Whenever their home water supplies begin to run dry, Alysia Aguilar and Elke Littleleaf hop into their car and begin a familiar drive north from their house on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation.
Virtually no one trusts the Warm Springs water. Sometimes, they say, it smells like algae. At other times, it has the odour of rotten eggs. The new funds will “move us forward like never before,” she said. “Many tribes never thought they would get that significant commitment.” The Warm Springs, for example, don’t just need a new water treatment plant. They need millions of dollars to refurbish their existing plant while a replacement is built. They need millions more to replace a water line that lies exposed in a creek, vulnerable to rocks and anything else that might puncture it. They will need even more to run the expensive new treatment plant once it enters operation.
“Way before my time,” said Mr. Holliday, shaking his head as he peers into the sewage hole, which is lined with river rock. “I’m just stuck trying to correct everything.” “It’s just been one thing after another,” Mr. Wewa said. He likens the Warm Springs water system to a garden hose patched so many times that much of its surface is now covered in electrical tape.
Even the influx of money under the Biden administration goes only partway to resolving the chronic underfunding of Indigenous water infrastructure, said Prof. Tanana.