Pacific Southwest, Region 9
Serving: Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Pacific Islands, 148 Tribes
Environmental Results through Tribal/EPA Partnerships
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| '05 Accomplishments Home | Tribal Results | Clean Air | Safe Water | Protecting Tribal Lands | Healthy Tribal Communities | Compliance & Stewardship |
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Compliance and Stewardship
In 2005, EPA took 25 enforcement actions against facilities operating on tribal land. In settling these actions, EPA included supplemental environmental projects to benefit the tribe whose resources were harmed. For example, Mobil Oil agreed to pay nearly $1 million for Clean Air Act violations at their production facility on the Navajo Nation. As part of that settlement, the company will spend approximately $500,000 on operational improvements to control air pollution at its oil field. In addition, Mobil will spend approximately $100,000 on a public health project that will provide x-ray equipment, an x-ray processor and a pulmonary function testing machine to the tribe's Montezuma Creek Community Health Center.
EPA also fined a hazardous waste company on tribal lands in Arizona nearly $68,000. The company corrected the violations and will also spend $100,800 on life-saving and air monitoring equipment for the Gila River Indian Community's fire and environmental departments.
Tribes are progressing in developing their own compliance programs. For example, the Pala Band of Mission Indians conducts annual inspections of all businesses on the reservation. With funding from the Tribe, new environmental and assistant air technicians were hired.
In 2004, EPA issued a Unilateral Administrative Order to end all dumping and investigate the extent of contamination at the Speedy's oil storage facility on the Navajo Nation. Since issuing the order, EPA and the Navajo Nation have overseen the closure of illegal disposal trenches, and removal and proper disposal of liquid wastes and contaminated soil from the site. Together, EPA and the Tribe ensured compliance with oil spill prevention rules, which included the installation of new storage tanks and a concrete oil/water separator. In 2005, EPA also fined an oil production company $40,000 for oil spill prevention violations at three facilities on Navajo Nation lands near Bloomfield, New Mexico.
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