How We Operate

The National EPA-Tribal Science Council strives to address environmental science issues that are priorities for Tribes throughout the country. The process for how these issues are identified and addressed is described below.

• Issues identified by Tribes in an EPA region are brought to the Council through the Tribal TSC representative from that region. Because the Council is designed to complement the existing infrastructure that the EPA established to work with Tribes across the country, scientific issues can also be brought to the attention of the TSC via the Agency TSC representative from program-specific Agency Tribal advisory groups.
• The Tribal TSC representatives work together to develop a set of tribal science priorities of national significance for Tribal Caucus endorsement; these will be the focus of the Council's activities.
• The full Council then explores the issues and determines what should be done to address them, including: recommending more research, identifying resources that may be available to advance the issues, or raising the profile of the problems both at the Agency and within the Tribal landscape ensuring that they are included in program-specific activities across the Agency and brought to the attention of Tribes throughout Indian Country.
• Those issues that are not found to meet the Council's criteria will be referred back to the appropriate EPA Region or Agency-specific work group (e.g., National Tribal Water Council (TWC), Tribal Pesticide Program Council (TPPC) or the National Tribal Air Association (NTAA), that can best address the issue.
• The group's progress on addressing issues is communicated to the Tribal Caucus of the Tribal Operations Committee, the Regional Tribal Operations Committee, and throughout the regions.