Navajo water users spend most in U.S.
S.J. Ludescher
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Navajos who haul water for household use spend nearly
37 times as much per acre-foot as typical suburban water users in
this region.
This makes "this water among the most expensive in the United
States for a sector of the population that is among the poorest,"
according to a report released Monday by the Navajo Nation Department
of Water Resources.
The lack of water infrastructure and economic development and poverty
on the Navajo Nation are connected, according to the report.
"The fact that the mean income of Navajo families is below the
poverty line can be attributed, in large part, to the lack of water
supplies within the reservation," the report says.
The lack of a reliable and affordable drinking water supply also contributes
to a high incidence of disease and infection due to waterborne contaminants,
the report also said.
"The chronic condition places large financial burdens on federal
programs that treat diseases and illnesses that could be prevented
if adequate safe water supplies were available," the report says.
The purpose of the report was to detail proposed water projects, target
need, identify water resource infrastructure deficiencies and present
a strategy for addressing the inadequacies.
The total domestic water consumption on the reservation is approximately
12,000 acre-feet per year. An acre-foot is roughly equal to about
326,000 gallons an amount that would cover one acre with one foot
of water or the amount used by a family of four for one year.
Per person, that works out to between 10 and 100 gallons per day depending
upon the availability and accessibility of the water supply. In 1981,
a report showed that the per-person use for 40 percent of the homes
without running water was 10 gallons per day.
To put this into perspective, the average person for neighboring non-Indian
communities in Arizona is 206 gallons per day.
In addition to the expense and inconvenience of hauling water with
a truck, sanitation is also a concern, since water haulers frequently
get water from non-potable sources, such as stock tanks.
The on-reservation demand is expected to increase to an average of
160 gallons per day per person and to exceed 89,000 acre-feet by the
year 2040. Forecasts indicate this may require a six-fold increase
in system capacity.
The Navajo Nation, it seems, has been waging an uphill battle for
many years to maintain and modernize its water resource infrastructure.
"However, it has become increasingly clear that, given the existing
agency resources, budgets and authorizations, many of the water infrastructure
deficiencies on the reservation will continue to go unattended,"
the report stated. "Without increased action ... the problems
will become increasingly acute.
"Even with the large regional projects, without additional local
infrastructure, there will be inadequate conveyance and treatment
capacity to deliver potable water from the regional systems to many
of the water users," the report says.
"Even with the regional projects and the associated local distribution
systems fully in place, approximately 40 percent of the chapters will
rely on other water supply sources and facilities. Many of these areas
have systems that require rehabilitation and many areas require new
systems," the report says.
The regional water projects will provide some indirect relief to the
water haulers, however. The distance to reliable water taps will decrease
for most and existing unregulated water hoses will also be improved.
The feasibility of solar pumps and cisterns is being studied.
Even by identifying the magnitude of problems, a sufficient water
resource development is beyond the financial capabilities of the Navajo
Nation and the federal agencies authorized to address these concerns.
For example, IHS has a 20-year backlog of projects to correct sanitation
deficiencies. The 1999 sanitation deficiency list includes 785 water,
waste water and solid waste projects with a cost of more that $380
million. The annual IHS budget is $25 million per year.
The average estimated cost to provide sewage is $13,000 per household
plus engineering and contingency costs. To accommodate projected population
increases, the Navajo Nation will need to construct more than 50,000
new homes by 2040 in the chapters served by regional water projects.
The wastewater treatment for these new homes is estimated at $620
million.
The report identifies seven major water supply projects, including
the Navajo-Gallup water pipeline, Navajo municipal pipeline and central
San Juan River pipeline. The proposed projects, however, will only
provide water to 67 of the 110 chapters on the reservation.
By the year 2040, these projects will supply 80 percent
of the estimated 500,000 population. The projects are expected to
cost more than $600 million to construct.
IHS plans for future water needs are designed for a demand of only
100 gallons per day. This rate is approximately half of the non-Indian
per person use in Arizona and does not address commercial or industrial
water users.
Groundwater is the most heavily utilized and dependable municipal
water source for the Navajo Nation, however. In 1998, there were 237
public water supply systems. The majority of these systems relied
on groundwater.
The largest supplier of domestic and municipal systems, the Navajo
Tribal Utility Authority, operates 93 systems with more than 1,300
miles of water lines and very few connections per mile. It serves
93,000 people and 200 commercial users.
The combined cost of the regional projects and the local systems may
exceed $2 billion.
By spending that $2 billion, the report theorizes, it would help to
close the average per capita income gap between the Navajo Nation
and the United States.
"Over 40 years, (that would) generate $800 million in direct
benefits to the Navajo Nation and other indirect benefits to the federal
government," the report says.
To solve these problems, the Navajo Nation plans to complete the feasibility
study for the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project by the fiscal year
2001 and then submit the project to Congress by 2002.
The NWRD will also continue to push for completion of the other six
projects, including the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project.
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Financial woes force adult day care to
close
Zarana Sanghani
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Frances Adult Day Services will be going out of business.
However, another company will be put in its place to administer the
adult care programs so clients won't lose the services permanently.
Programs at the center have been shut down since June 15 and the organization
has been working to finish business and prepare for a new administration.
The regional New Mexico Agency on Aging will work with Frances Adult
Day Services to make the transition and ensure that clients get the
services they need, said Christine Luna, a spokeswoman for the organization.
Frances Adult Day Services is a non-profit organization that runs
day care programs at a facility on Boyd Avenue for about 20 elderly
people and makes house visits for about 50 others.
The board of directors' secretary Shirley Baker said the organization
has suffered from financial mismanagement. The board fired Allen Krane,
the executive director, and Caroline Bizardi, the program director,
in June amid allegations that they misused funds, she added.
No charges have been filed.
Baker said she has left messages with a secretary at the DA's office
asking for an investigation but she has not told the secretary what
needs to be investigated. No one has returned her calls. No one at
the DA's office or any other law enforcement agency has heard of the
case yet.
DA Mary Helen Baber said her office receives several such calls a
week and that it is difficult to follow up on vague calls. She added
that her office has no record of any calls from Baker.
Frances Adult Day Services will conduct an audit soon, but it does
not know yet how much debt has accumulated, Luna said.
The board of directors hopes that the state can help pay some of the
bills, Baker said.
The New Mexico Agency on Aging and the Department of Children, Youth
and Families sometimes fund adult care programs through grants.
Frances Adult Day Services will have to pay all its bills for June,
said Gene Varela, the deputy director for the New Mexico Agency on
Aging.
The state will try to make sure some entity administers the adult
care programs after Frances Adult Day Services closes, Varela said.
The state agency will assign an organization to run the house-visit
program for the rest of the year, Varela said. After this year is
over, that program will be contracted through a bidding process.
The senior companion and retarded senior volunteer programs will go
to bid as soon as possible, Varela said. In the meantime, the state
will find a nearby organization that can take on those two programs
until the bidding process is complete.
Children, Youth and Families helps fund the day care facility and
will handle that program, Varela said. (Independent reporters could
not reach anyone at CYF on Monday.)
Varela said any investigation into Frances Adult Day Services and
its finances will be done by the regional agency. The organizations
that will take over the programs will be encouraged to keep the employees
and volunteers who worked with Frances Adult Day Services, he added.
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Tribe votes to freeze election money
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — The controversy over this year's Navajo Nation
general election involving a tribal council determined it will be
on Aug. 1 and an election board that says it will be on Oct. 3 appears
headed for the Navajo Nation Supreme Court.
The council voted 56-18 Monday to direct Speaker Edward T. Begay to
quickly present a resolution of sanction possibly today to freeze
money for the Navajo Board of Election Supervisors and Navajo Election
Administration for the rest of the year if election officials do not
accept the council's wish for an Aug. 1 election date.
Election administration Director Carol Kirk Perry, asked directly
by Council Delegate Johnny Naize if her staff could get the ballots
printed in time for an Aug. 1 date, said, "No."
Naize then asked her why. Apparently not satisfied with the replies,
he issued a unilateral directive to have election officials do what
has to be done to have an August vote.
Delegate Thomas Cody complained, "We are forever making directives
and never back them up with any sanctions."
Then Delegate Ervin Keeswood persuaded Naize to include financial
sanctions in the directive.
"All the council is trying to do is keep the election administration
and supervisors out of trouble," he said. An October election
will cause problems, he said, since the law says the winners will
be sworn in before the 10-day grievance period would end.
Delegate Lawrence Morgan said the council's authority was being tested
in what he called a power struggle.
"The Navajo Nation Council has not changed any election dates.
The election administration is falling behind," he said.
After legislative branch Chief of Staff Leonard Gorman presented a
chronology of what happened, Perry said the situation actually began
before the listed dates.
She said the missing element was that in August 1999, the office's
budget was not presented to the Budget and Finance Committee which
then ordered the auditor general's office to produce one.
The auditor general's budget was much lower than the one prepared
by former election director Richie Nez.
"That's when the problem began," Perry said.
To have ballots available for absentee voting 30 days before the August
date meant they should have gone to the printer by June 15, Perry
said. Since the council did not provide money until July 10, it was
too late, she said.
Perry has said that tribal law forbids her office to spend money it
doesn't have.
"We could not request ballots (to be printed) without the funds,
which were about three weeks late," she said.
The speaker and delegates, bolstered by an opinion by chief legislative
counsel Steve Boos, maintain the election supervisors did not meet
the four conditions that allow an election to be postponed for up
to 60 days to get new ballots printed.
Thus, they say the October election will be invalid.
After the council's action, LeNora Fulton, vice chair of the election
board, said, "If the council had done its job, we wouldn't be
in this dilemma. They knew a year ago. We told them that loud and
clear, that we had the money only for the primary, not the general
election."
Fulton said trying to get a supplemental appropriation from the Undesignated
Reserve took time but that the Budget and Finance Committee would
not even consider it. The committee routinely rejects requests to
dip into the reserve.
Fulton said the council gave the authority to interpret the election
code to the supervisors.
"And that's what we did," she said. "The council can
do what it wants. We know they are violating the Navajo people's voting
rights. They've gone beyond the authority given them by the people.
"There absolutely is no time to print the ballots. It takes 15
days or more."
And haste leads to errors such as in the primary election for the
Kayenta Township Commission. The ballot said to vote for one person,
but should have said two. Trouble getting a printer, who then didn't
deliver as promised, led to the mistake, she said.
"We will not compromise. The Board of Election Supervisors is
protecting the public's trust, their voting rights," she said.
Fulton also said she asked Frank Seanez of the Office of Legislative
Counsel at the supervisors meeting to make sure everything the board
did was legal.
"Now his office says it's illegal. The election board followed
the law," she said.
Perry, standing beside Fulton, added that the council itself began
to fall out of compliance with the law when it didn't appropriate
enough money.
Election officials continually have maintained that without the money
to print the ballots, they could not and didn't have ballots available
by July 3 for the Aug. 1 election Thus students and others living
off the reservation would not be able to vote unless they made an
extra journey back to the reservation on election day.
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Report: Navajos lag behind U.S.
S.J. Ludescher
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Statistics released Monday by the Navajo Nation include
the following:
In 1997, the median family income for a Navajo family was $11,885
per year. The U.S. family income was $30,000.
The average per capita income for the Navajo Nation was less than
$5,600 while the per capita income for the state of Arizona was about
$22,000.
More than 50 percent of the Navajo families on the reservation live
below federal poverty levels compared with less than 13 percent of
the general U.S. population.
The Navajo unemployment rate on the reservation is 58 percent, compared
to an unemployment rate for the U.S. of about 5 percent.
More than 50 percent of Navajo home lack complete kitchens.
More than 40 percent of Navajo households rely solely on water hauling
to meet daily water needs.
Native American families living in homes with adequate sanitation
facilities required only 25 percent of the medical services required
by those living in unsatisfactory environmental conditions.
Navajo families who haul water for domestic purposes spend the equivalent
of $22,000 per acre-foot of water compared with $600 per acre-foot
for a typical suburban water user in this same region.
| Top |
Two die in wrecks
Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — Two men died in traffic accidents on the Navajo
Nation.
Loren Gene Kelly, 31, of the Navajo Housing Authority subdivision
in Leupp, died in a one-vehicle rollover Friday afternoon at Mile
Post 13 on Bureau of Indian Affairs Route 15 in Leupp.
He was eastbound in a pickup truck that went off the road, overcorrected
and rolled several times. Kelly stayed in the truck, suffering massive
head injuries and chest trauma, according to the Dilkon Police District
report.
The case was turned over to the Navajo Criminal Investigations Department.
About an hour earlier, a crosswind caused a two-door Ford Explorer
towing a 14-foot travel trailer to fishtail and go out of control,
resulting in the death of Richard Alton Williams, 57, of Julian, Calif...
| Top |
Correction
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — The Fort Defiance Agency Council approved a resolution
last week favoring a Nov. 7 tribal general election. A report in Monday's
edition incorrectly reported that the resolution failed.
The council voted 26-25, with four abstentions. The normal tribal
rule about including abstentions to determine the number of votes
needed for a majority was set aside. Therefore the resolution was
declared to have passed, rather than failed.
| Top |
Burger King safe stolen
Christopher Schurtz
Staff Writer
GRANTS — Employees of the Burger King on Santa Fe reported that
a safe containing an unspecified amount of money was stolen recently.
Managers told police that all doors had been secured the night of
June 24, but police believe the thieves likely got in through the
drive-through window and pried open the office door enough to unlock
it.
At the time, managers told police that they were not sure of all of
the contents of the safe, including how much money was in it. Police
are still investigating.
Inmate charged
Police arrested a Corrections Corporation of America inmate for possession
of methamphetamines July 1. Police were called to CCA after corrections
officers searched the cell of an inmate, Elizabeth Trujeque, 39, and
found a small quantity of crystal meth...
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Event becoming top notch
Santiago Ramos
Staff Sports Writer
CHURCH ROCK - The latest edition of the Wild Thing Championship Bull
Riding held over the past weekend before near capacity crowds at Red
Rock State Park was a smashing success.
Wild Thing coordinator Larry Peterson outdid himself for putting on
another quality, fastpaced and simply entertaining professional production.
"We want to have a good fast-paced, pumping show for our fans,"
Peterson said the day after his latest Wild Thing production ended.
"We try to make it an exhilarating show. We have some of the
best bull riders in the country with several former champions. Our
stock is the best in the world. We bring the best bucking bulls around
that are now at the Cheyenne Frontier Days this week. We have $6,000
in added money for the contestants. It's good money, it's fun and
we treat them good. We give the winners great buckles and trophies.
We bring in a great sound system to play the music..."
| Top |
Questions raised about Mariners' state
berth
Alan Arthur
Sports Editor
GALLUP — The Mariners are in Las Cruces this week, representatives
of the Gallup Amateur Baseball Congress in the Mickey Mantle state
tournament.
But did the Mariners receive an unfair advantage of getting this trip?
That was the question asked by two opposing coaches as they met with
the Independent on Saturday afternoon.
Yankees manager Mike Alonzo and Mets manager Joe Espinosa, along with
their wives, brought up this question among others during the interview,
in which they outlined numerous instances where they felt the Mariners
received preferential treatment from GABC President Diane Garcia and
her husband, Joe...
| Top |
Navajo economy relies on water to flourish
S.J. Ludescher
Staff Writer
GALLUP — More than 400 years ago, Navajos irrigated fields near
the San Juan River and other places where the water supply was adequate.
Today, water is scarcer while the need and importance has grown.
Agriculture and livestock are important sources of income to the Navajo
Nation that depend on water to flourish.
According to a report issued Monday by the Navajo Nation Department
of Water Resources, agricultural projects, such as Navajo Agricultural
Products Industry, produce personal income estimated at about $2 million
per year...
| Top |
Deaths
George Roanhorse
LUKACHUKAI, Ariz. — Services for George Roanhorse, 69, will be
held at 10 a.m. Wednesday, July 19, at St. Isabel Mission in Lukachukai.
Father Caron Vollmer and Father Blane will officiate. Burial will
follow at the Lukachukai Mission Cemetery.
Roanhorse died July 15 in Chinle, Ariz. He was born March 24, 1931,
in Wheatfields, Ariz., into the Bitter Water People Clan for the Black
Streak Wood People Clan.
Survivors include his wife, Mary Alice Roanhorse of Lukachukai; sons,
Emmerson James Roanhorse of Wheatfields, Ariz., George Roanhorse Jr.
of Jeddito, Ariz., and Harold Anthony Roanhorse of Navajo, N.M.; daughters,
Kathleen Bia of Phoenix, Georgianne Roanhorse of Lukachukai, Lavona
Lucille Roanhorse of Mesa, Ariz., Madeline Marie Roanhorse of Window
Rock, and Valerie Roanhorse-Lee of Oaksprings, Ariz.; sister, Mary
Sandoval of Lukachukai; 26 grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.
Roanhorse was preceded in death by his daughter, Sharon Jean Roanhorse;
parents, Joe and Fannie Roanhorse; brothers, David Henry Roanhorse,
Dick Roanhorse, James Roanhorse and Robert Roanhorse; and sisters,
Deba Frances Roanhorse and Ruth Roanhorse.
Rollie Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.
Loren Kelly
LEUPP, Ariz. — Services for Loren Kelly, 31, will be held at
10 a.m. Wednesday, July 19, at the Leupp Presbyterian Church. Burial
will follow at the family plot in Leupp.
Kelly died July 14 in Leupp. He was born April 4, 1969, in Winslow,
Ariz.
Survivors include his parents, Gilbert McCabe and Mary Bia; brothers,
Kenneth Bia Jr. and Kelvin Bia; sister, Kim Bia; and grandparents,
David and Betty Kelly, all of Leupp.
| Top |
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