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Water on Hopi reservation is contaminated, where mining companies have left groundwater sources with elevated levels of toxic chemicals like arsenic and uranium. An estimated 75% of residents on the Hopi reservation are forced to use drinking water laced with arsenic, which poses serious health risks including cancers and birth defects.
The Hopi have long lacked adequate drinking water. In parts of the reservation, the water that flows from taps is contaminated with toxic arsenic and uranium at levels that exceed the federal standard. And in homes without running water, many families get by using what little they haul from communal faucets, which can amount to less than 2 gallons a day per person.
Water with high levels of arsenic and uranium flows not only to many homes but also to some of the community spigots where people fill jugs and tanks. Many of these water systems were built by the federal government between the 1950s and 70s, and the Hopi have been using the water ever since.
Water settlements are desperately needed, as adequate and clean drinking water is hard to come by for many members of both tribes. About 40 percent of Hopi homes still have no running water, and around 30 percent of Navajo homes must haul their water as well, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Tailings from uranium mines have contaminated wells in the western part of the sprawling Navajo Reservation, and many water sources on Hopi lands have four times the accepted safe levels of arsenic and uranium.
