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EPA Region 7 Awards $39,942 Environmental Performance Partnership Grant to Santee Sioux Nation of Nebraska

Release Date: 07/09/2012
Contact Information: Chris Whitley, 913-551-7394, whitley.christopher@epa.gov

Environmental News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Kansas City, Kan., July 9, 2012) - EPA Region 7’s Office of Tribal Affairs has awarded a $39,942 performance partnership grant to the Santee Sioux Nation of Nebraska to support the tribe’s environmental protection efforts.

The Santee Sioux Nation of Nebraska, headquartered at Santee, Neb., occupies approximately 18,000 acres of reservation land along the Missouri River in northeast Nebraska. The tribe has approximately 2,500 enrolled members, and a reservation population of 603.

EPA’s grant, expressed through a cooperative agreement, provides administrative flexibility and support to the tribe’s Office of Environmental Protection, which has conducted water quality monitoring under the federal Clean Water Act since 1996.

Under this grant, the tribe will continue to monitor groundwater, fish tissue, wetlands, streams and ponds on the reservation. The Office of Environmental Protection will analyze data to identify issues of interest or concern for future monitoring, and will use data to inform the tribal council and its people on the water quality of the reservation.

EPA provides financial assistance to states and tribes to help them implement environmental programs. States and tribes may receive these funds in individual environmental program categorical grants, or choose to combine grants in a performance partnership grant (PPG). PPGs, such as the one awarded to the Santee Sioux Nation of Nebraska, streamline administrative requirements, give states and tribes greater flexibility to direct resources to their most pressing environmental problems, and make it easier to fund efforts that cut across program boundaries.

The Santee Sioux Nation of Nebraska is one of nine federally recognized tribes within EPA Region 7.

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