Tribal Infrastructure Task Force
Accomplishments and Current Activities
Infrastructure Task
Force Objective:
Improve access to safe
drinking water and basic
sanitation in Indian Country.
Did you know...
that approximately
12% of tribal and
Alaskan native
homes do not have
safe water and/
or basic sanitation
facilities? To address
these sanitation
deficiencies, and to
achieve the United
Nations Millennium
Development Goal
committed by the
U.S. in 2000, a multi-
agency Infrastructure
Task Force (ITF)
assembled in 2003.
This document
describes recent ITF
accomplishments
and current activities.
Recent Accomplishments
Increased Access to Sanitation; Between 2009 and 2012,43,006 tribal
homes received access to safe drinking water, and 28,015 tribal homes received
access to basic sanitation - of the 400,000 homes in Indian Country.
Focus on Sustainability; Providing sanitation access to the remaining homes
in Indian country hinges on maximizing the limited, and often declining, resources
available for new infrastructure. To ensure existing infrastructure meets its design
life, in 2012 the task force:
• Developed a Sustainability Goals and Concepts Document that describes what
appropriate infrastructure is and the elements of a sustainable management
entity.
• Implemented a new mission statement: "Access to safe drinking water and basic
sanitation shall be provided through entities that are sustainable and implemented
through integrated agency planning that links the development goals of the tribe
with the need for such services and infrastructure."
Renewed the Federal Commitment to Tribes; EPA, USDA-RD, HUD,
DOI, and HHS recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding confirming their
commitment to coordinate and share resources to provide sustainable, long-term
access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation in Indian Country.
Learning from Other Tribes; Following a series of listening sessions, the ITF
identified best practices that improved the Sustainability of water and wastewater
infrastructure. These best practices can be adopted by other tribes to improve
Sustainability of their systems and is online at: http://www.epa.gov/tp/pdf/itf-
commonalities-12.pdf.
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Recent Accomplishments Continued...
ITF Now Includes Solid Waste; In 2012 the task force partners
recognized the overlapping issues between the management of water
and solid waste in Indian County and are now collaborating to address
this need through joint EPA and HUD trainings and technical assistance.
Technical Assistance and Information Exchange; The ITF
developed an online directory of regional federal contacts to provide
information exchange and technical assistance for tribal and state
water and wastewater operators. The directory is available at http://
smallwatersupply.org/TribalResources/SearchtheContactManager/
tabid/70/Default.aspx.
Current Activities
A New Multi-Agency Preliminary Engineering Report;
To simplify the application processes of multiple federal funding
sources, the task force supported the USDA-led federal and state
interagency effort to develop a common preliminary engineering
report that will satisfy the needs of all agencies in a single document.
Assessing Tribal Water Utility Operation and Maintenance
(O&M) Costs; The ITF is developing a pilot program to estimate O&M
costs for tribal drinking water and wastewater systems. The results will be
used to estimate total costs to operate water and waste water systems in
Indian Country.
Enhanced Regional Coordination; The task force aims to
strengthen its on-the-ground coordination efforts by institutionalizing
regular communication activities among member agencies in each
geographic region.
Streamlining the Application
Processes; The ITF is distributing a summary
matrix of National Environmental Policy Act
(NEPA) requirements for tribal projects.
More questions?
The ITF is sharing ongoing
progress online at: www.
epa.gov/tp/trprograms/
infra-water.htm
EPA-810-R-13-001
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