Apsaalooke Water and Wastewater Authority, P.O. Box 126, Crow Agency, MT 59022, USA.
Crow Environmental Health Steering Committee, Little Big Horn College, Crow Agency, MT 59022, USA.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2018 Mar 21;15(4):567. doi: 10.3390/ijerph15040567.
Disparities in access to safe public drinking water are increasingly being recognized as contributing to health disparities and environmental injustice for vulnerable communities in the United States. As the Co-Directors of the Apsaálooke Water and Wastewater Authority (AWWWA) for the Crow Tribe, with our academic partners, we present here the multiple and complex challenges we have addressed in improving and maintaining tribal water and wastewater infrastructure, including the identification of diverse funding sources for infrastructure construction, the need for many kinds of specialized expertise and long-term stability of project personnel, ratepayer difficulty in paying for services, an ongoing legacy of inadequate infrastructure planning, and lack of water quality research capacity. As a tribal entity, the AWWWA faces additional challenges, including the complex jurisdictional issues affecting all phases of our work, lack of authority to create water districts, and additional legal and regulatory gaps-especially with regards to environmental protection. Despite these obstacles, the AWWWA and Crow Tribe have successfully upgraded much of the local water and wastewater infrastructure. We find that ensuring safe public drinking water for tribal and other disadvantaged U.S. communities will require comprehensive, community-engaged approaches across a broad range of stakeholders to successfully address these complex legal, regulatory, policy, community capacity, and financial challenges.
美国弱势群体在获得安全公共饮用水方面的差距日益明显，这被认为是造成健康差距和环境不公平的原因。作为克劳族阿帕阿尔克水和废水管理局（Apsaalooke Water and Wastewater Authority，AWWWA）的联合主任，我们与学术合作伙伴一起，在这里介绍了我们在改善和维护部落水和废水基础设施方面所面临的多重且复杂的挑战，包括确定基础设施建设的多样化资金来源、对各种专业知识的需求以及项目人员的长期稳定性、纳税人对服务付费的困难、基础设施规划不足的遗留问题以及缺乏水质研究能力。作为一个部落实体，AWWWA 还面临着额外的挑战，包括影响我们工作各个阶段的复杂管辖权问题、缺乏创建水区的权力，以及额外的法律和监管差距——特别是在环境保护方面。尽管存在这些障碍，AWWWA 和克劳族还是成功地升级了当地的大部分水和废水基础设施。我们发现，要为部落和美国其他处境不利的社区提供安全的公共饮用水，需要广泛的利益相关者采取全面的、以社区为中心的方法，以成功应对这些复杂的法律、监管、政策、社区能力和财务挑战。
