Around the reservation there were many windmills put in here and there. There were also natural sources of water but they were limited. People tended to live nearby these water sources. Many of the communities grew around these ware sources. If you look at the map, "so and so springs", is a very common community name. Rock Springs, Bear Springs, Mexical Springs, etc. Traditionly the Navajo people were semi-nomadic, living along side their sheep, goats, horses and cattle as they moved through seasonal grazing areas from water source to water source. As a desert people, their meager way of life was adjusted to limited water supplies. Like "third world" people's everywhere they managed but were, by modern standards, very poor.
Many changes have come to these people over the years, (just like everybody since our grandparents were young). The realities of racial, cultural, economic and ethnic prejudices and differences did not allow the Navajo to participate in the positive changes of the majority culture and were harmed by the negative changes.
Although still central to the culture, herding is no longer the primary means of living and has completely lost its nomadic element. In the 30's and after, grazing rights were assigned to specific families. A specific area was assigned to each family. Control and use of the area was assigned to a family leader, usually matriarchal. Thus herds, and people, no longer moved around based on seasons, weather and local conditions. They remained largely stationary. When the local spring or shallow windmill went dry, you no longer moved on to a more hospitable location. You had to stay put.
Funding for the IHS water and sewer system construction programs have gone up and down every year over the past 60 years. Funding for the projects comes from the IHS budget line items as well as federal Community Development Block Grants, HUD housing programs and Tribal Revenues. With that said, the number of homes needing water and sewer has always outrun the funding available.
There are technical issues on the Navajo that make it more difficult to provide water there than many at many other places. With a few exceptions, deep groundwater is the only significant water source. Wells 700 to 1000 feet deep are not unusual. The IHS "Boone and Crockett" record is around 2000 feet deep. Obviously individual wells at homes, like where we grew up, are not feasible. Regional water systems are the only realalternative. A regional water system consists typically of very deep well, one or two large water tanks on the highest hilltops in the area, and miles and miles of 6, 4 and 2 inch PVC waterline. As funding becomes available, these water systems are lengthened and spread out. Most of the water systems have grown to the point that they are linked to neighboring water systems. Much of the Reservation is covered by vast spiders' webs of pipe linking many wells and water tanks.
I have not spoken much of the homes that these water systems serve. Navajo tend to live in small clusters of small, conventional homes, hogans and mobile homes. These clusters are spread fairly far apart from one another. Sewer service is via septic tanks and drain fields. The unit cost for serving the most sparsely scattered and remote homes can get pretty big. With that said, Navajo communities and living situations are not homogeneous. There are many varieties of housing including subdivisions, school and hospital housing compounds.
As the program began it concentrated on the easiest to serve places, the low hanging fruit. High population densities near shallow water sources. As time went on the systems stretched to to more sparsely populated and difficult locations. Many of the currently unserved are in these more remote and difficult locations.
One might ask why the people in these locations don't move to one of the places that has a water system. Well some do, depending on their situation, but even if you want to, you may have trouble finding a place to live that is not on your family's grazing area. Reservation land can't be bought, sold or traded. If I control a family grazing area that has running water and is near amenities, I have no reason to allow a non family member to move on it. Indeed, I would be very stupid to. This is the only land my family can ever "own". I can't go giving away my descendants inheritance. My traditional home is "home", so many of the remote families that have to haul water do so by choice, or rather lack of choice.
Contaminated water is another can of worms. Although there are other sources of pollution, the one that gets the most press is related to uranium mining and abandoned mill tailings. The poisonous and nonpoisionous features of radioactivity in drinking water is complex and controversial. Radium in water is very harmful. The chemical nature of radium is similar to calcium. We drink milk because it is rich in calcium and "builds strong bones". The body responds to radium in a similar way, to goes straight to the bones. This gives rise to bone and other cancers including (I think) to leukemia.
Uranium, on the other hand, is relatively inert in the body. It comes in and goes back out, if you know what I mean. The damage it does to the body during its brief visit, is rather limited. Some of the uranium mine contamination stories that get the most press are to my mind, not a very big deal. Others, however, are a big deal. I just get annoyed because the discussion involving these situations tends to generate lots of heat and smoke (and mirrors) but little light.
One of the things about "bad water" complaints is that ,they too, can be confusing. What is "bad water"? I had just arrived on the Navajo when I saw a Navajo family hauling water from a windmill with an open top water tank with a dead crow floating in it. I asked why they got theur water from there instead of from the public water system we had built. I was told that the public water system water was "bad" because it tasted awful. The water from the windmill is good. It tastes great. Later I drank some of the. water from the public water system. Even though it met all the required health guidelines, it tasted like crap. I don't blame them for not drinking it. Unfortunately it was the only water source of adequate quantity available. (The windmill in question was very low flow and went dry during droughts.)
All the systems put in by IHS meet EPA guidelines. To many of the general public, on and off the reservation, EPA is bullshit. So those complaints on the reservation are not much different than the rest of the country. During my time, however, the regulation on the reservation was done by the EPA its self. EPA law allows regulation authority to be delegated to the states, if they meet certain criteria. Similarly, tribes can be given jurisdiction if they meet the same criteria. At the time I was leaving IHS, 2004, the Navajo Tribe was going through the process of gaining that jurisdiction. So now, it may be, that Tribal EPA has jurisdiction. The story that started this post mentioned a lack of confidence in the Navajo EPA. Trust in the safety of water and other environmental concerns us only as good as the confidence in the utility company and the regulators. Complainers often have legitimate "beefs" regarding environmental issues. The problem for outsiders is that it is hard to know whether the issue is real or just perceived. Again, fire, heat, smoke but very little light.
All of this information is somewhat dated. Many things have changed since I left. The situation is far more complex than I can understand, and what I can understand is hard to explain. Native Americans been conquered, confined, abused, misunderstood, marginalized and generally "shat upon" ever since Colombus got lost on his way to China. ("He must've took a wrong turn in Albuquerque.") There is no way I or you (or anybody else) can fix that. We can try to do right in the future, but although injustice usually is pretty obvious, justice its self is hard to define and even more difficult to implement.
So, "Why can't they get water?". "Why do the wicked prosper?" "Why did Job suffer?" I really don't have a flippin' clue.
I swore I would never post Facebook again but because I have a little experience in this area this one suckered me in. Significant conversation are impossible on Facebook.