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Nation to help Rural Water District 21, but ‘not with a Band-Aid’

The Nation’s decision-making process on how to address poor water quality – as well as lack of reliable water distribution in Rural Water District 21 – could mean the boil order lasts through 2026. The Nation is reviewing buying out the Rural Water District, but this would not necessarily speed up the timeline, according to the Department of Natural Resources’ Craig Walker.

Rural Water District 21 is still under a boil order with no end in sight. A broken filter on the water system and old pipes are compounding the problem. Osages living in RWD21, such as Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear, are without water.

Severely low pressure and an “ancient” system, according to Department of Natural Resources Director Craig Walker, mean a “Band-Aid solution” is a waste of funds. Walker defines the “Band-Aid” as simply replacing the broken filter at RWD 21’s water treatment facility.

“The delivery system is already ancient and falling apart,” said Walker. “You’re looking at a boil order for at least a year, and you’re going to provide the same water quality as you have for the last decade? … I don’t know how replacing the exact same filtration system is going to solve any of your problems, because you’ve had a history of violations with their water quality.”  

Alan Kuykendall is the contractor for RWD 21 who saw the broken filter go down. As the owner of Phoenix Oil and Utility Services, he manages water issues for a quarter of the Osage reservation area. Kuykendall forecasted that a replacement filter would only take three to four months to install if they could get funds. One of the engineers working with Kuykendall, Tim Ward, recommended that RWD 21 not replace the filter with the same one they had before, called a membrane, but instead, they should undergo a research process to match their source water with a better filter type.

“[Ward] has spoken with the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality about changing the style of filters we have to match our water source better, because he doesn’t feel that the [filter] we put in originally was the right match. … [The updated filters] could be done in three to four months and everybody’s water would be as good or better,” said Kuykendall.

Rural Water District 21 has received a grant to pay for the research and engineering of finding a better-matched filter, according to Kuykendall but Walker thinks RWD 21 needs to look at their water source, not just the filter. Walker wants to build new pipes, and a new infrastructure, potentially including a sovereign water treatment facility owned by the Nation.

The system as a whole and all possible options need to be evaluated, Walker asserts. “The problem is the source of water. A filtration system is going to work for a particular source of water. … If you’re going to basically build a new water system, you need to have a better filter or find a different source… a viable alternative water source.”

Walker is getting everyone together – from the DEQ to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and RWD 21 – to see if they can agree on a solution. One idea he had was sourcing water directly from Kaw Lake, rather than the wells drilled nearby where the water currently comes from.  

“We’re getting water from the north end of Kaw Lake on the river, up near Bear Creek campgrounds … that well water. … The [RWD 21] well is drilled right beside the river, so its water is from the same water source as Kaw Lake,” Kuykendall argued. He said a stub out from that water pipeline would be infinitely more costly than fixing their plant and he did not think it would comprise a “different” or “better” water source. “But I’m just a contractor,” he said. “Nothing I say has any bearing.”

The RWD 21 board did not respond for comment, and at their last board meeting they were stringently focused on applying for grants to replace the membrane filter and end the boil order. “It’s about a $2 million fix,” according to Kuykendall.

Due to scheduling conflicts, RWD 21, the DEQ, the EPA, the county commissioner, the City of Pawhuska and other stakeholders (including Kaw Nation and a prospective funder) are not able to meet until the beginning of October, Walker said.

“In the meantime we still don’t have water to drink, cook with, brush our teeth and let’s be honest, to take clean showers in,” said Kilan Jacobs, an Osage living in RWD 21 with a wife and five children. “Brown water and water with iron and manganese is not safe for human use at all. This is rough.”

Contractor Alan Kuykendall and RWD 21 board member Shirley Kelly hold up a map showing the area now mandated to boil water. The area is indicated in brown. CHELSEA T. HICKS/Osage News

Not an ‘emergency status’

Although Osage constituents do not have potable water and navigate an indeterminately long boil order, the Nation is not treating the water status as an emergency. They have not intervened in the boil order, said Walker.

Instead of the boil order, the Nation is focused on the pipes. They are considering buying out Rural Water District 21 to address the massive pipe infrastructure. Buying them out, said Walker, won’t necessarily speed up the process. “Even if you buy that out and install a water treatment, the delivery system is still shot. That’s why the Chief doesn’t have water right now, because the pipes broke somewhere between Pawhuska and Newkirk.”

The City of Pawhuska is limited in its ability to help fiscally because RWD 21 is not within city limits, said Mayor Susan Bayro. She is prepared to help them write a grant, however.

“When the Nation wants to start going after funding, the City of Pawhuska can help by going through a multi-jurisdictional grant type of process,” said the mayor, who is currently focused on evaluating infrastructure problems within the city’s larger planning process.

The City of Pawhuska has other water issues, separate from RWD 21 but outlined in the city’s capital improvement plan and its comprehensive plan. Bayro said she will be sharing these documents with the Osage Nation Congress, which addresses water and wastewater in the city.

“We’re actually building a process that can be used for the future,” said Bayro proudly. “I’m going to have a detailed-out kind of thing [for Congress].” The city’s efforts on water and collaborations with Congress will be well-documented, she said.

As for RWD 21, all the city can do is help with infrastructure if the Nation decides to pursue that, Bayro said. “The city can supply the water,” she said. “After they get the pipes. It’s expensive. I know [the Nation] is working on it now to try to find the funding for it.”

The Chief and many other constituents are currently not getting any water at all in the meantime – and those who are have to boil it.  

The relationship between RWD 21 and the Nation

The wait can’t be avoided, said Walker who sees RWD 21 as a completely broken system. Meanwhile, RWD 21 wants to keep managing the system as-is except for a new filter. They don’t have the money for pipes, let alone other major upkeep, and they’ve had a hard time getting funding in the past said Chairwoman Jill Gray at the water district’s last meeting.

“RWD 21 has all the cards in their favor,” said Walker. “Because the root of the problem kind of stems within their jurisdiction as a water district.” Board members at RWD 21 expressed uneasiness with giving control over to the DEQ, and they were not entertaining the idea of selling to the Nation as of this August.

The relationship between the tribe and the water district has been tenuous at times, Walker said.

“A couple years ago we had some lack of water distribution issues over there. The tribe reached out and said, ‘You guys need to get on this. We’re more than happy to come up with our own solutions … maybe they were threatened a little bit that we might take residents … or take control of them but … over time, we’ve tried to help come up with remedies and solutions on things.”

“We were going to help some water storage issues, right before the boil order came out,” Walker continued. “We were going to install a new tower outside of Pawhuska for that edge of RWD 21 so when their line does break, [there is] at least enough water to get residents by for a few days.” That solution is now off the table because it feeds into a “Band-Aid fix,” Walker said.

Walker said the reason it’s important to focus on the county as a whole is because every Osage – and all ancestral land – should matter to the tribe, and these needs matter to him. “I look at it from the standpoint that I do my best within my capacity to help everyone I can, whether they live in Osage County or not. If you look at the membership rolls and the membership status, the majority of the tribe does not live in Osage County. If you look at the ancestral ground, and you look at Osage County as a reservation … well, the Osage Nation homelands reach from the edge of Texas to Pennsylvania. What’s stopping me from doing the best I can to help every aspect of [our] Native homeland?”

“We’re looking at developing a casino in Missouri,” Walker continued. “That’s outside Osage County. … [but] the State of Missouri recognizes that Missouri is historically part of the Osage Nation. That speaks a lot – volumes – on the Osage Nation’s ability to reach beyond Osage County.” 

Taking care of Osage County as a whole is just a start, and he said he will help Bartlesville with any further water droughts, and any other surrounding areas that could benefit from Nation resources as they pertain to water.

“We’re trying to assess as best as we can to come up with the best solution [for everyone.]”

While the parties involved wait to meet and negotiate, people on miles and miles of decrepit water lines will continue to suffer.

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Chelsea T. Hicks
Chelsea T. Hickshttps://osagenews.org
Title: Staff Reporter
Email: chelsea.hicks@osagenation-nsn.gov
Languages spoken: English
Chelsea T. Hicks’ past reporting includes work for Indian Country Today, SF Weekly, the DCist, the Alexandria Gazette-Packet, Connection Newspapers, Aviation Today, Runway Girl Network, and elsewhere. She has also written for literary outlets such as the Paris Review, Poetry, and World Literature Today. She is Wahzhazhe, of Pawhuska District, belonging to the Tsizho Washtake, and is a descendant of Ogeese Captain, Cyprian Tayrien, Rosalie Captain Chouteau, Chief Pawhuska I, and her iko Betty Elsey Hicks. Her first book, A Calm & Normal Heart, won the 5 Under 35 Award from the National Book Foundation. She holds an MA from the University of California, Davis, and an MFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts.
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