5.04.010 Purpose

The Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe (The "Tribe"), is responsible for the health, safety, education and welfare of all community members. With respect to pesticide usage it has the authority, responsibility and jurisdiction to exercise sovereign rights in governing pesticide usage on the Saint Regis Mohawk Reservation (Reservation). Through its Environment Division, the Tribe has determined that the management of pesticides through Tribal regulation will ensure the protection of Tribal member health by reducing unnecessary health risk exposures to pesticides.

Further, the EPA's regulations under Environmental Protection Acts, Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 171 provide that:

(a) An Indian tribe may develop its own plan for certifying private and commercial applicators to use or supervise the use of Restricted Use Pesticides (RUPS), subject to the approval of EPA;

(b) If a tribe does not develop its own certification plan, the tribe may choose to utilize a state's certification program, with the concurrence of that state, subject to the approval of EPA; or

(c) EPA can implement a federal plan for the certification of applicators of RUPS where no other EPA-approved state or tribal applicator certification plan is in effect.

The Tribe's strategy for regulating pesticide usage within its jurisdiction is to exercise option 3, relying upon EPA to certify RUP applicators. Additionally, the Tribe will exercise its sovereign right to regulate the use of General Use Pesticides (GUPS) within its jurisdiction through this regulation.