The Clean Water, Safe Drinking Water, and Clean Air Acts emphasize the importance of state involvement in protecting the environment and public health and allow EPA to authorize states to implement their own programs in lieu of the federal program—referred to as program authorization. From 1986 to 1990, Congress amended these three acts to authorize EPA to treat Indian tribes in the same manner as states for purposes of program authorization. Under EPA’s implementation of the Clean Water Act, a tribe may submit a request to EPA for TAS status and then submit a request for approval of its adopted water quality standards, or submit both the TAS request and the water quality standards approval request at the same time. Section 518 of the Clean Water Act lists the eligibility criteria EPA will use to approve TAS status and to authorize Indian tribes to administer Clean Water Act programs. In applying for TAS under the Clean Water Act, a tribe, among other things, submits a descriptive statement that includes a map or legal description of the area over which the tribe intends to assert jurisdiction. For purposes of this discussion, Indian lands can be separated into three general categories: (1) lands within the exterior boundaries of a formal reservation, (2) tribal trust lands lying outside formal reservation boundaries, and (3) individual allotments lying outside reservation boundaries. EPA considers lands within the boundaries of a formal reservation and tribal trust lands lying outside of formal boundaries to be reservations for purposes of section 518 of the Clean Water Act. For the third category—individual allotments— EPA has not historically considered the Clean Water Act to cover allotments outside of reservations. EPA follows similar processes for TAS under the Clean Water, Safe Drinking Water, and Clean Air Acts. EPA’s approval process for tribal requests for TAS begins in its regional offices, where officials verify that the requests meet eligibility requirements. EPA also requires its headquarters staff to review the first TAS request received and approved in each region under the Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water Acts and to review all other TAS requests, that appear to be nationally significant because, for example, of new legal issues. Where practical, regional and headquarters reviews are conducted concurrently, according to EPA officials. Except for specific tasks, such as the 30-day public comment period, EPA has not established time frames or goals for the length of its review process. In addition to relevant statutory and regulatory guidance, EPA may refer to federal case law concerning Indian tribes when reviewing a tribe’s TAS request, which we refer to as Indian case law in this report. For example, EPA uses Indian case law to determine whether a tribe has the authority to regulate an activity on land owned by nonmembers but located within a reservation. In particular, in 1981, the Supreme Court held that, as a general rule, absent delegation by federal statute or treaty, Indian tribes lack authority to regulate the conduct of nonmembers on non-Indian land within reservation boundaries, except when (1) nonmembers enter into a consensual relationship with the tribe or (2) activities by nonmembers on lands within the reservation threaten or have a direct effect on the political integrity, economic security, or health or welfare of the tribe. This ruling is known as the Montana test. With respect to program authorization, EPA’s review process is generally the same for tribes and states. Specifically: For the Clean Water Act, EPA determines, for example, whether the (1) water uses are consistent with the requirements of the act, (2) adopted criteria protect the designated water uses, and (3) appropriate technical and scientific data and analyses have been used. The Clean Water Act allows states and tribes to establish water quality standards that are more stringent than federal requirements. Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, EPA requires states and tribes to demonstrate the capability to administer primary enforcement responsibility in a number of key areas. Among other things, EPA determines whether the state or tribe has (1) adopted drinking water regulations that meet or exceed EPA’s national primary drinking water regulations; (2) adopted and is implementing adequate procedures for enforcing its regulations, including demonstrating authority to assess penalties for violations; and (3) adopted and can implement an adequate plan to provide safe drinking water under emergency circumstances, such as hurricanes and other natural disasters. Under the Clean Air Act, EPA can authorize states and tribes to issue and enforce federal air permits. For this authority, the tribe must, among other things, submit a legal opinion, stating that the laws of the Indian tribe provide adequate authority to carry out all aspects of the delegated program. EPA and the eligible tribe then sign a Delegation of Authority Agreement, which specifies the provisions that the tribe is authorized to implement on behalf of EPA. EPA is responsible for announcing this delegation in the Federal Register. Since 1988, 57 of the 562 federally recognized tribal entities in the United States have submitted 61 requests seeking TAS for program authority under the three acts; these entities are from 17 states. Of the 61 TAS requests, EPA has approved 32: 30 under the Clean Water Act, 1 under the Safe Drinking Water Act, and 1 under the Clean Air Act. The remainder are under review. Of the 32 approved TAS requests, 26 have also been approved for program authority—24 for Clean Water, 1 for Safe Drinking Water, and 1 for Clean Air. Figure 1 shows the states where tribes have submitted and been approved for TAS status under the three environmental acts, the number of TAS submittals, and the number of TAS approvals in each state. EPA relies on grants as one of its primary ways to carry out its mission of protecting human health and safeguarding the environment. Each fiscal year, EPA awards approximately $4 billion in grants to state and local governments, tribes, educational, nonprofit organizations, and other entities for projects that range from conducting environmental research to constructing wastewater treatment facilities to developing regulatory programs. The funds are generally based on formulas laid out under each law or regulation. To be eligible for most EPA grant programs, a tribe must be federally recognized. In addition, for some grant programs, such as section 106—for the prevention, reduction, and elimination of water pollution--under the Clean Water Act, a tribe must also have obtained TAS status to be eligible. For other grants, such as section 105—to develop and administer programs that prevent and control air pollution or implement national air quality standards--under the Clean Air Act, a tribe is not required to have TAS status, but TAS status has a substantially lower matching contribution requirement (from 5 percent with TAS status to 40 percent without). The grants’ TAS criteria are less demanding and thus the review process is less rigorous than the review process for TAS for program authority. In addition, the grant decision is based solely on EPA’s expertise, and EPA does not generally get public comments on whether the tribe has jurisdiction. Approval for TAS for grant purposes does not qualify tribes for TAS for program authority purposes; however, tribes may use their TAS grant status to help demonstrate capability to administer a program when applying for program authority TAS. Finally, for other grant programs, such as the Indian General Assistance Program, no TAS requirement exists. Financial assistance for tribal environmental programs is funded under EPA’s State and Tribal Assistance Grants appropriation. The funds are generally based on specific formulas laid out in law or regulation, and regions that have the largest number of tribes receive the largest proportion of grant awards and grant dollars. The five states receiving the most tribal grants—Alaska, Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Oklahoma—are located in EPA’s Regions 6, 9, and 10. Of the 1,343 grants awarded to Indian tribes under the Clean Water, Safe Drinking Water, Clean Air, and Indian General Assistance Program Acts between fiscal years 2002 through 2004, about 99 percent were awarded by EPA’s regions. Each grant program has its own request and award process and grant opportunities are based on funding availability. As a result, a tribe may receive a grant in one year and not in another. While funding of tribal grants has remained relatively constant, according to EPA officials, the agency’s outreach to tribes and the growing awareness of environmental issues among tribes, has led to steadily increasing numbers of requests and grants being awarded. For the 20 cases we examined in detail, EPA followed its processes for approving tribal requests for TAS and for program authorization, except for adhering to the 30-day time frame for notifying governmental entities. However, for these 20 cases, as well as for another 12 tribal requests for TAS that EPA approved, the TAS review process was often lengthy. In addition to those 32 TAS approvals, EPA is currently reviewing 29 TAS requests, 27 of which were submitted more than a year ago. EPA officials agreed that more could be done to improve the timeliness of the review process, and the agency has recently begun working with its regions to determine the status of outstanding requests and how best to expedite reviews. The officials stated that evolving Indian case law and complexities associated with some jurisdictional issues sometimes required them to spend more time evaluating tribal TAS requests. Delays in the approval process may hinder a tribe’s efforts to control its environmental resources. Furthermore, as we learned during our review, lengthy delays and a lack of transparency in the review process may discourage tribes from even submitting requests for TAS status. In terms of tribal requests for approval of water quality standards, EPA approved most tribal requests in less than 1 year but the agency generally did not meet its own standard for approval within 60 days. According to our review of 20 approved cases in Regions 6, 9, and 10, EPA generally followed its established processes for reviewing and approving TAS requests. For example, EPA’s files included the required documentation to support its decision to approve a TAS request. First, EPA always ensured that the tribe included a statement that the tribe is recognized by the Secretary of the Interior.