Back to Summer 2009 Newsletter
AZ Tribes Get Stimulus Money for Water Projects
Arizona tribes will be getting a share of the $90 million to be disbursed from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for use for “shovel ready” infrastructure projects designed to better protect human and environmental health in Indian Country.
The Navajo Nation, receiving $13.3 million, will be getting the greatest amount for a single tribe. Funding will support 30 projects on the reservation including improving and upgrading septic tanks, drainfields and wastewater treatment facilities.
Also benefitting from the funding is the first phase of a pipeline project to deliver water from Shiprock, N.M. to tribal members in Sweetwater Arizona, a project that will serve 1,900 homes.
Other Arizona tribes also receiving stimulus money include: White Mountain Apache Tribe, $2.2 million for three wastewater and drinking water system projects; Tohono O’odham Nation, $1.9 million for five wastewater and drinking water projects; San Carlos Apache Tribe, $1.1 million for drinking water system improvements; Ak Chin Indian Community, $615,770 to improve its wastewater treatment facility; Quechan Tribe, $340,630 to upgrade sewer lines; Yavapai Apache Nation, $321,900 for arsenic treatment; and the Hualapai Tribe, $260,400 to upgrade its drinking water system.
New Glen Canyon Dam Release Plan Ordered
A federal judge ruled that federal officials must reconsider the scheduled releases from Glen Canyon Dam to better protect the habitat of the endangered humpback chub in the Grand Canyon.
Releases from the dam have usually been timed to meet the demands of power companies needing to supply their customers during peak daytime hours. Environmental groups have long argued that the irregular releases have damaged fish habitat, beaches, archaeological sites and other key Grand Canyon features
Reversing a previous agency opinion, that fluctuating flows at the dam likely would jeopardize the fish, a 2008 Fish and Wildlife Service biological statement stated that the fluctuating dam releases did not violate the Endangered Species Act. In response to this revision, the court found that the FWS acted improperly. According to the ruling the dam can continue its current mode of operation but must reconsider damage resulting to the humpback chub.
The judge allowed the government until November to file a new plan that, if it finds that the release schedule poses a threat to the endangered fish, would require the agency to arrange a new schedule.
Report Notes Cost of Navigable Waters Confusion
An unintended consequence of two U.S. Supreme Court decisions, Rapanos Carabell in 2006 and Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2001, was to raise doubts about the meaning of navigable waters in the Clean Water Act. This left federal officials in the unenviable position of attempting to define and apply regulatory standards without a clear understanding of a key term. A recent Environmental Protection Agency inspector general report tells of the cost of this confusion.
The report states, “Rapanos has created a lot of uncertainty with regards to EPA’s compliance and enforcement activities. Processing enforcement cases where there is a jurisdictional issue has become very difficult.”
It affirms that the decisions have resulted in regulatory confusion that has seriously drained the agencies’s resources; over 500 enforcement cases have been impacted. A further cost is the 20 million acres of wetlands and isolated waters that EPA estimates lost protection in the lower 48 states due to the confusion engendered by the Supreme Court decisions.
The title of the report is Congressionally Requested Report on Comments Related to Effects of Jurisdictional Uncertainty on Clean Water Act Implementation, Report No. 09 –0149.