Natives are engaged in a battle to survive

Like most reported history concerning Native people and tribes, Eugene Conlogue’s version of the facts (BDN op-ed, Nov. 25-26) leading to the court-ordered arrests of three tribal governors varies disturbingly from reality.

The federal government does encourage states to manage the Environmental Protection Agency water-pollution permitting program and to issue discharge licenses on its behalf. But Conlogue fails to note that this authority does not include Indian reservations and territories, which are held in trust by the federal government throughout the United States.

In an extraordinary move and unlike any state in the nation, Maine has claimed that it has exclusive regulatory jurisdiction for water quality on and impacting our land and water. We disagree and have asked EPA to retain its authority in these areas as it does in 44 states that issue federal permits. In other words, some discharges would continue to receive two permits – one from the state, which charges a fee, and one from EPA, whose permits are free. This system merely maintains the status quo for certain dischargers who, unless the state charges a greater fee, will have no fee increases.

Conlogue also asserts that Maine’s application “ran into trouble,” not because the state claimed jurisdiction over our resources, but because of a discovery that “EPA had entered into several ‘secret agreements’ with the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy tribes.” I respectfully direct Conlogue to a story in the July 1999 issue of Maine’s Working Waterfront newspaper. The article focused on a Tribal-EPA conference in Bar Harbor and on our concerns about the state’s impending application.

The story also featured photography of Passamaquoddy Governor Richard Stevens, Houlton Band of Maliseet Chief Brenda Commander, and then EPA Regional Administrator John Devillars signing cooperative environmental agreements that clarify our commitments to clean water. Especially considering this front-page story, I do not understand why Conlogue as well as some paper company representatives and state officials, continue to claim that these were or are “secret.” They’re made available to the lone reporter who covered the meeting and any member of the public who chose to read them.

Conlogue accurately notes that the town of Millinocket (at taxpayer expense?) has joined a coalition of 20 industrial and municipal dischargers (out of more than 300 statewide) who vigorously oppose EPA’s continued jurisdiction over tribal waters in Maine. Georgia- Pacific (cited by a national environmental group as a repeat offender in violating its air and water discharge permits), Champion International (which after being reported to DEP by the Penobscot Nation, recently admitted to falsifying discharge reports and paid Maine $800,000 for this and other permit violations), and Great Northern Paper (owned by a Canadian corporation which recently sued East Millinocket because it didn’t want to provide documents to the town for tax assessment), also belong to this “coalition.”

Even though the tribes have complied with demands for documents except for internal government papers, these economically and politically powerful companies have fought for the arrest and imprisonment of our leaders who have challenged their “rights” to poison our resources and those of our neighbors, many whom also rely on natural resources to feed their families in the “other” Maine.

Like the once-plentiful Atlantic salmon that have silently disappeared from our rivers, we, too, are engaged in a battle to survive. Like the salmon, our health and safety are most emphatically tied to air and water pollution, as well as other harmful activities, perpetrated by these paper companies. And like the salmon, our survival may also depend on the watchful eye of the federal government.

Deirdre Whitehead is the environmental planner for the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point.