WASHINGTON – U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet, John Hickenlooper and Martin Heinrich, joined by Rep. Joe Neguse, reintroduced the Tribal Access to Clean Water Act on Wednesday.
The act addresses the need for Native American tribes, which have historically been excluded from Colorado River policies, to have greater access to clean water. The bill would increase funding to the Indian Health Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture and Bureau of Reclamation to assist tribal communities in accessing clean water.
While Native American tribes along the Colorado River have 20% of the priority rights to the water, they have continuously been excluded from conversations about how to allocate the water source.
“Access to clean water is a fundamental human right – yet far too many Tribal communities in the 21st century are still forced to travel long distances for clean water,” Bennet said in a news release.
According to Tribal Clean Water, an organization dedicated to passing a universal action plan to ensure clean drinking water for Native American communities, 48% of tribal households lack access to clean water. The organizations also found that Native American households are 19 times more likely than the average white household to lack indoor plumbing.
When the pandemic hit, many tribal reservations found themselves in a dire situation in which they lacked clean water for sanitation and drinking. According to Water Education Colorado, an organization dedicated to education and mobilizing Coloradans around water issues, the COVID-19 pandemic left Native Americans as one of the most vulnerable groups to the coronavirus, in part because those communities are more likely to lack access to clean water.
One of the key reminders by health officials during the height of the pandemic was to wash hands often, but that becomes more difficult in homes that lack plumbing and access to clean water sources.
Tribal Clean Water found that Native communities were affected by COVID-19 at a rate 3.5 times higher than their white counterparts.
“Too many Tribal families still don’t have access to clean water and reliable wastewater infrastructure,” Hickenlooper said in a news release. “Our bill builds on clean water investments we secured for Tribes in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, makes sure Tribes can get their fair share in the rural grant process, and helps meet sanitation needs.”
In April, the Environmental Protection Agency approved the Southern Ute Indian Tribe’s water quality as the 47th out of 574 federally recognized tribes to have clean water. In some parts of the Ute tribe, it is customary to bring bottled water as a greeting gift because of the lack of clean water.
Other tribes such as the Navajo Nation, are in more dire situations with their lack of access to clean water, where a University of Southern California study found one in three Navajo households lack access to running water. The same study found 30% to 40% of Navajo households haul their water from communal wells or long distances.
The bill comes after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling from last month that went against the Navajo Nation’s claim that the federal government failed to assert the tribe’s need for and access to water in the West.
“This bill’s recognition of the need for the support of an independent and functional Tribal utility to professionally manage water supply facilities is not only essential to realizing the benefit of investment in water infrastructure, but also a critical step toward increasing Tribal independence and governance capabilities,” Manuel Heart, chairman of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, said in a news release.
Mina Allen is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a student at American University in Washington, D.C. She can be reached at mallen@durangoherald.com.
