TERC Environmental News:

S. Utes take on pollution

By Jean Torkelson
Originally published 11:16 a.m., February 20, 2008
Updated 11:16 a.m., February 20, 2008

One of the nation's single largest controllers of pollution on Indian lands wants to monitor its own air quality, and eventually adopt even tougher standards than those of the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Southern Ute Indian Tribe has begun the complex process of separating from EPA standards, the tribe's air quality scientist, James Temte, said today.

Temte said the Ute standards would be among the toughest in the U.S., and potentially as tough as California's, which already exceeds EPA standards.

The plan would impact three refineries, one landfill and several delivery and compressor stations which operate on reservation-controlled land in the southwestern corner of Colorado.

If approved, the Southern Utes would control more than one-third of all emission sources located on Indian land and become the first tribe to exceed U.S. air quality standards.

Currently, the Navajo Nation runs its own air quality program but it assumes all EPA standards.

Temte said the goal is primarily to reduce pollution from the compressor engines which push the oil and gas through the pipelines to the refineries. Because of smog and ozone, "There's a lot of concern in this area," he said.

Temte said the companies which operate on the land have had a "mixed response" to the proposal: "Some are for it and others are feeling like there's nothing really wrong that needs to be changed," he said.

The first part of the application process, which includes a public comment period, will take until May or June. The whole package is then sent to the EPA which has one year to make a decision.

The plan would also tighten the schedule for company inspections, which are now about every three years or even longer.

Although the tribe only owns about 316,000 acres in the designated area, its land is scattered, or "checkerboarded," over more than twice that amount of acreage which includes a combination of private, state, federal and tribal-owned lands. But if the EPA approves the proposal, the tribe would have authority over the entire 685,000 acres of "checkerboarded" property. The plan, Temte said, "increases the tribe's sovereignty over the reservation and promotes environmental health."

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