https://grist.org/drought/biden-reclamation-groundwater-infrastructure/
"Water is hard to come by on the Rocky Boy’s Reservation, and it has been for a
long time. The Chippewa Cree tribe members who live on this reservation in
north-central Montana get most of their water from a thin underground aquifer
that is insufficiently replenished by occasional rainfall, and they’ve been
under some form of water restriction for several decades. There’s only enough
groundwater for cooking and hygiene, so residents aren’t allowed to water their
yellowing lawns or run sprinklers. It’s illegal to operate a car wash.
“It’s been in place for most of my life,” said Ted Whitford, the director of
the tribe’s water resources department. “And if we get a water main break on
our main line, what happens is it drains the tanks, and pretty much puts
everyone that’s on that system out of water.”
When the tribe reached a deal to obtain water rights for the reservation in
1997, the federal government agreed to pipe in water from a reservoir on the
Marias River, almost 60 miles away, replacing the aquifer water. But for more
than 20 years, that project proceeded at a crawl, with the government spending
only enough money each year to build a small portion of the pipeline. In the
meantime, the reservation’s water problems grew more dire with every spell of
drought.
That changed last year. The federal Bureau of Reclamation, flush with money
from the bipartisan infrastructure bill that Congress passed in 2021, directed
$57 million to the Rocky Boy’s Reservation for the project. This year, the
Bureau spent another $77 million, allowing construction crews to complete a new
water treatment facility at the reservoir and build several miles of pipeline,
extending the project closer to the reservation. In the coming years, the feds
will pay more than 90 percent of the total project costs.
“When I became familiar with the project, in my mind, it was doomed from the
beginning because it was a project that was scheduled to be completed over a
40- to 50-year period,” said Whitford. “We were getting spoon-fed funding. Now
we can accelerate that process.” While he once doubted that the pipeline would
reach the reservation’s central town of Box Elder in his lifetime, it now looks
like the pipe could reach there as soon as 2025."
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-child-nutrition-human-rights-bhutan-ocean-png/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
