Water on Pine Ridge: Digging Season is Coming Soon

After a brutal winter, the frozen ground on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation will soon thaw and for us at Running Strong, our contractors – and most importantly the families who have been waiting for running water in their homes – it will soon be time to resume our water line installation project on the reservation.

Running Strong water coordinator Ken Lone Elk is as anxious to get started as the families whose homes will be connected to the main water service line, which runs through the reservation in the coming months.

“As of today, we have three applicants who are all ready to go,” Ken reported earlier this month, meaning all their required paperwork has been submitted and all they are waiting on to do this job is cooperation from the weather.

In addition, there are seven other households that are waiting for paperwork to be returned by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Division of Real Estate Services which reviews and approves that the necessary easements have been granted for installing a water line to a home.

Ken stated, “It would be safe to say that we will probably have a total of 10 more families connections.”

“This is very hard to predict because of the paperwork required to get this life-saving gift of life, but this paperwork is used for documentation at the federal level,” he explained.