We are continuing our work with the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council. The number of indigenous governments joining the Watershed Council continues to grow, and there are now around sixty-five signatories to the treaty, an inter-tribal agreement committing indigenous governments from Alaska and the Yukon Territory to working together to clean up the River. Most of our work for the Watershed Council continues to focus on providing organizational and educational assistance to the organization and its members.
In 2003, we prepared an educational handbook entitled International Opportunities for the Protection of the Yukon River Watershed: A Handbook of Strategies. This past year, we completed the Preliminary Edition of our second education handbook, entitled Federal Statutory Opportunities for the Protection of the Yukon River Watershed in Alaska and the Yukon Territory: A Handbook of Domestic Statutory Strategies. This handbook focuses on the domestic laws of the United States and Canada and explains how the Watershed Council and member tribes and First Nations may use these laws to further the clean-up of the watershed. We have also been working closely with the Watershed Council to develop a tribe-to-tribe and First Nation-to-First Nation consultation protocol to govern when and how tribes and First Nations must consult with each other regarding the implementation of development projects that may affect the watershed.
Due to the success of our previous and ongoing organizational and educational work for the Watershed Council, we are now ready to move forward to provide the Council with legal assistance regarding the implementation of projects to protect and clean-up the watershed. Specifically, the Watershed Council has requested our assistance with regard to a nuclear development project proposed by the City of Galena on the banks of the Yukon River. It is our hope that the tribes and First Nations of the Yukon River watershed will be able to insist on full environmental accountability, as well as to increase public access to information about the environmental impacts of a nuclear reactor in rural Alaska. With this in mind, the Watershed Council has requested the Center’s assistance in reviewing and commenting on the recently released white papers analyzing the reactor, assisting the Council in achieving standing before the Nuclear Regulatory Agency, as well as with any processes available to the Watershed Council once standing is achieved.