United Tribes ) Michigan - Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians

INDIAN NATIONS
Environmental
Godfrey & Kahn's deep environmental experience and long history of involvement in legal initiatives to protect the
environment have made it a natural ally for tribes seeking to protect water and air resources for future generations.
The firm's recent Indian country experience includes:
• Assisting tribal clients in a successful multi-year campaign to prevent development of zinc mining in
northern Wisconsin, thus protecting vital reservation water and air resources for future generations;
• Helping a tribal client obtain the first tribal Class I air quality re-designation by EPA since 1992. This
authority will ensure the highest level of protection available under the Federal Clean Air Act from
ambient concentrations of conventional pollutants (e.g. sulfur dioxide, particulate matter and nitrogen
dioxide) on the reservation. Class I designation will enable the tribe to influence off-reservation
development that could adversely affect reservation air quality. The Class I designation will have the
secondary effect of preserving the pristine nature of large tracts of additional lands located outside the
reservation that could otherwise be caused by these pollutants under the prior existing Class II standards
that cover the rest of the state;
• Assisting in the establishment of tribal "Little NEPA" and other environmental protection programs to
protect tribal air, water, and other natural resources;
• Assisting a tribe in the preparation of an environmental impact statement (EIS) in support of an
application to take land into trust for gaming purposes; the EIS successfully withstood court challenges;
and
• Assisting tribes in the development of "green" energy initiatives that reduce the environmental impacts of
a tribe's own commercial and government operations.
In addition, the firm offers a full range of environmental legal services, including: traditional Environmental
Practice (CERCLA, RCRA, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, etc.), land use, wetlands, water rights,
conservation easements, municipal environmental issues, criminal and civil environmental litigation, regulatory
compliance, risk transfer and environmental, brownfields, landfills, air permitting and compliance, political law.
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