 

Colorado River Indian Tribes 

REGIONAL VICEPRESIDENTS

ALASKA

Jerry Isaac 

Tanana Chiefs Conference 

EASTERN OKLAHOMA

S. Joe Crittenden 

Cherokee Nation 

GREAT PLAINS

Leander McDonald

Spirit Lake Tribe 

MIDWEST

Aaron Payment 

Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians 

NORTHEAST

Lance Gumbs 

Shinnecock Indian Nation 

NORTHWEST

Fawn Sharp 

Quinault Indian Nation 

PACIFIC

Rosemary Morillo 

Soboba Band of Mission Indians 

ROCKY MOUNTAIN

Ivan Posey 

Eastern Shoshone Tribe 

SOUTHEAST

Ron Richardson 

Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe 

SOUTHERN PLAINS

Stephen Smith 

Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma 

SOUTHWEST

Manuel Heart 

Ute Mountain Ute Tribe 

WESTERN

Arlan Melendez 

Reno Sparks Indian Colony 

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Jacqueline Johnson Pata 

Tlingit 

NCAI HEADQUARTERS

1516 P Street, N.W. 

Washington, DC 20005 

202.466.7767 

202.466.7797 fax 

www.ncai.org 

 N A T I O N A L C O N G R E S S O F A M E R I C A N I N D I A N S

The National Congress of American Indians 

Resolution #ATL-14-31 

TITLE: Supporting EPA Promulgation of Surface Water Quality Standards for 

States that Fail to Adopt Standards that Adequately Protect Tribal 

People Who Practice Subsistence Lifeways

WHEREAS, we, the members of the National Congress of American Indians 

of the United States, invoking the divine blessing of the Creator upon our efforts and 

purposes, in order to preserve for ourselves and our descendants the inherent sovereign 

rights of our Indian nations, rights secured under Indian treaties and agreements with 

the United States, and all other rights and benefits to which we are entitled under the 

laws and Constitution of the United States, to enlighten the public toward a better 

understanding of the Indian people, to preserve Indian cultural values, and otherwise 

promote the health, safety and welfare of the Indian people, do hereby establish and 

submit the following resolution; and 

WHEREAS, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) was 

established in 1944 and is the oldest and largest national organization of American 

Indian and Alaska Native tribal governments; and 

WHEREAS, since time immemorial we, the first people of North America, 

have sought to preserve, protect and sustain our way of life, our religion and our 

culture, beginning with the basis of all life—the pure water that we hold sacred—and 

we are obligated to take appropriate and necessary actions to care for the water, today 

and for the next seven generations; and 

WHEREAS, under the federal Clean Water Act, states must periodically 

revise their surface water quality standards to incorporate more current and accurate 

data and information, and ultimately to better protect waterways from toxic and other 

pollutants; and 

WHEREAS, these processes to revise standards include opportunities to make 

certain policy choices and decisions, such as acceptable risk of additional cancers from 

exposure to toxic discharges; and 

WHEREAS, Oregon has adopted the nation’s most stringent state water 

quality standards utilizing human health criteria based on local tribal subsistencebased fish consumption rates (a compromise of 175 grams per day) while maintaining 

the widely-accepted, commonly-used cancer risk level of 1 in 1,000,000; and 

WHEREAS, States such as Washington and Florida have proposed to revise 

their water quality standards based on weakened cancer risk levels to counter and 

effectively negate the use of local subsistence-based fish consumption rates; and 
NCAI 2014 Annual Session Resolution ATL-14-31 

Page 2 of 3

WHEREAS, EPA guidance (2000 Methodology for Deriving Ambient Water Quality 

Criteria) suggesting that states may use a cancer risk level of as low as 1 in 10,000 for highly 

exposed subgroups including subsistence fishers, while recommending that the general population 

be protected at a cancer risk level of 1 in 1,000,000 is inappropriate and unacceptable; and 

WHEREAS, states that rely on flawed EPA guidance to justify inadequate revised 

standards will perpetuate an ongoing environmental injustice by subjecting tribal people to 

disproportionately higher risks simply from exercising our rights to our First Foods and practicing 

our religion and culture. 

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that NCAI requests that the U.S. 

Environmental Protection Agency uphold its commitments to tribes, and promulgate surface water 

quality standards that will protect human health, safeguard tribal and treaty rights to harvest clean, 

consumable fish and other aquatic resources, and promote Environmental Justice for tribal 

communities in states that fail or refuse to adopt such standards (as may occur in the states of 

Washington, Florida, and possibly other); and 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that NCAI opposes and rejects any state’s policy choice 

for revising surface water quality standards that would use a risk level that is 10 or 100 times less 

protective against cancer than current criteria, and urges EPA to oppose and reject it as well; and 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that NCAI requests that EPA reconsider, amend, or 

withdraw its insupportable guidance that may be referred to as an excuse by states to establish water 

quality standards that subject tribal people to unfair and disproportionate risks merely from 

practicing subsistence lifeways; and 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that NCAI encourages EPA, in responding to states’ 

proposed water quality standards revisions, to give paramount weight to its obligations to honor 

Treaty Rights, Reserved Rights, and Trust Responsibility to non-toxic fish and implement its 

Environmental Justice Policy; and 

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that this resolution shall be the policy of NCAI until it is 

withdrawn or modified by subsequent resolution. 
NCAI 2014 Annual Session Resolution ATL-14-31 

Page 3 of 3

CERTIFICATION 

The foregoing resolution was adopted by the General Assembly at the 2014 Annual Session of the 

National Congress of American Indians, held at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta, October 26-31, 2014 in 

Atlanta, Georgia, with a quorum present. 

 

 

President 

ATTEST: 

 

Recording Secretary