96 Understanding the Impact of Water Contamination on Indigenous Land and Health: A Case Study on the Duck Valley Reservation

Faculty Mentor: Tabitha Benney (Political Science, University of Utah)

Indigenous communities face disproportionate environmental-related health risks compared with the average North American population due to greater exposure to contamination (Hoover et al., 2012). Gaps in federal and state policy, in addition to weak governance in tribal settings, allow extractive and polluting enterprises greater access to tribal lands. This weakens effective regulation, which threatens the health and welfare efforts of tribal citizens (Grijalva, 2011). To understand this further, this study focuses on the Duck Valley Reservation, located on the Nevada-Idaho border, which is home to Shoshone-Paiute Tribes. Despite its small population of 1200 to 1500 people, there has been a growing concern regarding rising health issues over the last few decades due to water contamination from fossil fuels and pesticide-related chemicals. This research project examines (1) the social conditions and management practices that determined how toxic chemicals were handled on the Duck Valley Reservation and (2) contaminants in groundwater and drinking water, as well as the potential health and environmental consequences resulting from these. To investigate these issues, we conducted a historical case study of the reservation that involved collecting and examining historical records and data from newspapers, tribal documents, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and other public sources. The team created a timeline of events, identified contaminants present on the reservation, and researched the concentration of these chemicals and their potential impacts on human health. Based on a study undertaken by the EPA, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) was found to be responsible for the release of diesel, gasoline, and naphthalene directly into the ground of the reservation from 1950 until the mid-1990s. This procedure may be responsible for the formation of two hydrocarbon plumes that contaminated the main water supply of the reservation’s most densely populated area. The location of the plumes has raised concerns over the long-term impacts of contamination due to its well-established connection to health (Levallois & Villanueva, 2019), education (Bondy & Campbell, 2017), and environmental issues (Madhav et al., 2019). Further research is needed to assess the impact of water contamination on community health and the environment to prevent exposure of future generations from existing contamination.

Bibliography

Bondy, S., & Campbell, A. (2017). Water quality and brain function. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 15(1), 2. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15010002

Grijalva, J. M. (2011). Self-determining environmental justice for Native America. Environmental Justice, 4(4). https://doi.org/10.1089/env.2010.0033

Hoover, E., Cook, K., Plain, R., Sanchez, K., Waghiyi, V., Miller, P., Dufault, R., Sislin, C., & Carpenter, D. O. (2012). Indigenous peoples of North America: Environmental exposures and reproductive justice. Environmental Health Perspectives, 120(12), 1645–1649. https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1205422

Levallois, P., & Villanueva, C. (2019). Drinking water quality and human health: An Editorial. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(4), 631. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16040631

Madhav, S., Ahamad, A., Singh, A. K., Kushawaha, J., Chauhan, J. S., Sharma, S., & Singh, P. (2019). Water pollutants: Sources and impact on the environment and human health. Sensors in Water Pollutants Monitoring: Role of Material, 43–62. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-150671-0_4