Clean Water Act Section "106" Program
DJ Middletent, "106" Water Quality Coordinator
DJ Middletent (Water Quality Coordinator) taking a sample during high flow at Medicine Creek
Introduction
The Lower Brule Sioux Tribe Clean Water Act "106" Water Quality Program grant was first awarded in June of 1998 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Program's primary goal is the protection and preservation of our reservation’s waters quality for future generations to enjoy.
Other goals include:
- Identify and prioritize water quality issues
- Perform water quality monitoring and assessment
- Develop Tribal "Water Quality Standards"
- Build working relationships with other tribal, state, and federal water programs
- Collect, interpret, and disseminate information on water quality to the public
- Assess water pollution impacts on the reservation from Point and Non-Point Sources
- Identify all impaired waters and develop plans to improve them
- Interpretation of collected water quality data
- Development of a yearly Sampling Analysis Plan (SAP)
- Quality assurance through a Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP)
- Development of a Five (5) Year Water Quality Monitoring Strategy
The cornerstone of the Program is the collection and interpretation water quality data from surface water, groundwater, and Missouri River system (Lake Sharpe and Lake Francis Case). Nine sampling stations on the Missouri River are presently being monitored as well as the four major streams. Parameters measured are temperature, pH, turbidity, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, E-Coli, total nitrogen, total phosphorous, stream flow, and pesticides. The Water Quality Program also has a CWA Section “106” Supplemental Grant which monitors shoreline erosion on the along a seven (7) mile stretch of the Missouri River.
The 2020 Sampling season will have the same sampling sites as before which consists of taking lab samples at the mouth of the streams and where they enter our reservation. we sample at all the main streams on the reservation which are Cedar Creek, Medicine Creek, and Short Creek. The 2022 Sampling Season will add some new sampling sites which will be the recreational sites.
George Honeywell (EPO Director), Steve Langdeau (Former 319 Coordinator), and DJ Middletent (106 Coordinator) demonstrating the use of our YSI which is an instrument that will measure several different paramters at a time to some students at the Lower Brule High School.