£EPA
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-
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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
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