Send this story to a friend Tribal leaders say the Maine Indian Land Claims Settlement Act bars the federal Environmental Protection Agency from giving the state full control of monitoring the waterways on or near Indian lands. Uncertain whether that is true, the EPA has asked the U.S. Department of Justice for advice. It has been more than a year since the state Department of Environmental Protection applied for sole authority over the regulation of water-discharge permitting. The federal government has handed the job over to the state in an effort to streamline the process. For now, however, the EPA has retained jurisdiction of the waters near tribal lands until it hears from the Department of Justice.
Lawyers disagree Lawyers for the paper companies say that isn t so.
Further, they believe the tribes have an ulterior motive in opposing the state s request. Our concern is that the tribes will seek to regulate non-tribal members. Although they ve said it is not what they want to do, they clearly are moving in that direction, said Matthew Manahan, a Portland attorney who is representing a coalition of more than 30 towns and companies located near Indian lands. Manahan recently wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, the head of the Department of Justice, expressing his clients disapproval of EPA s failure to take final action on the state s application. In the Feb. 2 letter, Manahan also expressed a concern that EPA will not be able to make an objective decision due to its close relationship with the tribes.