Under Federal environmental statutes, the Agency has responsibility for protecting human health and the environment in Indian country. EPA has worked to establish the internal infrastructure and organize its activities in order to meet this responsibility.

Since adopting the EPA Indian Policy in 1984, EPA has worked with Tribes on a government-togovernment basis that affirms the Federal trust responsibility between EPA and each Federallyrecognized Tribe. EPA's American Indian Environmental program leads the Agencywide effort to ensure environmental protection in Indian country. For more information, please visit http://www.epa.gov/indian/policyintitvs.htm and http://www.epa.gov/indian/.

EPA's strategy for this program has three major components:

Work with Tribes to create an environmental presence for each Federally-recognized Tribe (discussed under the Tribal General Assistance Program in the STAG appropriation);

Provide the data and information needed by Tribal governments and EPA to meet Tribal environmental priorities. At the same time, ensure EPA has the ability to view and analyze the conditions on Indian lands and the effects of EPA and Tribal actions and programs on the environmental conditions; and

Provide the opportunity for implementation of Tribal environmental programs by Tribes, or directly by EPA, as necessary.

FY 2007 Activities and Performance Plan:

Complementary to the efforts of providing an environmental presence through the Indian General Assistance Program (GAP), EPA continues to develop its information technology infrastructure, known as the Tribal Program Enterprise Architecture (TPEA), to organize environmental data on a Tribal basis, enabling a clear, up-to-date picture of environmental

conditions in Indian country.

TPEA includes access to a wide variety of information from several agencies and numerous sources within those agencies.

The Agency is also working with some Tribes on data exchange efforts (i.e., Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Shoshone and Arapahoe Tribes of the Wind River Reservation, and Navajo Nation). The components of the TPEA create a broad, multiple-variant view of the environmental conditions and programs in Indian country. It also includes several applications that perform analysis of information on environmental performance in Indian country for a wide variety of specific purposes. For more information, please visit https://oasint.rtpnc.epa.gov/TIMS/index_sav.html (Username: lieu; Password: test1).

The ability to comprehensively and accurately examine conditions and make assessments will provide a blueprint for planning future activities through the development of Tribal/EPA Environmental Agreements (TEAS) or similar Tribal environmental plans that address and support priority environmental multi-media concerns in Indian country. For more information, please visit https://oasint.rtpnc.epa.gov/TATS/tats_prv/entry_page.

Vital to the EPA Indian Policy are the principles that the Agency has a government-togovernment relationship with Tribes and that "EPA recognizes Tribes as the primary parties for setting standards, making environmental policy decisions and managing programs for reservations, consistent with agency standards and regulations." To that end, EPA "encourage[s] and assist[s] Tribes in assuming regulatory and program management responsibilities," primarily through the treatment in a manner similar to a state (TAS) processes available under several environmental statutes. EPA will continue to encourage Tribal capacity development to implement Federal environmental programs, including the use of Direct Implementation Tribal Cooperative Agreement (DITCA) authority.

In FY 2005, EPA instituted a review of the national GAP grant program to assure effective management of grant resources. This effort, which will be described in Regional Oversight Reports, includes review of Regional GAP programs and individual GAP grant files. These program oversight activities will continue in FY 2007.

Performance Targets:

In FY 2007, EPA will continue to standardize and crosswalk Tribal identifier codes to integrate and consistently report Tribal information across Federal agencies. Integration of Tribal identifier codes into various information management systems allows for better analysis of environmental conditions in Indian country. This type of cross-platform data analysis was not possible without EPA's TPEA initiative. EPA will also integrate two additional agency data systems into the TPEA. With the addition of these two data systems, EPA will be able to measure environmental quality in Tribal lands in two important areas: ambient quality of air and water, and emissions of pollutants into the environment. For example, the Agency will have the capability to quantitatively measure the impacts of hazardous air pollutants and any reductions in the emission of those pollutants in reservation boundaries and within a 10 kilometer buffer zone of the Tribe. Both kinds of measures (ambient quality and emissions) are important in the development of outcome-based performance measures for EPA Tribal programs.

One of EPA's approaches to eliminating data gaps is to integrate data from other agencies. In FY 2007 we expect to link directly to the Tribal sanitation tracking system of the Indian Health Service (IHS) Sanitation Facilities Construction Division, which is responsible for most of the construction of drinking water, wastewater and solid waste facilities in Indian country. Linkage to this IHS data will provide information needed to inform critical environmental priorities and future policy decisions for Tribal programs. Work under this program supports tribal capacity building. Currently, there are no performance measures specific to this program project.

FY 2007 Change from FY 2006 Enacted Budget (Dollars in Thousands):

(+$20.0) This increase will be used by EPA's Region 10 to support local environmental activities in Alaska.

(-$66.0) This reduction reflects a decrease in technical assistance activities to Tribes.

(+$432.7) This reflects an increase for payroll and cost of living for existing FTE, including additional support for EPA's Region 10 for local environmental activities in Alaska.

(+1 FTE) This reflects an increase for payroll and cost of living for existing FTE, including additional support for EPA's Region 10 for local environmental activities in Alaska.

(-0.2 FTE) This decrease reflects a change in EPA's workforce management strategy that will help the Agency better align resources, skills, and Agency priorities.

Statutory Authority:

Indian General Assistance Program Act, 42 U.S.C. § 4368b (1992).

Program Area: International Programs

Commission for Environmental Cooperation
Program Area: International Programs
Goal: Healthy Communities and Ecosystems

Objective(s): Chemical, Organism, and Pesticide Risks; Communities

The Commission on Environmental Cooperation (CEC) was created by the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC), a side agreement to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), with the mission of facilitating cooperation and public participation to conserve and improve the North American environment, in the context of increasing economic, trade and social links among Canada, Mexico, and the United States. EPA's continuing leadership and management of the CEC is critical to ensure that activities generate concrete results consistent with U.S. goals and priorities.

FY 2007 Activities and Performance Plan:

In FY 2007, EPA will ensure that the CEC supports the objectives of the NAFTA. In particular, the CEC will facilitate trade expansion in a manner consistent with environmental protection by focusing on the following areas:

facilitating training and compliance assistance to ensure that customs and law enforcement officials are informed of environmental laws affecting trade;

providing access to export requirements for environmentally sensitive materials;

expediting legal shipments while protecting human health and the environment;

developing guidelines to conduct risk assessments of pathways and species and through cooperation to prevent, detect, and eradicate invasive alien species (IAS);

promoting the North American market for renewable energy and green products; and

continuing the assessment of the environmental effects of trade liberalization.

In the area of capacity building, EPA will continue to support the CEC to strengthen partnerships among the wildlife enforcement agencies in Mexico and Canada. Through this partnership, EPA will facilitate cooperation on conducting wildlife forensics, investigative and analysis techniques,