What is the problem with the local water supply on Navajo tribal lands near Sweetwater, Arizona?”
U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman and New Mexico State Engineer John D’Antonio on Saturday toured areas affected by the proposed San Juan River water rights settlement. Bingaman and U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici are co-architects of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. In a press release Saturday morning from the president’s office, Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr., said, “This settlement is crucial to the Navajo Nation. We are hosting this tour because it is vital that people see the conditions that some of our people are living in right now.” “There are people in America without running water. This is one of the primary reasons why we need to move forward with this water project.” D’Antonio said the negotiation is a move in the right direction and the result of much hard work and cooperation between the Navajo Nation, the State of New Mexico and the federal government. “Navajos and non-Navajos have waited many years for a resolution of water claims in this region and this settlement protects existi
Church Rock, New Mexico, would seem an improbable spot for a nuclear disaster. A dusty cluster of industrial machinery set in the arid mesas of the great Southwest, its most distinguishing feature might be considered a large pond of murky liquid, unusual in such dry terrain. Church Rock also hosts a series of underground uranium mine shafts, a mill, and a scattered community of Navajo families who survive by herding cattle, goats, and sheep. A deep gully leads from the mine site into the Rio Puerco, which once flowed only when fed by spring rains. Now it is wet year round, bolstered by water pumped from the mine shafts to keep them from flooding. That water flowing from the mine is laced with radioactive isotopes. And the pond hides a burden of contaminated waste. The 350 families who water livestock in the Rio Puerco rely on their small herds to eke out a meager existence. Many are members of the Dine–Navajo–Nation, with incomes in the range of two thousand dollars per year. During
The 100 Navajo residents outside Sweetwater, Ariz., will no longer have to haul water by truck to the Indian reservation. Despite its name of Sweetwater, the local water supply for the community contains an excess of arsenic. The economic-stimulus package allocated $90 million to upgrade water infrastructure on tribal lands, including $13.3 million for more than 4,500 homes in the Navajo Nation.
