| EPA awards annual grants to the nine EPA Regional
offices with direct implementation responsibility in Indian country
for assistance in carrying out the Public Water System Supervision
(PWSS) program in Indian country.
The tentative amount of funding available in FY2005 is $6,764,500.
Background
The 1986 Amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) allowed
Indian tribes to be treated as States, and assume primary enforcement
responsibility, for the programs directed by the SDWA. Federal Regulations
specifying how grant provisions would be applied were published
on September 26, 1988, and included a provision that EPA could reserve
“up to three percent” of the Public Water System Supervision
(PWSS) program grant funds to implement the PWSS program on Indian
Lands. EPA began reserving funds under this provision in FY1988.
The funds were available for three purposes: grants to a tribe that
had received PWSS Primary Enforcement Authority (Primacy grants);
development grants to a tribe that was seeking Primacy; and to assist
EPA’s Regional offices in directly implementing the PWSS program
on tribal lands in the absence of a delegated tribal Primacy program.
To date, the Navajo Nation is the only Indian tribe to have sought
and received program primacy.
In FY1998, EPA requested and received an increase in the PWSS appropriation,
specifically to help tribes to build the capacity to eventually
operate their own PWSS Primacy programs. In 2001, the regulations
were modified to increase the allowed tribal reserve from 3 percent
to a maximum of 7 percent. In 2002, EPA issued general guidance
on the use of the entire tribal reserve. The general guidance specified
that each year, EPA would release annual guidance that would identify
the allotments for that year and would provide guidance and direction
on the use of the funds for that specific year.
Method of Allotment
Funds appropriated each year are allotted, by formula, on the basis
of tribal population (20%) as contained in the most currently available
Census Bureau information; tribal land area (10%) as contained in
the most currently available Census Bureau information; the number
of community and non-transient non-community water systems located
within tribal land area boundaries (56%) and the number of transient
non-community water systems located within tribal land area boundaries
(14%); all water system inventories being provided by the Regional
Offices to EPA's Federal database SDWIS/FED. No Region’s allotment
shall be less than 95 percent of its prior year allotment.
Allotments for FY2005
A total of $6,764,500 is tentatively available to support PWSS
program activities on tribal lands for FY2005. This amount is 6.436%
of the total FY05 PWSS budget request of $105,100,000.
The national and Regional proposed target allotments for FY2005
are:
|
|
Direct
Impl |
Operator
Cert |
1420
Cap
Dev |
1453
SWAP |
DWIG
TSA |
Regional
Totals
* |
|
1
2
4
5
6
7
8
9
10 |
|
$60,600
$60,600
$128,200
$391,800
$335,800
$60,600
$584,800
$1,009,300
$397,700 |
$18,600
$18,600
$36,800
$96,600
$104,200
$18,600
$139,200
$402,100
$95,300 |
$18,600
$18,600
$36,100
$94,400
$109,600
$18,600
$134,600
$407,700
$91,800 |
$18,600
$18,600
$36,100
$94,400
$109,600
$18,600
$134,600
$407,700
$91,800 |
$6,400
$6,500
$10,300
$17,900
$26,200
$7,100
$25,100
$90,300
$110,200 |
$122,800
$122,800
$246,700
$694,800
$685,700
$123,700
$1,026,500
$2,315,100
$781,300 |
**Note - the Regional totals shown here do not
include the Primacy, DITCA, and ANV support described in Section
B.
|
