Deadly water
Despite new water station, residents still incur hardship
Last in a series.

There was no safe drinking water available May 22 at the Black Falls Church water point when Roland Tohannie went to fill up his water barrels, but there was plenty on the road, making travel hazardous. — © 2009 Gallup Independent / Kathy Helms

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

BLACK FALLS, Ariz. — Residents couldn’t have been happier when, in February, a ribbon cutting was held to officially open the Black Falls Church watering point. Ideally, it meant water haulers wouldn’t have to travel long distances anymore to fill their barrels with safe drinking water.

For people such as Nina Tohannie, it meant that her brother Ronald wouldn’t be sending her down into Dry Spring to scrub the walls of the well with chlorine and pull out the bones and carcasses of dead animals.

“When it’s like that, you can smell it,” Ronald said. “We’d have to clean out the well and siphon all that water out with a water pump. Then somebody has to crawl down in there and get what’s left. I can’t get it with the water pump. It’s really thick. So we have to take a bucket down there with a rope on it.

“The hole is about 2 feet by 2 feet. Somebody kind of skinny has to go down there. You have to use a ladle or something to clean out the bottom and put it in the bucket, and then we have to pull it up and dump it out. Then we wash it with chlorine and do the same thing, load it up and dump it out.

Then it clears up,” he said.

In addition to animal carcasses, tests by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate the water also has traces of uranium and arsenic, though presently not above safe drinking water standards. Box Spring, Badger Spring, Tohatchi Spring and Paddock Well — all used by area residents — are above safe standards for uranium and/or arsenic.

Unfortunately, getting the new watering point up and running continuously has been a problem, according to Ronald, who hauls water twice a day, four days a week, for four Black Falls families. When the system is down the water has to be brought in from nearby towns.

“It’s hard to get around on the dirt roads. There’s no grading.

It’s really terrible. It does a lot of damage to the suspensions on our trucks. I’m just using two 55-gallon barrels at a time. I can’t use a bigger one because it will do a lot of damage to my truck,” Ronald said.

Hauling water

George Kee of Black Falls also helps out, hauling water from Tuba City, Flagstaff or Leupp. “We’re at about the center from each direction,” he said.

Getting from Tuba City to Black Falls is a chore. If Kee takes the dirt road shortcut from Cameron, “it takes almost 3 1/2 hours to get here to the Black Falls area. Around the pavement by Wupatki, across the wash, it takes about 2 1/2 hours, but that’s more mileage than to come down the valley. It’s really hard on the vehicles. The tires and springs are falling apart.”

Sometimes weather conditions and drifting sand make taking the shortcut impossible, which is why the Black Falls Church water point in upper Black Falls was so attractive to lower Black Falls residents.

EPA paid $830,000 to extend the waterline from Tolani Lake, according to Clancy Tenley. The water is provided by Navajo Tribal Utility Authority and was tested by Indian Health Service. “It passed all of the EPA requirements for safe water,” he said.

But Ronald noticed recently that when the watering point was working, “the water was coming out really weak. It had a milky color to it, plus it smelled. If you set it out in the bucket for like a day, it would turn yellowish. I don’t know why. What I think is there is a crack in the line where it’s sucking up the dirt.”

In addition to low water pressure, the card machine was not working properly and kept rejecting the prepaid debit cards, he said. On May 22, the system was not working at all.

NTUA Deputy General Manager Rex Kontz said the watering point feeds off NTUA’s system but is operated by one of the local chapters. “It’s not an NTUA-operated watering point. It was constructed by Indian Health Service, and my understanding is it’s still under warranty and they’ve had several technical problems with it. They have been responding and trying to correct all the items.

“There was a water break in the main system. Once the water break was fixed, the pressure problem should have been alleviated. I’m not sure what the issue is with the power being off.”

When told there was a yellow tag on the meter on May 22, he said, “A yellow tag means they (the chapter) haven’t paid their bill and it’s been disconnected. That’s a disconnect tag.”

Regarding the card reader, Kontz said it is older technology, where the card inserts into a slot. “You get sand and moisture into the card readers and those cause problems.

The new generation is optical. There’s a little computer chip in the card and they just hold it up to an optical scanner.

There’s no place to actually put the card into the system. It’s all enclosed.”

A vendor that works with Indian Health Service installs the new generation readers, he said. “We have an EPA grant that we’re trying to get to install some watering points, and it will have the new technology. I’m open to the community leaders if they want to talk about the possibility of NTUA setting up a watering point that has an optical reader.

“Some chapters like to be independent. They want to try to earn some money off of the water sales. They like to try to own those themselves. I don’t recall what the situation was with Black Falls.”

A few cents per barrel

Kontz said NTUA charges around $3 per 1,000 gallons of water. “It’s not much. If they’re hauling 50-gallon drums, you’re talking about almost 20 fill-ups for about $3 or $3.65 — something like that — just a few cents per barrel.”

NTUA water from Tuba City runs $8 for four 55-gallon barrels, or $2 a barrel, Kee said. If the water comes from Leupp Chapter, it’s 25 cents a gallon, according to Ronald.

Katherine Peshlakai, 87, said she used to pay a man from Tuba City to bring water for their livestock during summer drought. He charged her $500 to haul 2,000 gallons. “He hauled maybe three times,” she said.

Don Yellowman, president of The Forgotten People, a non-profit organization, said the big objective of the Black Falls water project that is providing gravity-fed water tanks and sinks to residents drinking uranium-contaminated water “is, instead of ignoring that population, addressing the issue of they need water too, and how do we come to grips with people living away from the piped water line having accessibility to water.

“You still have a big population that doesn’t live near the road or the waterline; they still live out in the boonies. Those folks, they’re not on the radar to get piped water.”

Shirley Parker lives near the Black Falls Church watering point and just a short distance from the new water line. “In her case she was told that if you want water, there’s a waterline coming through your neighborhood shortly, therefore, you’re eligible to get water but you need to have your facilities ready to go so you can be connected.

Otherwise, you may have to wait 10 years,” Yellowman said.

Because she did not have a bathroom addition, “she just allowed them to go ahead and install the bathtub and a kitchen sink and the water heater in the bedroom. She said if that’s what it takes for me to get water, go ahead and put it in the bedroom. She did all that in a mad rush to get it all done, and to this day no meter has been installed. That was about a year ago.”

Marsha Monestersky, program manager, said they plan to seek another EPA Environmental Justice grant to help with water and sanitation issues. They also are seeking a company might want to donate a three-quarter-ton truck for water hauling.

“Or maybe somebody would like to sponsor a family and help provide a kitchen sink and gravity-fed water tank for people like Rolanda Tohannie,” a cancer victim still drinking uranium-contaminated water, she said.

Information: The Forgotten People, (928) 401-1777 or forgotten-people@hotmail.com