Bad water in Black Falls
Navajo EPA hears complaints from elderly who must drink contaminated water

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — For some elderly Black Falls, Ariz., residents, last week’s Navajo Environmental Protection Agency conference was their first opportunity to have a voice in Window Rock — a chance some didn’t want to miss.

The community located in the former Bennett Freeze area has struggled for years to find a source of safe drinking water, with residents often traveling 50 miles to Flagstaff on unpaved roads to haul water.

In February, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Indian Health Service extended a waterline and constructed a safe water-hauling point in the priority area to serve residents near four unregulated wells contaminated with uranium.

Indian Health Service distributed 14 new water-hauling tanks to members of the community and is developing plans to install cisterns for up to nine homes within the immediate vicinity of the contaminated wells. In the interim, EPA has been providing bottled water to two families living in a very remote area who previously relied on uranium-contaminated wells.

During the May 13 EPA conference presentation of “Assisting the Water Haulers: Using Grassroots Driven Development to Secure Environmental Justice,” Don Yellowman, president of The Forgotten People, talked about how this group of Bennett Freeze area residents came together to help themselves.

“In Diné way, these people have extended families here and cannot just pick up and move to some other location so they remain and when necessary subject themselves to drinking contaminated water,” Yellowman said.

“I can only imagine how Rolanda (Tohannie) must feel speaking publicly about how she knows she is drinking contaminated water but does so because she has no other choice, and how Elsie Tohannie and other Black Falls residents feel as mothers, grandmothers and relatives of these families.

“It is imperative the new Black Falls Church watering point open, be maintained, and in the interim, all chapter houses must serve everyone in need without discrimination to ensure access to safe drinking water,” he said.

Florabell Paddock of Black Falls said she migrated during times of drought and drank from contaminated wells all her life. “These were the only sources of water we knew about and our sheep live off these water sources.

“Since last fall, we have been getting bottled water delivered to us from Superfund of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency because we live in a remote area and have no other option to safe drinking water. Now I am hard of hearing and wear a hearing aid. I wish these water issues were addressed when I was able to hear. The conditions we face are urgent,” Paddock said.

Faye Willie lives by Dry Spring, which is contaminated, and has been diagnosed with cancer. “I spent a lot of time in Phoenix and my doctors told me I only have a short time to live, but now I made it back home to my community in Black Falls.”

Having Navajo EPA recognize her community with an award lifted her spirits. “I am able to get around and am happy I got to live to see and experience this day of recognition of addressing safe reliable drinking water needs in Black Falls,” she said.

Rolanda Tohannie’s family drinks the contaminated water from Box Springs, she said. “We know it is contaminated but we have no choice because we do not have a vehicle to haul water over great distances. I have thyroid cancer and am suffering without access to safe drinking water.

“It makes me feel helpless as a thinking human being to tell you I am drinking contaminated water even though I have been educated at meetings of Forgotten People about the dangers of drinking contaminated water. I am telling you this because I am concerned (about) the consequences of subjecting my family and all the families still drinking contaminated water because we have no other choice,” she said.

George Kee, a Vietnam Veteran, from Black Falls, said he is concerned about complex political issues that have denied them access to safe drinking water. “We are five-fingered human beings that require water to survive. I served my country and my homeland to return home and find my people thirsty, still drinking uranium-contaminated water.

“I believe water development should be a top priority after so many years of neglect during the Bennett Freeze that caused U.S. governmental policies to allow the Bureau of Indian Affairs to cap off all the water wells in our region and deny people access to safe drinking water and dissect our communities by erecting miles of barbed wire fence.”

Carol Colorado of Gray Mountain area said she and others in her area dread this time of year with summer coming because they do not yet know the extent of drought and where they will get water. “We have to think ahead to survive.

Neighboring water points that were constructed in the Gray Mountain area do not work because minor repairs were never made.”

Myrtle Yellowhorse of Bodaway/Gap told the group, “I waited all my life for this moment to speak here in Window Rock.”

Her parents died when she was a young girl, she said, but she still remembers the lessons they instilled in her.

“They stressed to me from here forward in my adult life I must think about the necessities in life and what it takes for me to survive,” she said. Because of this, she goes out of her way to attend The Forgotten People’s meetings. “That is how strong I feel about pursuing the idea of not only thinking of my well being and survival but how I can contribute to these meetings, no matter how far I must travel.”

Yellowhorse lives without running water or electricity in a shack on Hopi Partitioned Land, according to Yellowman.

“Her health problems are obvious. We used to see her walk and she now uses a walker. It is obvious to me she is on a mission and is determined. And by speaking at the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency conference, perhaps for a day or so she will feel no pain,” Yellowman said.

Elsie Tohannie of Black Falls told the group, “It is hard to constantly keep vehicles running and going long distances to get water. A water-hauling truck would help us to ensure we have safe water to drink.”

The Navajo Department of Water Resources is applying to U.S. EPA for funding of five water trucks as part of a pilot project, according to EPA Region 9’s Clancy Tenley.

“If EPA funds this, which we hope to do so, it would be next fall. We would pay for the full cost of the trucks for three years for this pilot project so they can gather cost data and see how this would work. We’re excited. We think it’s an opportunity to get water to people who don’t have piped water right now,” Tenley said.