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Pacific Southwest, Region 9

Serving: Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Pacific Islands, 148 Tribes

 

Safe Drinking Water, Clean Waterways: Tribal drinking water, wastewater, polluted runoff projects

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Note: EPA no longer updates this information, but it may be useful as a reference or resource.

Picture of: New drinking water well and storage tank at Cocopah.
New drinking water well and storage tank at Cocopah.

EPA provided funding in 2003 for dozens of tribal projects to provide safe drinking water, treat wastewater, and prevent polluted runoff, including:

Drinking water

  • In 2003, EPA's Drinking Water Tribal Set-aside Program provided $3.1 million for nine projects serving five tribes, making drinking water safer for about 13,000 homes.
  • With aid from the USDA, Indian Health Service and EPA's Tribal Set-aside Program, the Cocopah Tribe drilled two new wells, constructed a 500,000 gallon storage tank, upgraded their water distribution system, and built an iron and manganese treatment facility.

EPA's Tribal Border Infrastructure Program

Between 1996 and 2003, EPA's Tribal Border Infrastructure Program provided $28.4 million to improve the drinking water and wastewater systems for tribes within 62 miles of the U.S./Mexico Border. This has provided 7,765 homes with safe drinking water, and 1,888 homes with better wastewater disposal facilities.

Picture of: New wastewater treatment plant, Ak-Chin
New wastewater treatment plant at Ak-Chin Reservation
  • The Tohono O'odham added continuous disinfection units to 71 drinking water sources under this program. A new well was drilled for the Manzanita Tribe to eliminate rising nitrate concentrations in their water supply.
  • The Pala Band of Mission Indians installed three new drinking water wells, and completed a non-point source pollution assessment.
  • The Ak-Chin Community developed its own Long-Term Water Quality Monitoring Program, removed and closed about 100 septic systems, and connected all homes, government buildings, and businesses to their new Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Preventing polluted runoff

Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of Duck Valley (northern Nevada) restored Skull Creek, which had been degraded by vehicle crossing points on four sections of the creek.
Picture of: Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of Duck Valley (northern Nevada) restored Skull Creek, which had been degraded by vehicle crossing points on four sections of the creek. Before Restoration.
Before restoration
Picture of: Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of Duck Valley (northern Nevada) restored Skull Creek, which had been degraded by vehicle crossing points on four sections of the creek. After Restoration.
After restoration
  • The Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of Duck Valley Indian Reservation restored sections of Skull Creek, which had been degraded by four vehicle crossing points.
  • The Yurok Tribe removed 131 vehicles from a riparian area, removed 592 gallons of toxic pollutants, and planted 7,400 native trees to restore the area.
  • The Ak-Chin Community replaced over 475 invasive salt cedar trees, which guzzle far more water than other trees, with native cottonwood and screwbean mesquite trees.
  • The Hopi Environmental Protection Office coordinated with local livestock associations, resource conservation districts, and community members on several watershed restoration projects. With EPA assistance, the Hopi Solid Waste Program cleaned a riparian area marred by illegal dumping.
  • The Robinson Rancheria's Water Pollution Prevention and Control Program worked with community members and groups to control erosion and restore a local creek. Volunteers transplanted sedge plants (used for basket making) and thinned out gray willows. The willow stakes were then used to revegetate another streambank.
  • The Hualapai Tribe got EPA funding to repair and replace 120 miles of their reservation's border fence, to keep cattle out of their streams.
  • 10 tribes submitted approved Nonpoint Source (polluted runoff) Assessment Report & Management Programs; 54 tribes are eligible to receive funding for watershed restoration projects.
Picture of: Black Mesa coal slurry pipeline facility on Navajo Nation land pulverizes coal, mixes it with water, then sends it through a pipeline to a distant coal-burning electric power plant.
Black Mesa coal facility on Navajo Nation land pulverizes coal, mixes it with water, then sends it through a pipeline to a distant coal-burning electric power plant.

Clean water enforcement

The Black Mesa Pipeline, which transports coal slurry from the Peabody Western Coal Company's Black Mesa Mine near Kayenta, Ariz. to the Southern California Edison Company's Mohave Generating Station in Laughlin, NV, paid $55,000 in penalties for coal slurry leaks on Navajo land.

Plan for 2004: Safe drinking water, clean waterways

  • EPA's compliance work in the Pacific Southwest will include conducting 80 sanitary survey inspections on tribal lands.
  • EPA will focus on operator training for tribes to increase the proportion of tribal water systems with certified operators to 73%.
  • EPA will manage 55 new tribal water and wastewater projects through grants to tribal governments and interagency agreements with the Indian Health Service.
  • EPA will provide financial assistance to tribal wastewater systems serving approximately 7,000 homes, bringing the total receiving EPA assistance since 1998 to 20,000.
  • EPA will assist 95 tribes with 135 water quality protection grants totaling $10 million.
  • EPA will award 10 new grants to tribes for source water assessments and source water protection.
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