Where: Hopi Reservation, Northern Arizona

Problem: Tribal communities lack access to safe drinking water

Solution: RCAC provides technical assistance to ensure a Tribal school maintains safe drinking water

Second Mesa Day School is a K-6 elementary school on the Hopi Reservation in northern Arizona. The school has its own water system that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers as a community water system. It serves 376 people (students, staff and teacher housing). The system, and much of that part of the reservation, uses groundwater from an aquifer that has elevated arsenic levels.

In December 2020, RCAC staff received a request from the Second Mesa Day School for assistance with a new pH control unit that EPA had requested be installed to improve the performance of the school’s existing arsenic treatment plant. RCAC staff coordinated with the contractor to install the pH control unit when RCAC could be on-site. At that time, RCAC staff found that the contractors had installed the new pH probe in the wrong location in the plumbing tree. RCAC worked with them to ensure that they understood the end goal of the pH control unit and could install it in the correct location needed for the water treatment process. At the school’s request, RCAC staff followed up one week after the initial install and worked with the school’s operator to figure out what was still not working. RCAC then facilitated a follow-up visit by the contractor to install a more suitably sized rotameter for the control unit and to provide a user manual for the operator’s reference.

RCAC helped the school improve its water system and comply with regulations.