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Environmental Justice in Indian Country: Dumpsite Remediation on the Swinomish Indian Reservation

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Abstract

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines environmental justice as the “fair treatment for people of all races, cultures, and incomes, regarding the development of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.” The last decade has focused considerable national attention on the environmental pollution inequity that persists among the nation’s poorest communities. Despite these environmental justice efforts, poor communities continue to face adverse environmental conditions. For the more than 550 Native American communities, the struggle to attain environmental justice is more than a matter of enforcing national laws equitably; it is also a matter of a federal trust duty for the protection of Indian lands and natural resources, honoring a promise that Native American homelands would forever be sustainable. Equally important is the federal promise to assist tribes in managing their reservation environments under their reserved powers of self-government, an attribute that most distinguishes tribes from other communities. The PM Northwest, Inc. (PMNW) dumpsite is located within the boundaries of the Swinomish Indian Reservation in Washington State. Between approximately 1958 and 1970, PMNW contracted with local oil refineries to dispose of hazardous wastes from their operations at the reservation dumpsite. Almost two decades would pass before the Swinomish tribe was able to persuade EPA that a cleanup action under Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) was warranted. This article reviews the enduring struggle to achieve Indian environmental justice in the Swinomish homeland, a process that was dependent upon the development of the tribe’s political and environmental management capacity as well as EPA’s eventual acknowledgement that Indian environmental justice is integrally linked to its federal trust responsibility.

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Acknowledgments

The author wishes to acknowledge several of the many people who were responsible for pursuing the tribal environmental justice effort and carrying out the eventual cleanup action on the Swinomish Indian Reservation: WaWalton, former tribal chairman; Brian Cladoosby, tribal chairman; Lorraine Loomis, tribal natural resources director; Jim Wilbur and Larry Campbell, tribal environmental commissioners; Lauren Rich, former tribal environmental planner; Charlie O’Hara, tribal planning director; Jeff Hegedus, tribal environmental restoration manager; Elissa Kalla, tribal GIS technician; Andrea Nofke, former tribal water quality analyst; Ed Knight, former tribal environmental planner; Stewart Jones and Rich Doenges, former tribal planners; Allan Olson, tribal attorney and general manager; Sharon Haensley, former tribal attorney; Bill Black, former Superintendent, BIA; Steve Roy, BIA; Rich McAlister, EPA attorney; and Chuck Clarke, former Regional Director, EPA Region 10.

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  1. Department of Environmental Studies, Huxley College of the Environment, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington, USA

    Nicholas C. Zaferatos

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  1. Nicholas C. Zaferatos
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Correspondence to Nicholas C. Zaferatos.

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Zaferatos, N.C. Environmental Justice in Indian Country: Dumpsite Remediation on the Swinomish Indian Reservation. Environmental Management 38, 896–909 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-004-0103-0

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