ONEIDA – Oneida Nation Councilmember Daniel Guzman believes access to clean and fresh drinking water will continue to become an issue for more communities in the years to come.
So when officials with the Environmental Protection Agency asked if he could help advise about national policy, he jumped at the opportunity.
“I showed interest and got support from the (Oneida) Business Committee,” Guzman said. “I definitely want to focus on the protection and restoration of the Great Lakes.”
It was announced this month that Guzman has been appointed to the EPA’s Small Community Advisory Subcommittee, which was established in 1996 to solicit input from community leaders in the U.S. about ideas to improve and protect the health of the people of the environment where they live.
“So many environmental concerns including drinking water and air quality, environmental justice and the redevelopment of contaminated properties can be addressed only with the participation of local and tribal officials,” said acting EPA Region 5 Administrator Cheryl Newton. “Addressing our most pressing environmental challenges requires the experience and expertise of tribal leaders.”
Focus on Great Lakes
Guzman said he wants to be an advocate for cleaning and restoring the Great Lakes, which is the largest body of fresh water in the world.
“Local and federal governments really need to focus on protection of waters, drinking water for humanity,” he said.
Oneida officials have been implementing clean water policies on the reservation and Guzman said he’d like to work on expanding those policies throughout the Great Lakes region.
“The Oneida Nation has really come a long way in cleaning the waterways on the reservation,” he said. “We’ve been doing a fairly good job of that in the last few decades.”
One method used on the reservation is through the Buffers Program, which helps control runoff from agricultural fields into waterways, such as Oneida and Duck creeks.
The buffer is a grass strip, about 35 feet wide, that is planted along a waterway and contains a mix of brome grass, red clover and timothy plants to absorb nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and other runoff.
That runoff can lead to problems in waterways, such as algal blooms, which deplete the oxygen supply for fish and other animals.
Some of these projects were funded through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which is a federal program led by the EPA and coordinates efforts to address local restoration priorities.
More than $400 million has funded more than 800 projects throughout Wisconsin to restore waterways through the initiative from 2010 to 2020, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
Concerns over invasive species, pipelines
Another area of concern officials are trying to address is the steady infestation of invasive species into the Great Lakes brought in from the Atlantic Ocean by ballast water from shipping vessels.
“I believe we need stronger regulations on the use of ballast water,” Guzman said. “The protection of the Great Lakes is of upmost importance.”
Another topic likely to be discussed by the advisory subcommittee are oil pipelines in Wisconsin and Minnesota that Indigenous environmentalists believe are causing adverse effects on waterways.
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The advocates are convincing municipal governments throughout Wisconsin to oppose the pipelines through official resolutions.
Guzman cited study from the Center for Biological Diversity, which found that pipeline accidents spill an average of 76,000 barrels of oil per year or more than three million gallons since 1986.
“In regards to enbridge pipelines 3 and 5, the very installation of a pipeline disturbs and destroys the environment even before any oil is put through the pipes,” he said. “This is not only an environmental issue. This is a rights of nature issue, a humanitarian issue, along with a healthcare issue. I believe the EPA along with all necessary entities need to take a an aggressive approach to protecting Mother Earth and particularly the water which provides life for all living beings.”
A spokesperson for the Canadian company building the pipelines, Enbridge, said the projects have passed safety tests and are much safer than transporting oil in trucks or trains.
Menominee Nation officials, Indigenous groups and environmentalists also have been opposed to proposed mining in the Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, such as the Back 40 Mine, because they believe they will have adverse effects on the environment, including Wisconsin waterways.
“In regards to mining, I am unaware of any environmentally safe ways that do no contaminate the earth or waterways,” Guzman said. “We need to decide as a society and as governments what is most important not only now but for the future. Are capital gains or a healthy planet that will sustain future generations most important?”
Guzman said his first meeting with the advisory subcommittee will take place in October.
Frank Vaisvilas is a Report For America corps member based at the Green Bay Press-Gazette covering Native American issues in Wisconsin. He can be reached at 920-228-0437 or fvaisvilas@gannett.com, or on Twitter at @vaisvilas_frank. Please consider supporting journalism that informs our democracy with a tax-deductible gift to this reporting effort at GreenBayPressGazette.com/RFA.
