Meeting the Access Goal
Progress to Date
Implementation of Strategies for Increasing Access to
Safe Drinking Water and Basic Sanitation to
American Indian and Alaska Native Homes
Prepared by the
Infrastructure Task Force on Access
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December 2010
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Table of Contents
I. INTRODUCTION 3
II. ACCESS GOAL DEFINITION AND MEASUREMENT 3
III. ACCESS WORKGROUP ACCOMPLISHMENTS 5
A. Coordinating Tribal Technical Assistance 5
B. Technical Alternatives to Increase Access on the Navajo Nation 6
C. Streamlining Federal Paperwork 8
IV. OTHER ACCOMPLISHMENTS 8
A. EPA and IHS Program Coordination Improvements 8
B. IHS Data Improvements 9
C. USDA-RD Process Improvements 9
V. ACCESS HOMES SERVED & REMAINING 11
VI. NEXT STEPS 12
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I. INTRODUCTION
In 2000 the United States made commitments at the World Summit on Sustainable
Development and agreed to support a United Nations Millennium Development Goal to
improve access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation around the world. As a result
of this commitment, the US is addressing the lack of access to safe drinking water and
basic sanitation in Indian Country by reducing the number of tribal homes without access
by 50% by 2015 (Access Goal).
An Infrastructure Task Force on Access to Sanitation ("Task Force") was formed in
2003. The federal partners of the Task Force are the US Department of Agriculture
(Rural Development - USDA-RD), the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the
US Department of Health and Human Services (Indian Health Service - IHS), the US
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the US Department of the
Interior (Bureau of Indian Affairs - BIA). In June 2007 the Department Secretaries of
these federal partners signed two Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) to develop
strategies to help achieve the access goal.
The lack of access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation in Indian Country continues
to threaten the public health of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN)
communities. According to 2010 data from the Indian Health Service (IHS),
approximately 12% of AI/AN homes do not have safe water and/or basic sanitation
facilities. This is high compared with the 0.6% of non-native homes in the United States
that lacked such infrastructure in 2005 according to the US Census Bureau.
In March 2007, an Access Subgroup (Subgroup) was formed by the Task Force to
identify implementation strategies to meet the Access Goal and recommend actions to be
taken by the partner agencies. The Subgroup completed their charge in March 2008 and
submitted a report entitled "Meeting the Access Goal - Strategies for Increasing Access
to Safe Drinking Water and Wastewater Treatment to American Indian and Alaska
Native Homes". This report is an excellent starting place for efforts to improve access to
safe water and basic sanitation for American Indians and Alaska Natives. The report
identified and categorized barriers and provided prioritized recommendations for meeting
the Access Goal. As a result of those recommendations four workgroups were formed to
begin addressing issues to improve access.
Although significant need remains throughout Indian Country, measurable
accomplishments had been made by the Task Force. This report summarizes those
accomplishments.
II. ACCESS GOAL DEFINITION AND MEASUREMENT
The "Access Goal" as defined by the Task Force is to:
Strive to reduce by 50 percent over the 2003 baseline data the number of homes
lacking access to safe drinking water and safe wastewater disposal by 2015.
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The IHS Sanitation Tracking and Reporting System (STARS) database was deemed the
best source of information about the number of homes lacking access. STARS contains a
count of tribal homes and sanitation deficiencies for those homes in addition to
information about projects designed to mitigate the deficiencies. 2003 was selected as
the baseline year for measuring of the Access Goal. At that time, approximately 319,000
homes were included in the data system. The data system, including house counts, is
updated regularly by IHS and tribal partners and annual data snapshots are taken.
Congress provided a definition to IHS for sanitation deficiency levels [25 U.S.C. Sec.
1632(g)(4)], The Task Force adopted these IHS deficiency definitions as the definitions
for access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation for the purpose of measuring
progress towards the Access Goal. Lack of access is identified as homes ranked by the
IHS with a deficiency level (DL) 4 or 5.
Deficiency Level 4 (DL4) is "An Indian tribe or community with a sanitation
system which lacks either a safe water supply system or a sewage disposal
system".
Deficiency Level 5 (DL5) is "An Indian tribe or community that lacks a safe
water supply and a sewage disposal system." The IHS considers "safe water
supply" and "safe sewage disposal" to be a system that complies with EPA
regulations.
The tribal housing and access profile data for the universe of AI/AN homes is
summarized in Table 1.
Table 1: Number of Tribal Homes Lacking Access Summary Data1
Year
Number
of Tribal
Homes
Water
Only
Sewer
Only
Water
and
Sewer
Total2
% Total
2003'
(Baseline)
319,070
19,754
5,597
18,883
44,234
13.9%
2004
307,584
17,833
4,252
18,214
40,299
13.1%
2005
316,624
21,574
4,080
17,118
42,772
13.5%
2006
323,521
21,568
4,295
17,169
43,032
13.3%
2007
334,218
20,018
7,287
16,557
43,862
13.1%
2008
341,909
19,857
9,344
14,998
44,199
12.9%
2009
359,976
28,096
12,711
15,341
56,148
15.6%
2010
383,674
20,655
12,205
13,532
46,392
12.1%
2015
(Goal)
22,118
6.9%
Data Source: Public Law 86-121 Annual Reports 2003, 2004, 2005 and STAR 2006 Sanitation
Deficiency System (SDS) Summary Report
2 The Total = (Water Only) + (Sewer Only) + (Water and Sewer)
3 Prior to FY 2004 "Homes without potable water" was a separate data field in STARS and not
derived from the homes categorized as DL4 for Water.
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III. ACCESS WORKGROUP ACCOMPLISHMENTS
In July 2008 workgroups were formed to implement the top recommendations made in
the March 2008 report. The recommendations were designed to overcome barriers for
existing federal infrastructure programs to provide access to safe drinking water and basic
sanitation. Table 2 provides a summary of the workgroups and recommendations they
were tasked to address.
Table 2: 2008 Access Workgroups Chartered by the Infrastructure Task Force
Workgroup Name
Report Recommendation Addressed
Lead Agency
Coordinating Tribal
Technical Assistance
Federal partners should work together to formally
coordinate technical assistance services and adopt
common standards for pre-construction documents,
planning and design standards
IHS
Technical Alternatives
to Increase Access to
Safe Water and
Wastewater Disposal on
the Navajo Reservation
and Alaskan Native
Villages
Investigate innovative and previously used alternatives
to piped water and sewer in hard to serve areas of Alaska
and the Navajo Nation, and identify funding for pilot
projects and subsequent implementation
EPA
Streamlining Federal
Grant Paperwork
Identify opportunities to improve program coordination
through streamlining the pre-construction requirements
of tribes seeking federal funding for the construction of
water infrastructure projects
EPA
A. Coordinating Tribal Technical Assistance
The Technical Assistance (TA) coordination workgroup was tasked in three broad areas:
1. Formally coordinate technical assistance service to ensure that adequate
geographic and topical coverage are provided,
2. Complete a comprehensive evaluation of tribal operations and maintenance
costs and develop an operations and maintenance allocation methodology to
be used to advocate for federal funding of operational activities where
statutory authority exists, and
3. Define minimum design requirements for projects funded by federal partners
to ensure federally funded infrastructure projects are delivered in "operable
condition" to allow tribes to properly manage their utilities.
The workgroup focused on item 1 developing nine recommendations about processes and
information exchange to promote the formal coordination of technical assistance service
delivered. As a result of these, the IHS TA providers agreed to host the first round of
coordination activities in the last quarter of calendar year 2010. The first of these
meetings was hosted by the IHS Phoenix Area in August 2010. A web-based contact
manager maintained by smallwatersupply.org was created to allow the various TA
providers to individually update their contact information and make it available to other
providers and tribal operators. Smallwatersupply.org is a project developed by the
University of Illinois. Additional details can be found in the March 9, 2010 workgroup
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report titled "Strategies for Improving Technical Assistance Delivery in American Indian
and Alaska Native Communities".
At the end of FY2010 the Task Force agreed to charter a new workgroup to deal with the
remaining two issues this workgroup was originally charged to complete.
B. Technical Alternatives to Increase Access on the Navajo Nation and Alaska
Native Villages
Initially the Task Force established a workgroup to propose new solutions to serve homes
without access located in Alaskan Native Villages and the Navajo Nation. If promising
alternatives were identified, the workgroups were also tasked to identify potential pilot
projects and potential funding to complete those projects. Due to the differences in the
environmental, socio-cultural, and geographic conditions between Alaskan Native
Villages and Navajo Nation, this workgroup was divided into two groups at the outset.
Additional efforts in Alaska were concentrated on improving the USDA-Rural
Development funding process which is described in Section IV.
Navajo Nation
The Navajo Nation efforts focused on identifying homes lacking access, funding feasible
water infrastructure projects to serve these homes, and implementing pilot projects to
increase access to safe drinking water for homes that will not be connected to piped water
in the near future.
To identify Navajo Nation homes lacking access, EPA Headquarters complied data on
homes without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation in a Geographic
Information System (GIS) format, and overlaid the locations of existing and proposed
water infrastructure and other relevant data. This project will better communicate the
need to funding agencies and helps identify solutions to provide increased access to
drinking water and basic sanitation. The GIS database includes 4,636 tribal homes on the
Navajo Reservation without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation as of
November 2008. This represents 56% of the homes without access included in the IHS
STARS database at that time. Data used in this effort was obtained from a wide variety
of sources including the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA), the Centers for Disease
Control (CDC), EPA Region 9, Navajo Department of Water Resources (DWR), Navajo
Department of Community Development, and Indian Health Service. Additional details
regarding this process can be found in the October 2010 workgroup report titled
"Mapping of Water Infrastructure and Homes without Access to Safe Drinking Water and
Basic Sanitation on the Navajo Nation".
Navajo Nation departments and federal agencies are also working together to provide
greater access to safe drinking water for homes that will not be connected to piped water
in the near future. EPA provided $2.6 million to the Navajo Nation DWR to implement a
Water Hauling Feasibility Study and Pilot Program which includes five water hauling
trucks to deliver water near homes lacking piped water. Also, NTUA is making safe
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water more available by adding five regulated water hauling points with $592,000 from
EPA. To improve the safety of hauled water, the Navajo Nation Environmental
Protection Agency (NNEPA) developed water hauling guidelines. NNEPA and CDC
also developed water hauling outreach materials and radio broadcasts in Navajo and
English.
Additionally, in the Black Falls Area of southwestern Navajo, IHS and EPA funded
cistern systems for nine homes without piped water. Homes lacking electricity received
pilot solar pumps. The community and the Forgotten People Community Development
Corporation assisted in the construction of bathroom additions for the nine homes served
by the project.
And in August 2008, USD A, Rural Development committed $8 million to complete
Phase 2 of a regional water system to interconnect eight Navajo communities and
provide access to clean, safe, reliable water. The eight (8) communities include of
Huerfano, Burnham, Nageezi, Counselor, Ojo Encino, Torreon, Pueblo Pintado and
Whitehorse Lake and spans an area of over 90 miles across three counties. The project
will provide first-time access to safe drinking water for 1,140 tribal homes and overall
improve the reliability of the water supply to for 9,458 people in an areas where dire
conditions lead the State of New Mexico to issue an Emergency Declaration due to lack
of potable water supply. This new regional water supply system will ensure that all eight
chapters have adequate water to last for the foreseeable future, and will allow the
communities to grow prosperous and healthy.
Alaska Native Villages
The members of the Alaska Native Village workgroup joined forces with the U.S. Arctic
Research Commission (USARC) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC), along with other Federal, State, local, academic and international counterparts.
This group has been planning a workshop to be held on January 2011 titled " Water and
Sanitation for the Arctic" in order to assess needs and learn about innovations in water
provision and sanitation in cold regions.
This workshop will focus on water and sanitation issues in rural Alaska, stressing the
connection between health and provision of in-home water and sanitation services and a
potential refraining of priority issues in the context of climate change. The workshop
discussions will focus on potential research and innovations in the field. The intent of the
workshop is to foster productive conversations between groups that would not typically
interact and come away from this workshop with new and innovative ideas for pathways
forward in these areas of research.
Objectives of the workshop:
1) Frame the problem in current context: Consider climate change and new
knowledge implicating water/sanitation practices in the transmission of infectious
disease.
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2) Review the status of ongoing research and identify knowledge gaps related to
these issues.
3) Discuss potential areas in which R&D might be helpful and future strategies for
water provision and sanitation.
4) Determine the most promising plans for funding opportunities related to water
and sanitation.
In 2009 and 2010, USDA provided $82.2 million for more than 30 water and waste
infrastructure projects in Rural Alaskan Villages. Twenty of these projects are for the
design and construction of infrastructure to provide access to safe drinking water and
basic sanitation for 876 tribal homes. These projects will provide much-needed new or
improved access to water and waste services for residents of these villages and contribute
to further meeting access goals.
C. Streamlining Federal Paperwork
The objective of the workgroup was to develop recommendations for streamlining the
multi-agency requirements placed on tribes to receive federal funding for water and waste
water infrastructure construction projects. The group completed individual interviews of
roughly 40 Federal staff and Tribal partners and incorporated the interview results into a
draft report. The workgroup also conducted a comprehensive review of the policies,
regulations, and directives of each agency relating to grant requirements, environmental
reviews, and other pre-construction requirements.
This workgroup was still working to determine the feasibility, advisability, and legal
ramifications of streamlining requirements necessary prior to sanitation project
construction. The group drafted an internal document that summarizes the tribal grant
paperwork requirements for all the Task Force member agencies. Ten different proposed
recommendations were being evaluated. The workgroup is scheduled to meet in January
2011 to select the recommendation or recommendations to the Task Force for
implementation.
IV. OTHER ACCOMPLISHMENTS
In addition to the accomplishments described above the Task Force partners have worked
together and individually to improve the implementation of their programs which provide
or support construction of water infrastructure.
A. EPA and IHS Program Coordination Improvements
During FY2010 EPA and IHS agreed on standard terms and conditions to be used in
Interagency Agreements (IA) that fund drinking water and clean water projects. These
standard terms and conditions were agreed to and adopted by the headquarters offices and
are currently being used when infrastructure funding is transferred from EPA to IHS.
EPA assigned IA processing for all IHS agreements through a centralized approval
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authority in the Seattle Grants and Interagency Agreements Unit. During the same time
period IHS enhanced progress and financial reporting to EPA to improve transparency for
the projects the IHS manages. Together these business practices reduced the time to
process agreements between those partner agencies and significantly improved the
quality of interagency agreement documents, flow of information, and quality of
reporting. These changes have resulted in EPA's tribal water funds to be transferred to
IHS with fewer delays, allowing IHS to reduce project timelines.
As a result of the Task Force work and the coordination required to implement the
funding from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act EPA and IHS have
developed a closer working relationship. The increased communication between EPA
and IHS has improved the identification and selection of water infrastructure projects for
funding by EPA and the oversight of the EPA tribal water infrastructure programs.
B. IHS Data Improvements
The March 2008 report included several comments and recommendations about data
needed to evaluate the conditions that are causing homes to lack of access to safe
drinking water and basic sanitation. The Task Force did not a charge a workgroup on any
of these recommendations, but the IHS committed significant resources to make
improvements to the STARS data system that is the primary source of data used to
evaluate the success of providing access. When this effort is completed it will be
possible to determine root cause or special condition for each home that lacks access
within the IHS database. Additionally, it will make the total homes count more accurate
resulting in better analysis of progress toward the access goal.
C. USDA-RD Process Improvements
By September 2010 significant progress had been made toward providing safe drinking
water and basic sanitation for rural Alaskan Villages through efforts to improve the
USDA-RD funding process.
In August 2008, the leadership of the Task Force visited several Alaskan Native Villages,
held discussions with local leaders and residents, and participated in follow-up briefings
from the state and federal agencies and technical assistance providers. The outcome of
the trip provided the Task Force with a different perspective on the primary issues related
to the development of water and waste water infrastructure in Alaska. Four primary areas
were identified where improvements in federal agency communication and coordination
could yield better results. These include:
1. Accountability and tracking of existing projects and funding,
2. Technical training,
3. Affordable and practical systems design, and
4. More efficient funding processes with additional village input.
The primary focus for the USD A was improved delivery of its Rural Alaska Village
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Grant (RAVG) program. In FY 2009 and FY 2010 the USDA worked closely with the
Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) and Alaska Department of
Environmental Conservation (ADEC) to clarify the application procedures and facilitate
their participation in the funding process. One of the first improvements was to identify
villages in need of planning funds to prepare the design, financial, and environmental
reports necessary to apply for construction funding.
In late FY 2009 these efforts resulted in a number of applications for USDA funding. On
October 23, 2009 USDA announced $16 million in funds awarded for eligible Alaska
village water and waste water projects. In FY 2010 an additional $66.2 million was
awarded for water and waste water projects to improve service in Native Alaska villages.
In FY 2010 the USDA developed a RAVG Process Improvement Project to address
issues related to RAVG and to respond to a Congressional request to develop a
streamlining plan for the program. A Steering Committee composed of senior officials
from both the national and state offices of USDA-RD, ADEC, ANTHC, IHS, EPA, and
the Denali Commission was formed to provide inter-agency coordination for the project.
A consultant was hired to assist in development of the project.
The key feature of the project was the RAVG Process Improvement Conference which
was held in Anchorage on April 6, 7, and 8, 2010. Participants in the conference
included management and staff of the organizations on the Steering Committee,
Congressional and Alaska legislative staff, and other observers. Prior to the conference,
the conference participants were interviewed to document the existing RAVG
application, approval and tracking process, document the application processes of
funding partners and solicit ideas on ways to improve program delivery in Alaska. The
conference brought partners together to improve communication and laid the groundwork
for better agency collaboration.
The conference participants endorsed a variety of streamline improvements.
Demonstrating its commitment to improving program delivery, USDA-RD assigned staff
to work full time on implementation of the recommendations that came from the
Conference. The results of the conference and the streamlining efforts to date were
reported to Congress on September 30, 2010. Highlights include:
1. Combining multiple applications into a single application,
2. Adopting environmental reviews of other agencies,
3. Simplifying financial review,
4. Implementing automation improvements, and
5. Developing new program agreements and documentation.
In addition to continuing the work already started, better agency collaboration also
created opportunities to make advanced program improvements. USDA committed to
further improvement to the RAVG program and to address rural sanitation and
development issues in general.
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Performance Assessment: The RD Alaska office plans to undertake a self-assessment
of its performance in administering the RAVG program. The purpose of this is to verify
that the goals and purpose of the RAVG program are clearly defined, that there are clear
measures to demonstrate performance against program goals, and that there are effective
measurement tools to provide feedback for program improvement. The self assessment is
intended for the RD Alaska office but will be submitted to the Steering Committee for
peer review.
Sustainability: As additional projects are funded, it is critical that they are appropriately
scoped and designed. Additionally, operational, managerial and technical capacity in the
community receiving the project must be fostered to ensure long-term sustainability. The
design and cost of a project must be balanced against the need for health and safety, the
ability to maintain the project, available technology, and resources available to construct
the project. USD A and the other members of the Steering Committee committed to
leverage existing efforts and work to improve sustainability of facilities in Alaska
villages.
Community Involvement: USD A and the other members of the Steering Committee
committed to improve community involvement with the goal of enhancing agency
collaboration, performance assessment, project design and sustainability.
V. ACCESS HOMES SERVED & REMAINING
Data from the IHS data system indicates that 80,941 tribal homes were provided access to
safe drinking water and 43,562 tribal homes were provided access to basic sanitation
utilizing funds from all federal partners from 2003 to 2009 (See Graph 1). During this
period, the number of homes receiving access is 4 times greater for safe drinking water
and 3.5 times greater for basic sanitation than the target established in 2003 under the
Millennium Development Goal (MGD). These numbers demonstrate the significant
progress in providing tribal homes with access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation
made by EPA and the federal partners.
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Graph 1: Cumulative Tribal Homes Provided Access to
Safe Drinking Water and Basic Sanitation from 2003 to 2009
The Task Force recognizes there is still progress to be made providing access to safe
drinking water and basic sanitation in Indian country. As Table 1 shows the percentage
of tribal homes without access has only been reduced by 1.8% over the seven year period
(2003 to 2010). The large increase in water infrastructure funding provided to Indian
country through 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act contributed to the
reduction in the number of tribal homes lacking access between 2009 and 2010.
However from 2003 to 2009, the number of tribal homes lacking access to safe drinking
water and basic sanitation trended upward for several reasons; an increase in the total
number of tribal homes included in the Indian Health Service (IHS) data system and an
increase in the need for water and basic sanitation infrastructure to serve homes which
previously had access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
VI. NEXT STEPS
The Task Force remains committed to reducing the number of homes that lack access to
safe drinking water and basic sanitation. At the end of FY2010 the federal partners
decided to continue support the current the workgroups listed in Table 3. The need to
establish additional workgroups will be made by the Task Force as they are deemed
necessary.
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Table 3: 2011 Access Workgroups Chartered by the Infrastructure Task Force
Workgroup Name
Future Actions
Lead Agency
Utility Operation and
Maintenance Cost
Evaluation of tribal operations and
maintenance costs and development of
an operations and maintenance funding
allocation methodology
IHS
Streamlining Federal
Paperwork
Develop recommendations for the Task
Force to consider changes in paperwork
processing
EPA
The Task Force will continue to liaison with workgroups currently engaged in working to
improve access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation on the Navajo Nation and in
Alaskan Native Villages through EPA Regions 9 and 10.
IHS is committed to continued support of the ongoing STARS development. Although
the primary purpose of the IHS data systems is to support management of IHS programs,
IHS acknowledges that their data is essential for all federal partners to understand and
provide access for tribal homes. As a result of this IHS will maintain its commitment to
providing accurate and current data and reports to the federal partners as the needs of the
partners dictate.
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