INDIAN TOWNSHIP – The controversy over whether the state has the authority to issue federal water pollution permits for Indian lands – a debate that has resulted in contempt citations for the governors of two Indian tribes – has made Passamaquoddy tribal members distrustful of any state effort to gain access to the reservations.

During the past few weeks, several officials from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection have asked for access to the reservation to review and renew waste permits.

State officials said Friday that they were not trying to “bully” the tribe as they go about the business of relicensing tribal and municipal wastewater treatment systems.

But tribal officials believe that, in view of the recent unresolved court battle over tribal sovereignty, the state may be trying to assert its authority over the tribe.

The issue of a visit by state officials to the reservation arose Nov. 27. On that date, Trevor White, the Indian Township environmental director, was informed that a consultant for DEP would visit the reservation’s Public Works Department as part of a review of the outfall permit, something the tribe no longer has.

The consultant said he had a permit number which, White said, turned out to be the number for the reservation’s wastewater treatment facility’s spray irrigation field.

White said he informed tribal Gov. Richard Stevens and Lt. Gov. Phyllis Saunders of the proposed DEP visit, and they told him that the person was not to have access to the tribe’s records.

White said he met the consultant and informed him that the tribe “does not recognize the authority of the state of Maine in regard to any issue that affects the health and welfare of tribal members, and that the tribe considers those issues to be an internal tribal matter.”

With that statement, White said, he asked the consultant to leave the reservation.

Within days of that incident, White learned that another DEP official had called the reservation and asked to conduct an inspection of the tribe’s septic waste disposal site. Waste from residential septic systems is collected and sprayed over the disposal site located on the Telephone Road in a remote area of the reservation.

White said the original permit expired in 1990, and he found it curious that the state now was interested in that site. He informed the DEP official that the tribe would accept any technical assistance the state might offer but would not agree to any permit.

Two days later, there was a telephone call from a third DEP official, this one from the DEP’s wastewater discharge license department. White said that official indicated that he planned to visit the reservation’s wastewater treatment lagoon on the Grand Lake Stream Road. “He told me he wanted to come up and inspect the spray irrigation site with a view to renewing the waste discharge permit that expired in 1999,” White said.

White said he has worked for the Passamaquoddy for more than three years and had never had this much attention from the DEP. “I believe this is one more reason not to give the state any authority over Indian lands. Obviously, they are very used to bullying tactics to get their own way,” he said.

The environmental director said the DEP, if invited, might go to Canada and offer technical assistance, but staffers would not be allowed to go into that sovereign nation and attempt to regulate. He said the same argument applied to the tribe’s sovereign nation status.

The Indian Township governor said he believes the inspections are tied to what is happening in the state court. “I was amazed at the sudden interest in our areas, and I don’t believe those areas are under their guidelines, yet they are showing an interest. I am kind of cautious of that,” Stevens said.

The governor said the tribe would remain respectful and polite but would deny any state official access to tribal lands or records.

On Friday, Ed Logue, regional director for DEP’s eastern Maine office in Bangor, said his department plans to stay out of the disagreement. He said there are two pending license permits with the tribe.

“We have been informed in the last week or two, by Trevor, that they are no longer pursuing these licensing efforts. One of the efforts they actually approached us about was amending their sludge spreading application to go to a different site, and we were just responding to that. The other one is renewal of their wastewater discharge license,” he said.

Logue said his agency is not trying to assert more scrutiny over the tribe at this time and plans to stay out of the court fight. “While we struggle through this sovereignty issue, which is going on a completely different plane, it’s in our interest and Trevor’s too … to maintain a very positive relationship,” he said.

Bob Stratton, DEP environmental specialist for the Bureau of Land and Water Quality, said the department is not focusing more than normal attention on Indian Township.

“This facility until recently held a valid state license for wastewater treatment. [The inquiry] is part of the license renewal. I contacted the public works director as we have at all other facilities. The intent … is to schedule a time to visit the facility and become more familiar with it, its operation and the people responsible for it,” he said.

Since the tribal government is concerned, Stratton said, no visit has been scheduled. “Beyond that, we will have to decide what the next step will be,” he said.

The legal controversy between the tribes and the state began earlier this year, when the state DEP applied to the federal Environmental Protection Agency for authority to issue federal wastewater discharge permits in order to streamline the permitting process. More than 40 states now issue such permits on behalf of the EPA. In other states, however, the federal government retained permitting authority in tribal territories.

The tribes objected, saying they wanted the EPA to regulate their facilities.

Three of the state’s largest paper companies filed a state Freedom of Access law request to obtain any tribal documents relating to water regulation.

Paper company attorneys have argued that the tribal nations are subject to the state right-to-know laws except when it comes to internal matters.

Lawyers for the tribes insist that the documents the paper companies want are privileged under tribal law. In addition, the lawyers said, as sovereign authorities, tribes are not subject to the freedom of information law.

Last month, a Superior Court judge found Barry Dana, governor of the Penobscot Nation, Stevens and Passamaquoddy Gov. Richard Doyle of Pleasant Point in contempt of court for failing to turn over documents that the three paper companies sought. The tribe has appealed.