Elizabeth B. Forsyth has published “Trust and Trash: Why EPA Needs a Flexible Approach to Illegal Dumping on Tribal Lands” in the Harvard Law and Policy Review.
Here is the intro:
Imagine a Native American nation situated on less than 1,000 acres in a rural area. Seventy percent of the hundred tribal members living on the land are unemployed; their primary income sources are government assistance and small amounts of revenue from tribally-owned businesses. The waste hauler for the nearby county refuses to service tribal land. With self-haul distances of eighty miles to the nearest transfer station, and many members without easy access to a car, the tribal members have little option but to dump their trash in the woods.
Recognizing the threat to health and the environment that the accumulating trash piles are causing, the tribal government approaches the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for funds to clean up the trash and to start a tribally-run trash collection program. EPA grants the tribe $100,000 to clean up the five dump sites and $100,000 for a “pilot” collection and recycling program.
A year later the dump sites are cleaned up and the collection program is used by all members of the tribe. But as the grant period draws to a close, a problem arises: although the collection program brings in modest amounts of revenue from the tribal members themselves, the program is not self-sustaining. Rising fuel costs, long haul distances, and lack of economies of scale mean that without raising collection rates beyond what members would be able to pay, the program is doomed. The EPA grant project officer apologizes to the tribe. Although EPA can continue to give the tribe grants for dump cleanup, beyond pilot projects EPA cannot fund ongoing waste collection for tribes. The tribe is on its own.
This article will argue that EPA’s current approach, paying for the cleanup of illegal dumps and for solid waste planning on tribal land but refusing to pay for long-term solid waste collection,[2] is misguided.[3]This article will show that, at least for some tribes, the result of paying for dump cleanup rather than trash collection is less desirable from both an environmental and an economic perspective. Part I of this article will examine the unique legal position of small tribes and why funding ongoing collection may be the most environmentally sustainable solution. Part II will evaluate the costs to EPA of cleaning up dump sites on tribal land against the costs of strategically funding ongoing solid waste collection for small tribes. Part III will evaluate the potential reasons behind EPA’s reluctance to pay for ongoing collection. Finally, Part IV will offer an alternative funding model.
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