Comment on FR Doc # E8-01667

This is a Public Comment pursuant to DOCKET ID NO. EPA-OW-2007-0153 EPA Proposes to Approve the Assiniboine and Sioux (Fort Peck) Tribes? Class II Underground Injection Control Program in Montana. Summer Night is the operator and permit holder for the Anderson 27-1 well, on fee acreage, within the boundary of the Reservation. Summer Night opposes Tribal Primacy for the Anderson 27-1 injection well. Summer Night does not oppose Tribal administration of Tribal Member owned/operated Class II injection wells within the boundary of the Reservation, or Class II injection wells located on Tribal owned property. 1) The Anderson 27-1 injection well, T.33N., R.48E. Sect 27, nw nw, is on fee acreage. 2) The well is about 660' from State Highway 13 between Wolfpoint and Scobey. There is an access road from State Highway 13 directly onto this fee acreage from State Highway. Tribal property is never crossed to reach the well and property. There lacks Tribal jurisdiction. 3) There could be a "grandfather" provision, so that any existing permit continues to be administered by the EPA, or 4) An existing permit holder should be able to select if they want the EPA or the Tribe to be their permit agency. 5) Or the State of Montana could be the administrator of Class II injection wells on fee property within the Reservation Boundary, that have Non-Tribal Member owners/operators, if the EPA prefers to designate administration to someone other than itself. 6) Numerous injection wells within the boundary may currently have a permit with a Tribal Member. If a Tribal Member wants to have the Tribe oversee their permit, that is OK with Summer Night. However, a Non-Tribal Member (Summer Night) should not come have to come under the jurisdiction of the Tribe (especially on fee property). (examples - traffic tickets and Court processes within the boundary of the Reservation: A Tribal Member receives tickets from Tribal Police, and goes to Tribal Court. A Non-Tribal Member receives traffic tickets from the Municipal or County entity, and goes to Municipal or County Court. Owners of a house on fee acreage within the Reservation Boundary pay property tax to the County, not the Tribe as money or taro payments. Fee acreage within the Reservation Boundary is under the jurisdiction of the County Sheriff, not the Tribal Police). The administration of Non-Tribal Members on fee property for Class II injection wells, should be either the EPA, or the State of Montana. 7) The Tribe has before several years ago attempted to come on the property every day while crews were working on the property, and they have had Tribal people tell Summer Night's contractors that they cannot work there, that only Tribal Members can have the jobs. It was not correct for the Tribe to make such demands and interfere with the contractors of Summer Night. The Tribe has since stopped entering the property, or interfering with Summer Night?s contractors, which has brought back the good relationship that currently exists between the Tribe and Summer Night. This Anderson 27-1 fee property lacks Tribal jurisdiction though, and should be maintained with the rights of fee property that historically has been separated from Tribal jurisdiction and Tribal authority. Summer Night has to assume that if given Tribal Primacy, the Tribe will want to demand Tribal employment, and taro (taro is a money payment to the Tribe). This condition would be unacceptable. There is not a requirement in the Class II injection permit for Tribal employment or taro payments to the Tribe. Summer Night contacts and hires Tribal Members routinely. Typically when Summer Night contacts a Tribal Members for work, they almost always prefer to work for other Tribal Members anyway and turn down the work, they are busy with other Tribal Member wells, and they do not want the work. There is a shortage of experienced Tribal Members for the work, and Summer Night should not be required to hire inexperienced workers. Tribal Members have shown to Summer Night that they prefer to work for Tribal Member owned/operated wells. Summer Night opposes any requirement that necessitates hiring Tribal Members on fee acreage, or money payments in the form of taro or otherwise to the Tribe pursuant to this Class II injection well on fee acreage. Taro payments, and requirements imposed by the Tribe for Tribal only employment, do not seem to be adequately known, or addressed by the EPA in the information provided by EPA for this public comment. 8) The State of Montana retains surface jurisdiction/surface inspection/ surface enforcement of the Anderson 27-1 well on fee acreage. Summer Night has a surface bond pledged to the State of Montana. The EPA has subsurface permit authority. Summer Night has another permit bond pledged to the EPA. The letter pursuant to Public Comment for Tribal Primacy is not specific, in Summer Night?s reading, about the continuing State of Montana surface jurisdiction with the wells on fee property. Summer Night?s comment includes that if the EPA wants to relinquish its Class II injection well permit authority to existing wells for the wells on fee acreage withing the Reservation boundary owned and operated by Non-Tribal Members, these wells could be transferred to the State of Montana as alternate jurisdiction. Summer Night considers it to be acceptable if the Tribe administers wells owned by Tribal Members within the Reservation boundary. Summer Night opposes the Tribe administering wells owned by Non-Tribal Members on fee acreage, at least for the wells that currently exist, if it is the operator?s preference. Summer Night specifically opposes transferring Primacy to the Tribe for the Anderson 27-1 well. If the Tribe is transferred administration, such transfer from EPA should specifically include provisions and language that Tribal employment does not become a condition of the permit, and that taro or other money payments to the Tribe will not be authorized, allowed, or become part of the permit. The EPA should continue to be the administrator for Non-Tribal Member owned/operated Class II injection wells on fee acreage within the boundary of the Reservation. Submitted by: Summer Night Oil Company, LLC Summer Night Oil Company, LLC 1550 Larimer Street # 308 Denver, CO 80202