Environmental study gives tribe lands ‘C’ rating

By Debra Gruszecki
The Desert Sun
October 28th, 2004
http://www.thedesertsun.com/news/stories2004/local/20041028005320.shtml

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA -- The University of California, Los Angeles 
released an environmental report card Wednesday that underscores the 
need to stop illegal dumping on Indian land.

"The sprawling, noxious and highly unsightly dumpsites bespeak failure," 
said Carole Goldberg, a faculty chair of the Native Nations Law and 
Policy Center at the UCLA School of Law, who participated in the study 
and helped write the report.

Enforcement and abatement of illegal dumping scored a "modestly passing 
grade of C," Goldberg said. That score was based on the premise that 
cooperation among tribal nations, local, state and federal governments 
is increasing, along with funding to develop tribal solid waste disposal 
codes and enforcement.

‘C’ grade generous

"If it’s a ‘C,’ frankly, from what I’ve seen in Indian country, they are 
being generous," said Tom Davis, chief planning officer of the Agua 
Caliente Band of Mission Indians in Palm Springs.

"I think, in general, that the federal government nationwide has been 
woefully negligent in giving the U.S. attorney adequate personnel to 
handle this issue," he said.

"It’s like putting out fires all over the place when you have one hose."

The "Southern California Report Card" was issued by the UCLA Institute 
of the Environment. The organization also graded the Southland on 
traffic congestion, air pollution and stormwater regulation.

The institute found that 35 tribes in the region face an onslaught of 
illegal dumping and unauthorized landfill operations that present 
serious environmental hazards. The hazards are compounded by "wholly 
inadequate" law and government agency systems to rectify matters, the 
report said.

At the Pala Reservation northeast of San Diego, household garbage, 
appliances and waste from methamphetamine labs were dumped beside a 
tributary of the San Luis Ray River.

Torres-Martinez land

At the Torres-Martinez Reservation near Thermal, discarded appliances -- 
some dripping toxic polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs -- were mixed 
with construction debris, golf course pesticides and other toxic 
chemicals. The piles are dotted across 24,000 acres stretching from the 
Salton Sea to the Santa Rosa Mountains.

The Torres-Martinez reservation also is the site of a mobile home park 
for several hundred low-wage workers lacking adequate sewage systems and 
running water.

"These mobile home parks have become a severe environmental hazard,’’ 
the report said. It noted that while the tribe has a solid waste code, 
it lacks a way to enforce it.

"Laws pertaining to illegal dumping on reservations are so complex and 
deficient that reservations are perceived as a kind of no-man’s land,’’ 
said Goldberg, an expert on Native American law. "Even where legal 
authority clearly exists, inadequate government support and 
infrastructure make enforcement unlikely or nonexistent.’’

Ben Scoville, a Torrez-Martinez planning director, called the report a 
"good portrayal" of what is occurring on the reservation.

Even though the tribe lacks enforcement capabilities -- such as a tribal 
court or police -- Scoville said it is making inroads in cracking down 
on illegal dumping. The tribe has been seizing equipment and trucks used 
by dumpers, he said. It also spent $40,000 to clean one site alone, and 
hopes to establish a tribal court by year’s end.

Four of five communities near tribal lands -- Coachella, Oasis, Thermal 
and Mecca -- now ask developers to produce receipts to show they use 
legal dump sites. Those measures were taken at the tribe’s behest.

The UCLA report recommended more support for tribes to develop 
apparatus, codes, courts and enforcement as a first line of defense. 
That support should not only involve more funding resources, but should 
clarify a tribe’s legal authority to take action.

"Some of that has to come from Congress," Goldberg said.

Agua Caliente lands

The Agua Caliente tribe is fortunate in that its tribal lands overlap 
the municipal jurisdictions of Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage and Cathedral 
City. Those three cities work with tribal members on nuisance abatement 
problems, Davis said.

Working through the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the cities and Riverside 
County, Davis said grants have been obtained to clean up fire hazards, 
noxious and dangerous materials and transient encampments. Gaming 
revenue also has been used to clean up property and post "no dumping" 
and "no trespassing" signs on tribal lands.

The Agua Caliente tribe also works with the Palm Springs Fire Department 
on programmed burns of abandoned homes, Davis said.

Legislative measures

State Sen. Jim Battin, R-La Quinta, agreed that Congress needs to 
clarify enforcement powers. He co-wrote legislation with Assemblyman 
Russ Bogh, R-Beaumont, which ramped up fines for illegal dumping and 
burning that was signed into law this year.

"Short of that, the best thing we can do is have greater cooperation 
between tribes and county sheriff departments,’’ Battin said. "It’s a 
big problem in Riverside County. People feel, for some reason, that they 
have the right to dump their trash anywhere they want. We’ve seen some 
terrible sites. The problem is, the victim becomes the victim twice."

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Dumping study
Findings:
# Tribal lands become dumping grounds
# Federal, state, tribal law both complex and inadequate to stop it
# Reservations become ‘legal no-man’s land.’


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