ŁEPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
             ANN UAL REPORT 2013
        Clean Water Indian Set Aside Grant Program
  Clean  Water Indian  Set
      Aside  Grant  Program
                                          Promoting access to sustainable
                                          basic sanitation in Indian Country
                                          linking the development goals of the
                                          tribe with the need for wastewater
                                          services and infrastructure.
 Public Health Benefits:
 Investment in wastewater
 services has helped to
 reduce waterborne
 infectious diseases in
 American Indian and
 Alaska Native
 communities.
Environmental Benefits:
Since 2003, more than
69,000 tribal homes have
been provided with waste-
water services. Investment
in wastewater infrastructure
protects and restores water
quality. It improves the
health of the ecosystem for
wildlife and fish, important
subsistence food sources
for many American Indian
and Alaska Native people.
 Economic Benefits:
 Water infrastructure
 projects stimulate local
 economies and create jobs
 in tribal communities.
       The Clean Water Indian Set-Aside (CWISA)
      Grant Program funds wastewater infrastructure
      for federally recognized American Indian and
      Alaska Native (AI/AN) populations. EPA uses
      the Indian Health Service (IMS) Sanitation
      Deficiency System priority lists to identify and
      select high priority projects for funding. The
      Program typically funds the construction or
      repair of septic tanks and/or drain fields,
      wastewater treatment plants, lagoons, and lift
      stations, and pipe laying projects.
      This report highlights the program
      accomplishments for fiscal year 2013. In 2013
      alone, EPA's $27.5 million helped provide 6,696
      households with new or improved access to
      wastewater services. Since the Program's
      inception in 1986, $428 million in CWISA Grant
      Program funding has helped finance a total of
      1,222 projects. Between 20031 and 2013, in
      coordination with other federal partners, EPA
      provided 69,783 tribal homes with access to
      basic wastewater sanitation. At current funding
      levels, EPA and its federal partners plan to
      provide cumulatively 77,700 AI/AN homes with
      access to basic sanitation  by 2015.
      To allow EPA additional flexibility to fund the
      highest priority projects, EPA recently
      implemented the ability to  transfer funds
between the Clean Water Indian Set Aside
Grant Program and the Drinking Water
Infrastructure Grant-Tribal Set Aside program.
This change will help EPA target funds to the
highest need in an area, increase regulatory
compliance at tribal public water systems,
improve water quality and  increase access to
safe drinking water and basic sanitation in
Indian Country.
Investment in water infrastructure stimulates
local economies and creates jobs directly and
indirectly2 The Rural Community Assistance
Partnership (RCAP) estimates that for every $1
billion spent on such investment, about 28,500
water industry jobs are created. Every dollar
invested helps the national gross domestic
product grow by $6.5 in the long term3.
Safe sanitation facilities improve public health
by lowering the incidences of waterborne
infectious disease. The gastroenteric and post-
neonatal death rates among the AI/AN people
have been reduced significantly, primarily
because of increased access to safe drinking
water supplies and sanitary waste disposal
systems  . For instance, between 1998 and
2006, the annual infectious disease age-

-------
Clean Water Indian Set Aside Grant Program | Annual Report 2013
 adjusted hospitalization rate for AI/AN people decreased by
 18%, with infants younger than one year of age showing the
 largest decrease (48%p.
 However more work is needed to meet the demand.
 Currently, 12% of AI/AN homes lack access to safe drinking
 water and/or wastewater facilities6, a figure far behind the
 non-tribal homes in the United States. A 2011 IMS  report
 identified 2,660 feasible drinking water and clean water
 infrastructure projects in AI/AN communities that need
 investment, and estimated the total cost of these projects to
 be more than $1.4 billion7. The disparity in the access to
 wastewater facilities leads to public health disparities.
 Research finds the age-adjusted hospitalization rate for  Al/
 AN people in 2004-2006 was approximately 6% greater  than
 the national average, and the infant infectious disease
 hospitalization rate for AI/AN people was 28% greater than
 the national average5.
 EPA works with the U.S. Department of Agriculture -  Rural
 Development, Department of Health and Human Services
 through IHS,  Department of Housing and  Urban
 Development, and Department of the Interior through the
 Bureau of Indian Affairs to provide and maintain sanitation
 facilities to AI/AN homes. These organizations are  also
 collaborating to streamline processes and improve
 sustainability in Indian  Country. The  federal agencies
 recently signed  a Memorandum of Understanding renewing
                                     http://www.epa.gov/cwisa

  their commitment to coordinate and share resources to
  provide sustainable, long-term access to safe drinking water
  and basic sanitation in Indian Country8. An output of this
  partnership include the new multi-agency Preliminary
  Engineering Report (PER), which aims to simplify the
  application processes of multiple federal funding sources for
  communities seeking loans or grants from Federal Agencies.
  The guidance document will  help communities identify the
  basic information needed to meet PER requirements across
  Federal Agencies, eliminating potential duplication of efforts9.

  For more information : www.epa.gov/cwisa
  1. Year the program started tracking the measures.
  2. Direct jobs are jobs created by the water industry (construction, operator, manufacturing
   sector). Indirect jobs are jobs created by other businesses/industries that came into
   existence due to the economic growth the water industry created.
  3.RCAP infographic, Water Infrastructure Creates Jobs, available online at http://
   www.rcap.org/sites/default/files/rcaD-files/rcap water-jobs infographic.pdf
  4. IHS (2011), Public Law 86-121 Annual Report for 2011. available online at http^
   www.ihs.gov/dsfc/documents/SFCAnnualReport2011.pdf.
  S.Robert C. Holman, Anianne M Folkema, Rosalyn J. Singleton, John T. Redd, Krista Y.
   Christensen, Claudia A Steiner, Lawrence B Schonberger, Thomas W. Hennessy, James E.
   Cheek (2011), Disparities in Infectious Disease Hospitalizations for American Indian/Alaska
   Native People, Public Health Rep. 2011 Jul-Aug; 126(4): 508-521, htte^
   www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3115210/
  S.Indian Health Service Sanitation Tracking and Reporting System (IHS-STARS)
  7. IHS annual reports available online http://www.ihs.gov/dsfc/index.cfm?module=documents
  8. Memorandum of understanding available online at http://www.epa.gov/tp/trprograms/2013-itf
   -memorandum-of-understanding.pdf
  9.USDA, EPA, IHS, HUD (January 2013), Interagency Memorandum, available online at htte^
   www.epa.gov/tp/trprograms/preliminarv-engineering-report-508.pdf
 PROJECT SUCCESSES IN 2013

 Klawock, Alaska
 Excessive inflow and infiltration in Bay View subdivision in
 Klawock, AK regularly brought more wastewater to Kla-
 wock's wastewater system than it could safely treat. High
 tide events would also bring seawater infiltration into the
 system which corroded pipes. As a result, the wastewater
 treatment plant's approved capacity was often exceeded,
 especially during rain events where the plant was
 receiving double the approved capacity. The excessive
 flow into and out of the system was increasing the
 maintenance costs and causing public health  threats.  By
 replacing the sewer mains, the flow into the wastewater
 treatment plant was reduced by approximately 30%,
 meeting the system's capacity limit. As a result, sludge
 production  has  been reduced by 20%, decreasing
 pressure and operating costs at the water treatment plant
 and avoiding costly upgrades to increase  capacity.
               Workers replacing sewer mains
Pueblo of Santa Clara, New Mexico
                          I The failing 10.7-acre lagoon sys-
                           tem of the Santa Clara Wastewa-
                          I ter Treatment Plant in Pueblo of
                           Santa Clara, New Mexico was
                          j constructed with old clay liners
                          j that were leaking. This presented
                           an immediate threat to groundwa-
                          | ter, located just 6 feet below gra-
                           de, and a potential threat to a local
drinking water well, located 3.6 miles downstream of the
lagoon system. IHS assisted the Pueblo with drilling
monitoring wells that  indicated high levels of nitrate in the
groundwater. Administered by IHS and jointly funded by
CWISA and IHS, this project developed an advanced
wastewater treatment system that reduced both the  nitrogen
levels in the effluent and leaks from the lagoon cells. The
project installed a 6-acre high-density polyethylene (HOPE)
liner in the system's first lagoon
cell and a 1.2-acre HOPE liner in
the abutting percolation cell to
minimize system leaks. The
cells allow for the treatment of
wastewater effluent and in
addition, 49 bio-domes were
installed to further reduce the
total nitrogen effluent to less
than 10mg/l1. The completed
project serves approximately 383
tribal homes and helped improve the quality of local
groundwater to protect public health.

1. EPA recommends, in order to protect public health, nitrate in drinking water shouldn't exceed 10mg/l.
                                                                                 Office of Wastewater Management

                                                                                             EPA-830-R-13-011
                                                                                                 October 2013

-------