Mni Wiconi water reaching Pine Ridge reservation

Gathering heralds arrival of lines that carry clean water

By Mary Garrigan, Journal staff | Thursday, August 21, 2008

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WANBLEE -- Words of congratulations and gratitude for the arrival of Missouri River water to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation flowed freely at a Mni Wiconi connection dedication here Wednesday. But the people who live in this small community on the reservation's northeastern edge will have to wait a few more months for the water itself to begin flowing into their homes.

About 250 people gathered in the Crazy Horse School gymnasium to mark a milestone for the rural water project, whose Lakota name translates to "Water is life."

After 15 years of construction and nearly half a billion dollars in federal funds, the 24-inch core pipeline and its clean, safe, high-quality drinking water from the Missouri River has finally crossed the reservation's border.

As of Wednesday, crews had finished laying the system's backbone line to Hisle Junction just west of Wanblee. Its feeder lines into Wanblee and several other small housing developments nearby have not been built yet. Spokesmen for the Oglala Sioux Rural Water Supply System say that should happen by November of this year.

"This is an historic moment," Oglala Sioux Tribe President John Yellow Bird Steele said of the pipeline's arrival on the third of three reservations it serves. "It will affect the health of the people of the Oglala Sioux Tribe for generations."

Mni Wiconi surface water is already being supplied to about 2,000 people on the Lower Brule reservation and 17,000 on the Rosebud reservation, as well to nearly 12,000 non-reservation residents who live in the West River-Lyman Jones Water District. Even though river water is only reaching its eastern edge now, many people on the Pine Ridge reservation have been receiving the benefits of the Mni Wiconi project for up to 15 years. Southern parts of the reservation have high-quality ground well water from the Oglala Aquifer through the Mni Wiconi project. The plan has always been to mix half surface water from the Missouri River and half ground water from the aquifer, officials said.

By November, Wanblee resident Julia Wilcox hopes she will have treated Missouri River water flowing from her kitchen sink. A diabetic, Wilcox attributes some of her health problems to a lifetime spent drinking bad-tasting water from community wells that often tested high in such contaminants as nitrates, arsenic and other minerals.

"It doesn't taste good," Wilcox said. "I'm looking forward to that new water."

Every South Dakotan has a right to expect a safe, reliable, high-quality source of drinking water, said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D. Thune was among a dozen celebration speakers, many of whom received star quilts from the tribe.

"Water is the lifeblood when you live in a place like western South Dakota," said Thune, "and finally, that lifeblood of our economy and our communities is coming to Pine Ridge in the form of Mni Wiconi water."

Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., recalled how master of ceremony Frank Means used to lobby Congress for the rural water project by bringing a jar filled with brown, brackish water from the reservation to Washington, D.C.

"This is a celebration we've all been looking forward to for a long, long time," Johnson said.

Yellow Bird Steele gave Johnson all credit for the early fight for Mni Wiconi. "Sen. Tim Johnson is one of the best friends the Oglala ever had," Yellow Bird Steele said.

It's a fight that goes on in Washington. Funding authorization for 2009 has yet to pass the full Senate, but $37 million was approved by the Senate Appropriation Committee last month, despite the Bush Administration's budget request of $26.2 million for the project.

Initially funded in 1988 and slated for completion in 2003, the Mni Wiconi Act was reauthorized numerous times and has had its completion date extended twice -- most recently to 2013. To date, the project is 77 percent complete, and it has spent $353.5 million of its $458 million federal spending ceiling, according to data from the Bureau of Reclamation, the lead federal agency on the project.

When completed as planned in 2013, the entire system and the four Mni Wiconi-funded rural water systems that comprise it will serve more than 51,000 people in 40 communities and 10 counties through about 4,400 miles of pipeline throughout central, southern and western South Dakota.

Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Robert Johnson of Washington, D.C., Gov. Mike Rounds and Lower Brule Sioux Tribe Chairman Mike Jandreau were among the invited dignitaries.

Dennis Breitzman, the Bureau's Dakota Area manager, congratulated the Oglala Sioux Tribe on its perseverance and commitment to its people. Mni Wiconi was the first large-scale rural water project the bureau had ever undertaken with Native American tribes and, although there were "bumps along the way," the common goal of bringing high-quality drinking water to the reservation has been worth it, Breitzman said.

Edward Bartlett is a water-district employee who has been along for much of the Mni Wiconi journey.

"I've pretty much seen it all," he said.

Bartlett started working for the project 17 years ago when a water-treatment plant was built near Fort Pierre to take surface water out of the Missouri River and deliver it to points west and south. Now, he is a construction inspector for the water district.

On Wednesday, under a blazing sun and a relentless wind, Bartlett was overseeing a crew out of St. Paul, Minn., that was burying pipeline west of Wanblee. A contract is under way now to build the backbone system from Hisle Junction to Kyle. After that is completed, Missouri River water will be available at Evergreen, Porcupine, Red Shirt, and all points in between.

Back at the connection ceremony in Wanblee, Lakota spiritual leader Richard Moves Camp gave a traditional blessing to its participants and thanks for the "spirit of the water" that was flowing in the room and in the pipeline outside of town.

"In Lakota ceremonies, water is used to comfort, to heal, and to rejoice in life. For us, water is God, water is life," Moves Camp said as a Lakota drum group filled the gym with its own life-affirming beat.

Contact Mary Garrigan at 394-8424 or mary.garrigan@rapidcityjournal.com