Location: Round Valley Tribe, Mendocino County, California

Problem: The Tribe’s health clinic was violating drinking water regulations.

Solution: RCAC worked with the operator to bring the clinic’s system back into compliance and build the Tribe’s capacity.

The Round Valley Indian Tribe is a federally recognized Tribe. Its Reservation in Northern California was established in 1856. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, the Tribe’s total resident population is about 300, of whom 99 live in the town of Covelo. The next nearest town is Willits, which is about a 45-minute drive from the Reservation. Most residents live at or below the poverty level.

In December 2017, the Tribe’s water regulator discovered that the Reservation’s primary health care facility’s drinking water system tested positive for total coliform. Because of a lack of technical capacity, the contamination was never resolved. As a result, in January 2018, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that the clinic’s water system was in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act for failure to monitor the water for coliform, failure to respond to total coliform presence during routine monitoring and failure to complete a contamination assessment.

EPA Region 9 contacted RCAC with a request to help the Tribe bring the clinic’s drinking water back up to federal standards. In February, RCAC staff conducted an assessment to determine how to fix the problem. They also provided on-site, hands-on Coliform sample collection training to the operator.

RCAC staff helped the Tribe to develop and post public violation notifications – and monitor and treat the water on community buildings and at the Round Valley Tribes’ Health Clinic. RCAC helped build capacity by assisting with the assessment and providing sample collection training and worked with the Tribe’s water operator to bring the system back into compliance with regulations.