Unregulated Wells on the Navajo Nation Data Compilation

In the United States the use of unregulated water sources – defined as sources that do
not meet criteria to be classified as a public water system as defined by the Safe Drinking
Water Act - are used regularly for livestock watering, agriculture, domestic, and other
purposes. Nationally, more than 45 million people rely on unregulated water sources for
drinking water; however, there remains infrastructure disparities for drinking water access
in communities on Tribal nations. For the Navajo Nation, a sovereign Indigenous nation in
the Southwestern United States, between 7% and 30% of homes lack plumbing to deliver
household drinking water, so residents are compelled to access other water sources –
regulated and unregulated alike. Previous unregulated water quality studies on the Navajo
Nation were regionally focused and unsuitable for evaluating water quality trends across the
Navajo Nation, an area that encompasses more than 71,000 square kilometers in Arizona, New
Mexico, and Utah. Therefore, beginning in 2011 the Community Environmental Health Program at
the University of New Mexico began to compile existing water quality datasets, principally
for unregulated groundwater sources, in a single geospatial relational database. Researchers at the University of New Mexico Center for Native Environmental Health
Equity Research, University of New Mexico METALS Superfund Research Program, University of
Arizona, Northern Arizona University, and the Southwest Research and Information Center have
compiled a database of water quality measurements from groundwater wells on the Navajo
Nation using data from the U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency,
and data from researchers at the University of New Mexico, Dine College and Northern Arizona
University. To date, this data compilation has been used for publications but has not been
disseminated publicly. The purpose of this website is to facilitate access to these compiled
water quality data. The application design enables users to view water quality information
using statistical and geospatial tools. Our hope is that this information will support
individual and community decisions about water use from unregulated sources.