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Tribes in Arizona Benefit from Recovery Act Funds to Improve Water Services

Release Date: 07/08/2009
Contact Information: Margot Perez-Sullivan, 415.947.4149 Perezsullivan.margot@epa.gov

Tribes in Arizona will have improved access to vital water services through funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s Indian Health Service (IHS) today announced $90 million nationwide in ‘shovel ready’ infrastructure projects designed to better protect human and environmental health in Indian Country.

"On tribal lands, 10 percent of homes lack access to safe drinking water compared to less than one percent of non-native homes. Together with the Indian Health Service, EPA is using Recovery Act funds to provide much-needed support for water and wastewater systems in Indian Country,” said Laura Yoshii, acting regional administrator for the U.S. EPA in the Pacific Southwest. “This funding creates jobs for tribal members, addresses critical infrastructure needs and will increase access to drinking water and basic sanitation services. By 2010, over 4,400 tribal homes in the Pacific Southwest are expected to receive piped drinking water or basic sanitation services for the first time.”


    · Hualapai Tribe will receive $260,400 to upgrade its drinking water system serving 75 homes
    · The Hopi Tribe will receive $1,353,530 for six wastewater and drinking water projects serving 484 homes
    · San Carlos Apache Tribe will receive $1,140,000 for drinking water system improvements serving 1,055 homes
    · White Mountain Apache Tribe will receive $2,321,150 for three projects improving wastewater and drinking water systems serving 2,085 homes
    · Yavapai-Apache Nation will receive $321,900 to improve arsenic treatment for its drinking water system serving 161 homes
    · Tohono O’odham Nation will receive $1,929,010 for five wastewater and drinking water projects serving 497 homes
    · Ak-Chin Indian Community will receive $615,770 to improve its wastewater treatment facility serving 126 homes
    · Quechan Tribe will receive $340,630 to upgrade sewer lines serving 15 homes
Continuing a tradition spanning 20 years, EPA and IHS’s combined effort to improve water services in Indian Country contributed to their identification of 95 wastewater and 64 drinking water priority projects to be completed by IHS’s Sanitation Facilities Construction Program through EPA Recovery Act funds. The projects exceed the Recovery Act requirement that 20 percent of the funds be used for green infrastructure, water and energy efficiency improvements and other environmentally innovative projects.
    President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 on February 17, 2009, and has directed that the recovery act be implemented with unprecedented transparency and accountability. To that end, the American people can see how every dollar is being invested at recovery.gov.
      More information about all the EPA Recovery Act water efforts: https://www.epa.gov/water/eparecovery/

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