Tribal Source Water Protection Projects
Below is a collection of examples of Source Water Protection projects from Tribes and Nations across the country. These examples showcase the collaboration, creativity, and leveraging of programs and partnerships that Tribes and Nations have engaged in to meet their Source Water Protection goals.
The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community
Clean Water Act Section 106 funds support diverse ground water protection activities to maintain high quality ground water for the drinking water supply of the Shakopee Mdewakaton Sioux Community. The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community (SMSC) has over 5,100 acres of trust and fee land. The SMSC relies solely on ground water from one bedrock aquifer for drinking water. The SMSC’s public works department frequently monitors both processed and raw well water from public supply wells. Monitoring has shown that the local aquifers are producing high quality water. The ground water quality is important to the continued existence of the SMSC. With a high quality water supply, the SMSC can continue to provide safe residential land and economic opportunities for SMSC members.
The Shakopee has two Community Water Systems serving about 15,000 people daily. The primary potential sources of contamination for each system are petroleum storage of more than 25 gallons and any unknown abandoned wells that penetrate the aquifer. The SMSC has received Clean Water Act S106 funding for a wide range of ground water related activities, including:
- Develop and maintain their own ground water model to plan for well locations and predict aquifer behavior. Conduct an analysis of their Wellhead Protection Plan.
- Host a summer education series for area tribal and non-tribal children that stresses the importance of water quality. Usually 2-4 sessions per summer for the last 20 years.
- Support staff travel to regional and national conferences to keep current on ground water issues.
- Test soil samples where reused storm water irrigation practices have been implemented to monitor for buildup of salts and nutrients.
- Host a variety of water related education activities during “Earth Week” that are geared towards tribal members and employees who may live and work in ground water management areas.
- Supported staff time to locate abandoned wells and coordinate proper well sealing.
The Nisqually Indian Tribe
Within the foothills of Mount Rainer lies the Mashel River, the primary salmon-spawning tributary of the Nisqually River. The Mashel River is an important site for salmon habitat. The River also serves as the direct source of water for the Town of Eatonville and is the indirect source for many rural residents. The largest sub-basin and headwaters for the Mashel River is the Busy Wild Creek, which is a declared federal critical habitat site for spawning and rearing of the listed Endangered Species: Chinook Salmon and Steelhead Trout.
The forests around these headwaters are commercially logged, and sections of the forest remain in a state of recovery from massive clear-cut logging from the early and mid-1900s. These practices impact the headwaters by reducing water retention, elevating stream temperatures, reducing the woody-debris accumulation needed for spawning habitat, and through extensive sedimentation that fills spawning pools. These impacts to the river affect the Nisqually River Basin, which is home to the Nisqually Indian Tribe. Salmon is a prominent part of the Nisqually culture, and they rely on treaty-reserved fishing rights to sustain their fishing practices in the river.
To restore river quality and salmon habitat in these headwater forests, the Nisqually Tribe received a $14.2 million loan from the Washington State Department of Ecology to purchase 1,240 acres of land along the North Fork of Busy Wild Creek. This land purchase adjoins next to nearly 3,000 acres of forested land managed by the Nisqually Land Trust and the Nisqually Community Forest. Future forest growth will permanently protect the entirety of the Busy Wild Creek headwaters and help restore critical salmon habitat for the Mashel River.
San Carlos Apache Tribe
The San Carlos Apache Reservation consists of 1,854,396 acres in southeastern Arizona and includes the San Carlos River Watershed. The western border of the San Carlos Apache Reservation is situated approximately four miles east of Globe, Arizona, and the northern edge is bordered by the White Mountain Apache Indian Reservation. The tribe’s restoration projects focus on Hill Springs and its associated wetland area, located within the 20,603-acre Bear Gulch Creek watershed within the San Carlos River watershed. The Bear Gulch Creek watershed is a culturally and environmentally significant watershed since it contains Hill Springs. Hill Springs provides a source of untreated drinking water to Tribal members and is the largest spring source wetland area within the larger San Carlos River watershed.
Nonpoint source pollution categories and subcategories of significance for the Hill Springs work plan area include agriculture (specifically rangeland and overgrazing) and habitat modification (specifically the removal of riparian vegetation and streambank modification and destabilization). The project serves to protect Hill Springs as an environmentally and culturally important tribal water resource through livestock exclusion fencing, and to restore the wetland vegetation lost through livestock trampling within the spring wetland area and along the adjacent Bear Gulch riparian area through replanting with native vegetation to recreate healthy spring source and riparian functions.
In order to achieve this goal, the tribe’s on-the-ground work included fencing the perimeter of Hill Springs to exclude livestock from grazing the springs, working with tribal forestry and cultural advisors to restore Hill Springs’ cultural plants, and restoring trees in the livestock-trampled Bear Gulch Creek streambank/riparian area. In addition to these on the ground activities, the tribe will conduct education and outreach in the community. Collectively, the project is expected to improve riparian habitat, reduce bacteria levels in the numerous spring discharges, improve and protect fish and wildlife habitat, and provide additional recreational opportunities.