Breakout Sessions

The presentation will share a novel framework for engagement and partnership with Tribal Nations and Native communities by reviewing the unique legal principles, cultural components, and data regarding Native student transportation and how to best equitably transition the school bus fleet serving Tribal Nations and Native Communities. From this review, the framework identifies the barriers unique to Indian Country and provides recommendations for actors in the ESB space on how they can support an equitable transition with Tribal Nations and Native communities. 

Other/Cross Media

TBA. 

Other/Cross Media

In response to an OIG report, EPA is in the process of developing a training presentation developed for outreach to the tribes, industry and small business owners on Tribal lands about the requirements for the pre-construction air permit program known as New Source Review (NSR). The main focus of the training will be providing a brief history of the Clean Air Act and development of the NSR program in Indian country with specific focus on minor source NSR permits and discussion about how to assist the Tribes in identifying facilities that might be operating without a required NSR permit. The overall presentation for ITEP will focus on the status of the training development, our current status of rollout development including a question and answer session where we will seek members’ feedback on additional considerations. We are excited to discuss this training tool that we hope will be of great use for prospective NSR permit applicants to help educate them about the NSR pre-construction air permit program on Tribal lands. 

Air Quality Policy & Regulations

This round table discussion is intended for tribal professionals planning, considering, or now conducting regulatory air monitoring.  The discussion will include tribal case studies and open discussion of the operations of regulatory air monitoring.  Resources will be provided, including laws and policies (CFR, internal audits/checks, compliance certifications, NPAP/PEP audits, TSAs) as well as cost and timing, with tools for estimating costs (https://bit.ly/aircosts). Included will be the distinction between legally defensible and EPA-approved data used in design value calculations, definitions of independent QA review, and documentation requirements.  The focus will be on sharing experiences, information, and tools between tribal professionals.

Technical

Wildfire smoke is affecting every part of Indian country, increasing the likelihood of serious cardiovascular events such as heart attacks, strokes, and asthma attacks in Elders, and other vulnerable populations. The Tribal Healthy Homes Network has developed the Smoke MATTERS Toolkit, which Tribes are distributing to residents, helping them create a ‘Smoke Safe Room’ in their home. In this session, we will talk about risk factors for smoke intrusion in Tribal homes and review best practices for reducing smoke exposure. We will also hear from the Tulalip Tribes, Warm Springs Tribe, Yakama Nation, and the Colville Tribe on how they integrated the toolkits into their community outreach and education. 

Voluntary Programs

The Yurok Tribe Environmental Department is establishing a cultural burn monitoring program on their reservation located in NW California. This case study presentation will share lessons learned from the departments’ recent efforts to restore a forested parcel from an illegal marijuana growsite back to an ancestral traditional food forest. We will discuss the multiple steps to implementing a cultural burn: from preparing the site, permitting, conducing the cultural burn, to pre and post burn environmental monitoring.  #LandBack #BeyondLandBack

Capacity Building

This session will focus on the multiple health, safety and air quality benefits from home weatherization and installation of both a heat pump and an EPA-certified wood stove. We will cover how heat pumps work to provide efficient heating and cooling and the added benefits and flexibilities including:

• The addition of air conditioning allows windows to remain closed and keep out smoke during extreme heat and wildfire smoke events 

• Reduces reliance on wood stoves for heat, while still having them as backup heat sources during power outages or extreme cold

• Greatly lessons the physical effort on elders to split, stack and haul firewood.

And there is funding available! We will cover federal funding options including Dept. of Energy’s new $8.8B Home Energy (Point of Sale) Rebate Program that provides up to $14000/household and highlight well known and little-known Inflation Reduction Act programs that Tribes can tap into. Also, we will share tribal specific heat pump project examples.

Capacity Building

Most Hopi and Navajo Nation families use coal and wood to heat their homes. Solid fuel burning in the home can release high levels of pollution, resulting in poor indoor air quality and contributing to respiratory disease and other health complications. Wood smoke can lead to creosote deposits on chimneys and, if not properly maintained, lead to chimney fires, causing potential loss of life and property. Red Feather has taken a multi-faceted approach in trying to address home heating health and safety issues by properly installing new EPA-certified wood stoves, air source heat pumps for spacing heating and cooling, weatherization, HEPA filter distribution, and educational training to build local resilience for safer and healthier homes. Red Feather will share lessons learned, successes, stories, and practical insight on implementing these programs. In addition, we will provide the various funding grants and mechanisms that have supported our efforts. 

Voluntary Programs

Come to this talk to learn about the National Tribal Air Association, what we do, who we are, and provide feedback on how we can help you. Member and non-member tribes (and non tribal staff!) are welcome to join and participate in this discussion. 

Voluntary Programs

The American Indian Air Quality Training Program (AIAQTP) annually prepares a comprehensive program plan driven by explicit and anticipated needs of tribal air quality program personnel. This session will describe the proposed professional development plan beginning in July 2024. Time will be allocated for questions, comments and suggestions from all participants. This is the final year of our cooperative agreement and we are looking for new ideas and brainstorming what should go into the new grant application. Join us to to hear and discuss what professional development opportunities we have and should support in the future. 

Capacity Building

EJ Grant for the White Mesa Community overview, specific project details, how these were done, data reporting, accomplishments, and lessons learned.

Other/Cross Media

The Bishop Paiute Tribe Air Program staff will share information about our recent project under the American Rescue Plan to pursue continuous and portable sampling of PM2.5 carbon-based particle pollution (soot). The presentation will cover the impetus to add this capability to the monitoring program, recap previous supporting efforts, and present community sampling results. 

Voluntary

Nobody's indoor air is perfect. This study utilizes Air Awair's Omni. which is a small box that has Temperature, Rel Humidity, Carbon Dioxide, Total VOC's, and Particulate Matter sensors that give a score based on how good all of these are. 100 is great 0 is bad. This will be a presentation of how the data is looked at and what can be done to make the scores higher therefore making the quality of the indoor air healthier. It will show how making small changes can impact our lives. 

Voluntary

Many of my family members and friends live in former Uranium mining areas on the Navajo Nation. This summer I learned that wherever there is Uranium, there is Radon, which is a radioactive decay product that causes cancer. Radon is a gas, so it is mobile and can enter the homes of my family and friends. I wanted to help protect my family and friends from this cancer causing chemical, so I tested several homes and provided the results to the home occupants. Any homes over 4 picocuries/liter from the activated charcoal tests were retested with a continuous radon monitor. In this presentation I will share the results of my study and demonstrate radioactivity and radon testing. 

Voluntary

 This presentation will focus on EPA Region 10’s partnership work with Tribes, States, and Locals and how we work together to reduce particulate matter in shared airsheds. We will discuss this approach in more detail by focusing on two partnership case studies, one established, and one in development. Attendees will hear about challenges and successes of this collaborative work and have time to discuss best practices.  

Other/Cross Media

During this session, EPA will provide an overview of the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) Tribal Program and its grant requirements regarding eligible entities, vehicles, equipment, & technology. Information will be provided regarding the anticipated FY 2023 Tribal & Territory - Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) and other upcoming funding opportunities, i.e. Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) Clean School Bus Program, to Tribes and Alaska Native Villages. 

Capacity Building

Staff from EPA's Office of Transportation and Air Quality will present information about newly finalized regulations for the Light, Medium, and Heavy-Duty sectors. They will also provide a preview of upcoming regulatory actions for mobile sources that are currently in the early stages of development.

Air Quality Policy & Regulations

Moms Clean Air Force’s National Manager for Health Equity, Almeta E. Cooper and Shaina Oliver, Dine Colorado Field Organizer will lead the one-hour concurrent session. The session includes: 1) an update on Moms Clean Air Force’s 2023 advocacy for climate, clean air and children’s health, with special emphasis on its efforts as an ally with the National Tribal Air Association (NTAA), 2)  a focused, interactive conversation about climate, health equity and children’s health in Tribal Communities. The panel participants (listed above) will offer their respective perspectives as a health care professional, a government and regulatory expert, and an Indigenous mom and 3) an open forum to facilitate the identification of ways Tribal Air Quality Leaders want to have their work supported by non-Tribal allies.

https://www.momscleanairforce.org/team/almeta-cooper/

https://www.momscleanairforce.org/team/shaina-oliver/

Other/Cross Media

This will be a presentation of ongoing EPA work on the development and evaluation of PFAS measurements in the atmosphere, including precipitation, cloud-waters and ambient air techniques will be introduced and discussed.

Other/Cross Media

CASTNET is a long-term monitoring program that provides air quality data from standardized monitoring stations operating throughout the contiguous United States, Alaska, and Canada. CASTNET sites, located primarily in rural communities, measure ambient concentrations of sulfur and nitrogen pollutants, ozone, and other pollutants in cooperation with NADP. Over the past two decades, EPA has partnered with eight Tribes, providing equipment and training to establish multipollutant monitoring sites on their land. Expansion of EPA’s Tribal air monitoring partnerships has resulted in improved spatial and temporal representation of air quality in Indian Country and provided a mechanism to ensure accessible air quality data are sustained. By leveraging existing network resources, and through meaningful engagement and communication, CASTNET is an effective model for strengthening partnerships with Tribes. In this presentation, we provide highlights of CASTNET’s Tribal monitoring program, show air data from Tribal monitoring sites, and discuss future directions and opportunities for collaboration.

Technical

Air Quality sensors have provided a way to teach about air quality by allowing the ‘Unseen to be Seen”. Education and outreach for air quality has always been challenging because air can be difficult to see and understand. Sensors help students (and community members) to increase awareness of air quality and understand the impacts of air pollutants and ventilation through measurements. The presentation will include a description of various curriculum resources and demonstrations of various air sensors.

Improved Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) can result in better health outcomes for your community and better academic outcomes in your schools. Many K-12 tribal schools across the nation do not have good ventilation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it is even more important to address ventilation problems in tribal schools. This workshop provides information on the benefits of healthy IAQ, the negative health effects of poor IAQ, ventilation and filtration information and recommendations for school settings, how to monitor IAQ in schools and use monitoring data to make decisions, and information about resources to assist participants in ensuring healthy IAQ in schools. 

Voluntary

This presentation will occur at the 2024 NTFAQ at a time after Tribes with CPRG planning grants will have completed their PCAP and will have likely applied for a CPRG implementation grant. This leave the PCAP as the key remaining deliverable for the planning grant and will act as a reminder of this activity and a review of the requirements and the technical assistance available to CPRG planning grant tribes. 

Capacity Building

Abstract: With assistance from SC&A and ITEP, the Quapaw Nation and Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma assessed the air quality impacts to tribal lands from a manufacturing facility in a neighboring state. Using the new ITEP permit screening tool, we were able to better understand the air quality impacts to our lands, what was needed for a permit review, and providing comments to air permitting agencies. In this panel discussion, we will share our permit review experiences, and you can have any questions answered by the screening tool’s designer!

Air Quality Policy & Regulations

We are proposing a panel discussion. We would like to review the final rules, discuss the importance and benefits of the rule. Discuss how tribes can participate in the implementation of the rules, and have case studies from Navajo Nation and/or Southern Ute on how they will use their existing programs to address these rules. 

Air Quality Policy & Regulations

We are proposing a panel discussion. We would like to review the final rules, discuss the importance and benefits of the rule. Discuss how tribes can participate in the implementation of the rules, and have case studies from Navajo Nation and/or Southern Ute on how they will use their existing programs to address these rules. 

Air Quality Policy & Regulations

U.S. EPA released two free tools to help users visualize their air data. REal TIme Geospatial Data Viewer (RETIGO) is an easy to use, web-based tool which requires no coding skills and can be used with any type of measurement device. Users can visualize their data and compare it with nearby data sources. RETIGO displays data on an interactive map and in graphs. This presentation introduces users to RETIGO, and reviews 2024 updated features. This session also introduces sensortoolkit, a public Python package. Sensortoolkit creates sensor performance testing reports where sensor data are directly compared to a collocated reference monitor using visualizations (e.g., time series and correlation plots) and standardized metrics. One key feature is the data ingestion module which harmonizes data with unique data formats. 

Technical

Lead is in the spotlight in Alaska with the recent EPA Endangerment Finding for leaded gasoline. Due to the limited road system, rural and remote communities in Alaska depend on small piston-engine aircraft that use leaded aviation gasoline and thus are the most exposed to leaded aviation gasoline, or avgas. So how does volatilized lead from sources like avgas affect health? More broadly, what does lead, and air quality surveillance look like in Alaska given the remote nature of the state? Alaska Lead Surveillance Program Manager, Abby Nelson will provide an update on lead in Alaska, and Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium Air Quality and Healthy Homes Program Manager, Andrew Wilman will give an overview of the technology available to monitor indoor and ambient air quality (including lead), and challenges to monitoring air quality in Alaska. 

Voluntary Programs

Join us for the premiere of a newly produced set of animated e-learning videos, two years in the making, by and for Tribal communities. In total, there are 9 different "explainer" videos, each 2-3 minutes in length, covering different Healthy Homes topics from mold and radon to household chemicals and wildfire smoke. Hear directly from our Tribal partners on how they integrated the videos into their social media, resident education, and community outreach, prior to wildfire smoke season. 

Air Quality Policy & Regulations

A former air pollution inspector will be hosting this combined storytelling, training, and Q&A  experience that will explain everything you ever wanted to know (and more) about how air pollution is controlled, and the powers and authorities granted to tribes under the Clean Air Act.

Air Quality Policy & Regulations

Rosemary Ahtuangaruak, health aide and former mayor of the City of Nuiqsut, Alaska, will provide an overview of the air pollution concerns and health impacts from oil and gas development on the North Slope and the mitigation measures the community seeks to protect air quality. 

Other/Cross Media

Video tour of Morongo’s Air Monitoring Station. Present Morongo’s quality control workbook for a Level 1 field technician. Go over the cover page, maintenance field sheets, and maintenance/audits & calibration calendars of the workbook. Overview of how logbook entries are stored digitally and physically. 

Air Quality Policy & Regulations

This presentation shares the tale of how three tribes did outreach within their tribal communities. The presenters will showcase how they developed outreach content, the reach of their products and the number of years each presenter has been improving on the process. The presentation will end with highlights of things that they've learned and best practices. Join in the sharing of stories related to community outreach. 

Voluntary Programs

The US EPA’s Air, Climate, and Energy (ACE) Research Program is committed to providing Tribal partners with the knowledge and tools needed to make more informed decisions. We strive to produce research results that address real-world problems.

As climate change impacts include an increase in the severity and frequency of wildfires, the prevalence of wildfire smoke means that individuals and communities need to understand how to take steps to protect their health. Our community engaged research projects, such as Wildfire ASPIRE and WSMART, have focused on wildfire smoke, including ways to improve indoor air quality and innovative strategies to measure PM2.5 and communicate the health effects of smoke to the public. We propose to provide an update on these projects as well as other air quality-related research that would be of interest to Tribal air quality professionals. We will leave participants with concrete ways to access practical air quality information via webinars, guidebooks, and story maps. 

Other/Cross Media

TBA

Capacity Building

Success building air program with EPA funding, gathering data to support applications, and community outreach/education. 

Technical

The Status of Tribal Air Report (STAR) is designed to provide a national overview of air quality, Tribal air programs, successes and challenges that face Native American Nations in implementing the Clean Air Act, addressing air quality and climate change. This session will highlight the 2023 STAR and then present budget requests, priorities and current accomplishments for 2024, as we begin the process of developing the 2024 STAR report.  

Other/Cross Media

Air quality reporting from non-governmental sources is continuing to expand from new technologies (sensors), companies (private sector), and media (apps/smartphones and devices) and present different Air Quality Index (AQI) information to the public and media than what is reported by state, local, and tribal air agencies, and EPA AirNow.

The EPA AirNow program is embarking on a pilot effort to use data fusion from several datasets to produce an AQI estimate at a hyper-local level that will cover the entire country. Using hourly data from the traditional air quality monitoring network, the NOAA air quality forecast guidance, and the extensive PurpleAir sensor network, EPA has developed an operational data fusion product that will produce an AQI in areas where there is limited air quality monitoring and feedback from our partner agencies is needed.

This presentation will cover the current status of these new data fusion efforts as well as future changes to EPA air quality data management with a proposed modernization effort of both AirNow and the Air Quality System (if time and relevant information is available by May).

Technical

This session will address two different foundations that Tribal air quality professionals can utilize to inform the communities they work with. The first part broadly explores the health effects of smoke, including what smoke is made of, physical implications, and susceptible populations. The second part of the session will look at the types of monitors and other factors to consider that will help Tribal air professionals make the right decisions for their communities to monitor particulate matter emissions during a smoke event.

Other/Cross Media

TBA

Other/Cross Media