(a) The health and safety of our Tribal members and their families and the quality of our air, land and water resources is an overriding cultural imperative for the Council and Tribe. Many Tribal members use the animals, plants, and aquatic resources on the YIR for ceremonial, traditional, and subsistent purposes. The use of underground storage tanks on lands within the exterior boundaries of the YIR has been determined, by the Council and people, to be a potential threat to the health and safety of human, plant, and animal life, and to have potentially detrimental impacts upon the quality of the YIR’s air, land and water resources.

(b) Pursuant to 40 C.F.R. Parts 280 and 281, known as the Underground Storage Tank Regulations, there is a jurisdictional need for implementing a Yurok Tribal ordinance for underground storage tanks.

(c) Pursuant to enacting underground storage tank codes for environmental protection on Tribal lands, the Yurok Tribe (Tribe) hereby adopts 40 C.F.R. Parts 280 and 281 as the Tribal code for regulation of underground storage tanks.

(d) This Tribal code for underground storage tanks will contain all parts of 40 C.F.R. Parts 280 and 281. 40 C.F.R. Parts 280 and 281 will be in full force and effect until and unless the Yurok Tribal Council deems it necessary to include a further definition of Yurok Tribal codes for underground storage tanks. [Ord. 11 § 2, adopted, 4/7/2005.]