EFS Profiles
Community Involvement in Aquifer Protection
Salish Kootenai College
Pablo, Montana
Purpose: Community Involvement
Please note that the copyright for this profile is retained by the institution.
Over the past few years, Arlee High School, on the Flathead Reservation, has ordered that water for human consumption had to be boiled. While such measures indicated to the residents of Arlee that something was wrong with their water, they had very little evidence. Three years ago, Julie Weber, an environmental science student at Salish Kootenai College, became curious about the quality of the drinking water and began investigating the drinking water in her home town of Arlee. She found that the water was contaminated by coliform and nitrates. The levels were not very high, but they seemed to change seasonally.
The next year 1995-1996, funded by a grant from Sandia Labs, three more environmental science students continued to research the water quality in Arlee, under the direction of Dr. Lori Colomeda. With money from the Sandia grant, the water lab was able to purchase new testing equipment and fund stipends for student internships. A data base also was begun to document the location of the wells tested and their contaminants. Hydrological research showed that the aquifer used for the wells was unconsolidated and that the flow of the aquifer into the Jocko River was quite fast. Testing of this water revealed further that, because of population growth and development in the area and the hydrology of the aquifer, residents were contaminating their own drinking water with their septic tanks.
As a result of these student ground water studies, during the 1996-1997 academic year, SKC received an EPA grant to fund Environmental Education on the Flathead Reservation. Students, therefore, began collaborating with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribe and The Flathead Resource Organization to continue water quality assessment and to disseminate their results throughout Arlee and the Reservation. Initially, the environmental science field interns from SKC presented their data to two high school biology classes and then to the Indian Education Committee. To support their educational efforts, student also provided literature, workshops and a video documentary (aired on a local network) about the coliform pollution in the groundwater. More publicity for the water quality program followed after a presentation of the testing results at a town meeting and a meeting with the Flathead Resource Organization.
The cumulative effect of these educational activities on the actions of the town's citizens and officials was significant. The established water and sewer group, for instance, decided to increase the sewer district to include the Pow Wow grounds and the Salish home site. Following this decision, the tribe agreed to fund an engineering study for a water and waste water treatment plant. That study is currently underway and within two years it will probably lead to the construction of a new water and sewer system in the town of Arlee.
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