EPA Announces Over $616,000 in Funding for New Mexico Tribes
DALLAS, TEXAS (January 7, 2026) – U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is awarding a total $297,375 to the Pueblo of Tesuque and $318,634 to the Pueblo of Taos to address environmental priorities within each of the Pueblo’s territories. These funds are being provided through EPA’s Indian Environmental General Assistance Program (GAP) and Clean Water Act (CWA) grants.
“These funds represent EPA’s unwavering commitment to supporting Tribal programs,” said Regional Administrator Scott Mason. “EPA is committed to ensuring clean air, water, and land for all communities. I congratulate the Pueblo of Tesuque and the Pueblo of Taos for being awarded this funding to further develop their successful environmental programs.”
The Pueblo of Tesuque is located in the hills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains near Santa Fe, New Mexico. The funding will be used to ensure the protection and improvement of the water quality in the Tribe’s rivers, lakes, streams, groundwater, and other waterbodies. The Pueblo will conduct surface water quality monitoring in accordance with Tesuque’s Water Quality Standards (WQS), continue community outreach, ensure underground storage tank compliance and monitor surface water quality within the Pueblo’s borders.
The Pueblo of Taos is in the north central part of the state of New Mexico and includes all the headwaters of the Rio Pueblo and the Rio Lucero. The Pueblo will use these funds to conduct community outreach to inform Tribal members of updates to the environmental program, create an emissions inventory for winter and summer time periods to aid understanding of what emissions could be impacting the Pueblo, review the process for air monitoring, decrease non-point pollution, review and maintain surface water quality monitoring operations, coordinate monitoring efforts with on-the-ground land management activities and grow the Tribal Water Quality Program in accordance with Tribal needs.
For more information on GAP, visit our webpage or view the GAP Innovations and Investments Report.
Background
The Indian Environmental GAP is a resource for Tribal grantees to plan, develop, and establish internal capacity with the expected outcome to assume environmental regulatory functions and programs currently administered by EPA.
The CWA grant programs offer organizations and Tribes the opportunity of receiving funding to develop water quality projects and ensuring critical water infrastructure is maintained.
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