Opinion ID: 727280
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Tribal Sovereignty Under the Clean Water Act

Text: 16 Albuquerque acknowledges that the 1987 amendment to the Clean Water Act authorizes the EPA to treat tribes as states. Act of Feb. 4, 1987, Pub.L. No. 100-4, tit. V, § 506, 101 Stat. 76 (codified as amended at 33 U.S.C. § 1377). Albuquerque contends, however, that 33 U.S.C. § 1377 does not allow tribes to establish water quality standards more stringent than federal standards and does not permit tribal standards to be enforced beyond tribal reservation boundaries. 17 In Chevron, USA, Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, 467 U.S. 837, 842-43, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 2781-82, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984), the Supreme Court established a two-step approach to judicial review of agency interpretations of acts of Congress. First, the reviewing court must determine whether there is a clear and unambiguous congressional intent concerning the precise question at issue. If congressional intent is clear and unambiguous, then that intent is the law and must be given effect. A reviewing court proceeds to the second step if the statute is silent or ambiguous with respect to the specific issue. Id. at 843, 104 S.Ct. at 2782. Then, the question for the court is whether the agency's answer is based on a permissible construction of the statute. Id. The EPA, however, is entitled to considerable deference in its interpretation of the Clean Water Act because it is charged with administering the Act. See Chevron, 467 U.S. at 844, 104 S.Ct. at 2782-83; see also Arkansas v. Oklahoma, 503 U.S. 91, 112, 112 S.Ct. 1046, 1060, 117 L.Ed.2d 239 (1992) (criticizing this Court for failing to afford the EPA's interpretation of the Clean Water Act an appropriate level of deference). 18 In regard to the first question at issue, we reach the second step of Chevron because congressional intent is unclear and ambiguous. Under Albuquerque's interpretation of § 1377, tribes could devise water quality standards which are neither more nor less stringent than federal standards. Albuquerque's statutory construction is based on a negative implication inferred from Congress's failure to incorporate all provisions of the Clean Water Act in § 1377(e). We find that Congress's intent is unclear and ambiguous in regard to § 1377(e) but that the EPA's construction of the 1987 amendment to the Clean Water Act is reasonable and permissible. 19 Congress's objective in the Clean Water Act is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation's waters through the elimination of pollutant discharge into those waters. 33 U.S.C. § 1251(a). Through the Act, Congress designed a comprehensive regulatory scheme that recognized and preserved a primary role for the states in eliminating pollution from our waterways. 33 U.S.C. § 1251(b). The power of states under the Act is underlined by their ability to force the development of technology by setting stringent water quality standards that the EPA can enforce against upstream polluters. See 33 U.S.C. §§ 1311(k), 1341, 1342, 1370; Arkansas, 503 U.S. at 106, 112 S.Ct. at 1056-57 (holding that the EPA's requirement that NPDES dischargers must comply with downstream States' water quality standards was a reasonable exercise of the agency's statutory discretion pursuant to §§ 1341, 1342). In the Clean Water Act, Congress provided the EPA substantial statutory discretion. Arkansas, 503 U.S. at 107, 112 S.Ct. at 1057. Pursuant to the 1987 amendment of the Clean Water Act, the EPA can treat Indian tribes as states under the Act, provided that the tribes meet certain criteria listed in 33 U.S.C. § 1377(e) and 40 C.F.R. § 131.8(a). 8 The 1987 amendment further provides: 20 (a) Policy 21 Nothing in this section shall be construed to affect the application of section 1251(g) of this title, and all of the provisions of this section shall be carried out in accordance with the provisions of such section 1251(g) of this title. Indian tribes shall be treated as States for purposes of such section 1251(g) of this title. 22 .... 23 (e) Treatment as States 24 The Administrator is authorized to treat an Indian tribe as a State for purposes of subchapter II of this chapter and sections 1254, 1256, 1313, 1315, 1318, 1319, 1324, 1329, 1341, 1342, and 1344 of this title to the degree necessary to carry out the objectives of this section,.... 33 U.S.C. § 1377(a), (e). 9 25 In its letter approving the Isleta Pueblo's standards, the EPA cites 33 U.S.C. § 1370 as the basis for Isleta Pueblo's authority to set water quality standards that are more stringent than those recommended by the EPA under the Clean Water Act. 10 Albuquerque argues that tribes cannot adopt discharge limits more stringent than those of the EPA because § 1377 does not make reference to § 1370. Section 1370 prohibits states from imposing standards which are less stringent than those imposed by the federal government, while acknowledging states' inherent right to impose standards or limits that are more stringent than those imposed by the federal government. 11 33 U.S.C. § 1370. Congress's intent in excluding § 1370 from § 1377(e) is unclear and ambiguous. We decline to read § 1377 as incorporating § 1370 because it was not explicitly included in § 1377(e), as other sections are. 26 The EPA, however, also construes § 1370 as a savings clause that merely recognizes powers already held by the states. 56 Fed.Reg. 64,886 (1991). Thus, Congress's failure to incorporate § 1370 into § 1377 does not prevent Indian tribes from exercising their inherent sovereign power to impose standards or limits that are more stringent than those imposed by the federal government. Indian tribes have residual sovereign powers that already guarantee the powers enumerated in § 1370, absent an express statutory elimination of those powers. 12 In Arkansas, the Court explained that § 1370 only concerns state authority and does not constrain the EPA's authority, 503 U.S. at 107, 112 S.Ct. at 1057 (emphasis in original); likewise, we do not view § 1370 as implicitly constraining tribes' sovereign authority. We conclude that the EPA's construction of the 1987 amendment to the Clean Water Act--that tribes may establish water quality standards that are more stringent than those imposed by the federal government--is permissible because it is in accord with powers inherent in Indian tribal sovereignty. 27 In the second question at issue, Albuquerque argues that § 1377 does not expressly permit Indian tribes to enforce effluent limitations or standards under § 1311 to upstream point source dischargers outside of tribal boundaries. Albuquerque misconstrues the Clean Water Act by selectively reading isolated sections; the Clean Water Act is a comprehensive regulatory scheme, and it must be read as such. The express incorporation in § 1377(e) of §§ 1341 and 1342 gives the EPA the authority to issue NPDES permits in compliance with a tribe's water quality standards. 13 Section 1341 authorizes states to establish NPDES programs with the EPA, and § 1342 authorizes the EPA to issue NPDES permits in compliance with downstream state's water quality standards. See Arkansas, 503 U.S. at 102, 107, 112 S.Ct. at 1054-55, 1057 (construing §§ 1341 and 1342 as giving the EPA authority to require an upstream NPDES discharger to comply with downstream state water quality standards). Under the statutory and regulatory scheme, tribes are not applying or enforcing their water quality standards beyond reservation boundaries. 14 Instead, it is the EPA which is exercising its own authority in issuing NPDES permits in compliance with downstream state and tribal water quality standards. In regard to this question, therefore, the 1987 amendment to the Clean Water Act clearly and unambiguously provides tribes the authority to establish NPDES programs in conjunction with the EPA. Under §§ 1311, 1341, 1342 and 1377, the EPA has the authority to require upstream NPDES dischargers, such as Albuquerque, to comply with downstream tribal standards. 28