Where: Tonto Apache Tribe, Arizona

Problem: Small rural systems struggle to access funding

Solution: RCAC staff helped a rural system use grant funds

The Tonto Apache Tribe is adjacent to the town of Payson, in northwestern Gila County approximately 95 miles northeast of Phoenix and 100 miles southeast of Flagstaff, Arizona. Approximately 140 community members live on the Reservation.

During 2020, the Tonto Apache Tribe received an Indian Health Service (IHS) grant for its Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) improvements and expansion. Once the project concluded, $20,000 remained in the grant budget. Rather than return the funds, RCAC Rural Development Specialist Nick Silides proposed that the Tribe use the funds for the plant laboratory. He worked with the Tribe and IHS to procure the needed equipment, then assisted the plant operators to set it up and trained them on its usage and wrote analytical laboratory standard operating procedures.

The WWTP now performs daily process control and effluent chemical and bacteriological analyses without using a contract lab, which saves time and hundreds of dollars per month. It also allows the WWTP to produce a quality effluent that can be used for irrigation and landscaping.