Tim Williamson

Tim Williamson, an attorney with the EPA in Boston, said such agreements are typical of those hisagency has with other tribes across the country.He said they simply are agreements to work together.To this end, the EPA provides grant money to the tribes for projects such as water quality monitoring.

The confidentiality clause was added to ensure that the agency and tribes can have frank discussion,much like when the agency enters into enforcement negotiations with an entity that has brokenenvironmental laws and a penalty is being discussed, Williamson said.

If it was determined that any information generated as a result of the agreements was subject to thefederal Freedom of Information Act, those documents would be turned over, Williamson said.

Tim Williamson, an EPA attorney, said it made sense to separate the document case from the permitting issue.He said his agency was "perhaps naively hopeful" that the parties will soon go back to the negotiating table.

Tim Williamson, Senior Assistant Regional Counsel, Air Practice Group Leader, Office of Regional Counsel, EPA New England, will discuss EPA's response to the Supreme Court's ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA and the issues EPA is confronting in applying the federal Clean Air Act to greenhouse gas emissions.Time permitting, he will also discuss EPA's planning work with the New England states to attain national ambient air quality standards and EPA's response to recent court rulings regarding implementation of the federal air toxics/MACT standards program.

Timothy Williamson of EPA New England and Ann G.

Tim Williamson, Senior Assistant Regional Counsel, Air Practice Group Leader, Office of Regional Counsel, EPA New England, will discuss EPAs response to the Supreme Courts ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA and the issues EPA is confronting in applying the federal Clean Air Act to greenhouse gas emissions.Time permitting, he will also discuss EPAs planning work with the New England states to attain national ambient air quality standards and EPAs response to recent court rulings regarding implementation of the federal air toxics/MACT standards program.

According to Tim Williamson, a senior attorney for the region, the EPA is in the "middle" of its consultation with the Department of Justice on the decision.The two tribes, he acknowledged, are in a unique situation because of the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act, which settled the tribes' land claims and granted them federal recognition.

But the act also gave the state jurisdiction in certain aspects of tribal government.Freedom of information is one of those "murky" areas, as the tribes have since found out,

As a result, the EPA is weighing a number of serious questions, said Williamson.
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"The way we have handled this matter is an effort to be as even-handed as possible withing the context of EPA's Indian policy . . . to respect tribal soveriegnty whenever possible," Williamson added yesterday.

Williamson also suggested Manahan's quest to view the tribes' documents in an effort to show EPA bias may be futile.Any documents the tribe has sent to the agency have already been made public, he said.

But when the EPA does make its decision known, there is little chance either side will accept the mandate, said Williamson.He expects even more lawsuits due to "the pressures around assertions of tribal sovereignty."

"It presents an additional hurdle we have to cross," Tim Williamson, an EPA attorney, said Tuesday of the salmon listing.Knowing that the salmon decision was coming, he said, EPA officials had already been discussing the situation with fisheries officials, but he added that now those talks would have to be more formal.

On Monday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service announced that wild Atlantic salmon in eight Maine rivers had been placed on the federal endangered species list.

The listing, which federal officials said was necessary because the fish are on the brink of extinction, further complicates the state's case that it should have the authority to issue federal water regulation permits.Forty-four states have already been given the power, but they didn't have Atlantic salmon or Indian tribes contesting the delegation of authority to deal with.

In announcing the listing, federal officials made it clear that they did not think the state was doing an adequate job protecting the salmon.

Timothy L. Williamson
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Timothy L. Williamson

Office of Regional Counsel
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Timothy L. Williamson serves as a Senior Assistant Regional Counsel with U.S. EPA New England Region, Office of Regional Counsel.He is the lead Regional attorney for Clean Air Act program development counseling, advising the Region and the six New England states on all aspects of Clean Air Act implementation.From 1991 to 1993 he worked as a Senior Policy Analyst with EPA's Office of Policy Analysis and Review in the Office of Air and Radiation in Washington, D.C.There he dealt with Clean Air Act implementation policy issues, including: operating permits; compliance monitoring; state implementation plans and marketable permit proposals to achieve air quality standards.From 1985 to 1991 he worked as Senior Assistant Regional Counsel in EPA's Region I, developing and enforcing state implementation plans under the Clean Air Act in the New England states.Prior to working for EPA, he was associated with the law firm of Palmer & Dodge in Boston, Massachusetts.He received his B.A. from Amherst College in 1979 and his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1983.As an adjunct professor, he has taught an advanced environmental law seminar on the Clean Air Act at Boston College and Boston University Law Schools, lectured at the Harvard School of Public Health, and will teach Environmental Law at the New England School of Law.

Tim Williamson, an EPA attorney, said it made sense to separate the document case from the permitting issue.He said his agency was "perhaps naively hopeful" that the parties will soon go back to the negotiating table.