Lifetime Citizen Portal Access — AI Briefings, Alerts & Unlimited Follows
Fond du Lac describes how Wisconsin and Minnesota are piloting EPA's reserved-rights rule to protect wild rice and fish
Loading...
Summary
Fond du Lac band staff told an NCAI webinar that tribes in the Upper Great Lakes are using monitoring, health-impact assessments and intertribal coordination (GLIFWC) to press Wisconsin and Minnesota to revise triennial reviews, elevate fish-consumption rates, and consider a wild-rice designated use under the new EPA rule.
Nancy Schult, water quality project coordinator for the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, presented how her tribe and intertribal partners are pursuing implementation of the EPA's Tribal Reserved Rights rule in the Upper Great Lakes.
Schult said tribes in the region have long documented off-reservation treaty rights and invested in science and monitoring (including health-impact assessments and ecosystem services work) to support standards that protect subsistence resources such as manoomin (wild rice) and fish. "Manoomin ... is of utmost subsistence and cultural significance to the people who rely upon it," Schult said, describing wild rice as central to tribal lifeways.
In Wisconsin, GLIFWC and the Fond du Lac band submitted a tribal assertion and comments during the state's triennial review work plan process asking the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to elevate priorities including a higher fish-consumption rate and consideration of a wild-rice beneficial use. Schult said Wisconsin revised its triennial work plan to elevate those priorities and that preliminary meetings with Wisconsin DNR and EPA region 5 staff had occurred.
Schult also described collaborative progress with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, including early notification and the prospect of including traditional ecological knowledge in triennial-review processes. She noted a pending site-specific package for Upper and Lower Red Lake (site-specific eutrophication standards) was under revision and expected to be submitted to EPA region 5 for approval.
Schult emphasized contaminant concerns (mercury and emerging contaminants) and the need for numeric and narrative criteria that reflect both aquatic life protection and hydrology/habitat needs (for example, conductance criteria tied to sturgeon habitat restoration). She urged tribes to prepare data and engage early with state agencies and GLIFWC to ensure standards reflect tribal lifeways and subsistence uses.
The Fond du Lac example shows how tribes and intertribal organizations can use the rule, existing monitoring, and state triennial processes to seek concrete changes in state standards without immediate litigation.
