Agencies seek funding to complete rural water project

 by Mary Garrigan 
originally published in the Rapid City Journal - February 24, 2011
original link: http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/news/article_e25531d6-407f-11e0-9ab8-001cc4c002e0.html

Three tribes and 10 federal agencies met Thursday in Rapid City to consult on how to get the nearly-complete Mni Wiconi water project finished in the shortest time with the least amount of additional congressional funding.

The more than 20-year-old project has been authorized through 2013, but the distribution system that supplies Missouri River drinking water to thousands of people on four rural water systems and three Native American reservations will still need an extension of time and more money to see it through to completion, said Mike Watson, project engineer with the Oglala Sioux Rural Water Supply System.

Thursday's consultation was an attempt to get all of the federal agencies that work with tribes on rural water issues to discuss drafting federal legislation to reauthorize an additional $29.5 million for Mni Wiconi beyond 2013.

Mni Wiconi is nearly 95 percent complete system-wide, but on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where it arrived last, the rural water project is still only about 70 percent complete. The Oglala Sioux Rural Water Supply System needs about $47 million beyond fiscal year 2011's current spending authorizations. The Rosebud Sioux Reservation needs another $33 million, and the Lower Brule Indian Reservation requires about $3.5 million more, according to the draft proposal that tribal officials hope, with the help of South Dakota's congressional delegation, will become federal legislation.

Tribal officials know the current economic climate makes it a difficult time to seek additional funding in Congress, Watson said, so "today is about utilizing current programs" in an array of federal departments that could be accessed by tribal rural water systems to complete the portions of Mni Wiconi water systems.

Rather than request a direct increase of $83.7 million in Mni Wiconi re-authorization, the proposal seeks to spread the cost of finishing the water project to many of the agencies involved in Thursday's conference by directing them to include some of those expenses under other rural water budgets and various grant programs.

Tribal officials said that because of its treaty obligations to the tribes, Congress should direct the Bureau of Reclamation to assume the repair and maintenance costs of deteriorating community water systems in 22 Pine Ridge communities and 20 Rosebud communities and three Lower Brule communities. They also hope several other agencies will assume the costs of constructing water-distribution facilities for livestock on the Pine Ridge reservation over the next 15 years or so.