First Nation urges action on 17-year-old water advisory
B.C. reserve under boil-water order since 2001 says feds must step up pace of improvements
VANCOUVER— Tu-ninq’ez. Cold, fresh water in the Tsilhqot’in language spoken on the remote reserves west of Williams Lake, B.C.
On Xeni Gwet’in First Nation — the most remote of the six Tsilhqot’in member bands — tu-ninq’ez (pronounced “too-ning-KAWZ”) is at the cultural heart of their salmon-fishing, wildhorse-coralling, hay-baling lifestyle.
Yet the 252-resident community has for 17 years been under a boil-water advisory, which Ottawa originally announced in 2001because of a high risk of sewage contamination, according to documents.
Their two water systems have been deemed undrinkable for so long that most residents drink it anyway, explaining that generations of their people have always consumed their land’s water.
“We’ve always drunk this from the tap,” Charlene Quilt said, as her mother Elsie Quilt entered the kitchen of their small shared cabin on the edge of a marsh from which their water is pumped. “Nobody’s got sick. It’s clean.”
The kitchen sink tap indeed flows colourless and odourless. Her mother nods patiently as the reporter’s questions are translated into Tsilhqot’in, the only language she speaks.
Unlike this home, many houses in Xeni Gwet’in don’t even have running water or plumbing at all. Elders regularly drag two 20-litre jugs — equivalent to the weight of roughly 70 cartons of eggs — from a creek down the valley.
“It’s always been like this, a long time,” recalled Sonny Lulua on the couch in the log cabin he built by hand. “For many years we’ve gone to get water. When we first moved in here, we’d carry buckets down to the creek way down there to get water.
“I guess I was just younger then … We’ve been fine, but it’s pretty hard when it’s cold weather, you have to chop through the ice.”
His wife Betty Lulua interrupts to tell him something in Tsilhqot’in, still spoken as mother tongue in the remote reserves.
The couple laugh together before she translates: “And try holding one jug in each hand.”
In the language there are words for running water, shallow water, deep water, turquoise water, rainwater, rivers, springs, rapids, light rains, slush, lake ice, thin ice, cracked ice, clear ice, glaciers, wash basins, tubs and kettles, the kitchen sink.
The Tsilhqot’in name itself means “blue water people.” Icy, turquoise waters — melted off glaciers that gaze down from all sides of the Nemiah Valley — are in their soul.
Xeni Gwet’in’s nearly two decades under boil-water advisories make them one of 14 bands in B.C. still under long-term warnings. Only one other First Nation exceeds theirs, by two years.
That’s despite Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s election promise that “all long-term drinking water advisories to be lifted by March 2021” for First Nations across the country. Since the Liberals’ election win, the promise has been fulfilled for 67 bands — but 34 have since been added.
In an interview, federal Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott said her Liberal government is on track to meet its promise, but that a lot of work remains on a complicated problem that may take years to resolve in some places.
“We have actually made significant progress in this area because it was a big priority of the prime minister,” Philpott said by phone. “Some of these communities actually require more than a couple of years to design … a water system that will meet the unique water needs of that community. Many of these communities are remote.”
Recently elected Xeni Gwet’in Chief Jimmy Lulua doesn’t have running water in his own house. He brushes his teeth from a cup. It is a daily reminder of how precious water is to his people — but, he noted, “It’s not by choice.”
“We’ve never been high on the government’s priority list,” he said. “We live in a Third World country in one of the richest countries in the world.”
For the First Nations Health Authority, a body unique to B.C. with an Indigenous leadership council, the fact that they only gained Indigenous jurisdiction over issues of water quality and health on the province’s 198 reserves could be light at the end of the pipe.
That’s because their leadership, through agreements with Ottawa and Victoria, has finally been able to hear and heed local community concerns, fears and needs around how they get water services — and tap into local wisdom to start solving decades of substandard outcomes.
“It’s basically neglect — wilful neglect,” said Grand Chief Doug Kelly, chair of the First Nations Health Council.
“When you look at Indigenous policy, it’s always been a situation where we’re not a priority. Our communities still don’t have the infrastructure taken for granted by other British Columbians.”
The authority’s environmental public health manager Linda Pillsworth explained that water advisories occur for many reasons. Despite a water tower from a creek above town, there was a perceived E. coli risk from sewage — “that type of (water) source is subject to contamination,” she said, “so treatment is necessary.”
Additionally, many community elders on Xeni Gwet’in don’t want chlorine in their water supply, the solution that until recently dominated federal plans.
“The principle of adding something chemical to water that’s pure doesn’t resonate very well — despite the positive benefits of chlorine and minimal risk,” Pillsworth said. “Systems that have strong community involvement and engagement in defining what is acceptable to them have the most success.
“That’s integral because it puts the decision-making and awareness into the hands of the community.”
Boil-water advisories are a crucial precaution when safety can’t be guaranteed. And water contamination can be fatal, as was tragically learned in Walkerton. In 2000, the Ontario town suffered an E. coli outbreak that killed seven people and left nearly half the community's 4,800 people ill.
But long-term advisories don’t mean the original concern has been resolved.
“Over the longer term, they will get ignored,” Pillsworth warned. “The concept of pure, fresh and clean sometimes drives people to drink untreated water: ‘It looks clean, we’ve drunk it for decades, how could it be a problem now?’ But there is a real risk depending on the system and source of contamination.”
On the reserve itself, the concerns over chlorine weren’t universal — some wanted running water in the first place, others who had it said an occasional chlorine shock to clean up ultraviolet-sterilized water would be acceptable.
Several cited bad taste and health concerns about adding chemicals to traditionally clean water that one seniors health worker said was “like prayer here.”
Marilyn Baptiste, the band’s former chief who served on the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs ex- ecutive, is one of those opposed to water chlorination unless it’s just occasional.
“We have pristine mountain glacier water all around us,” she said.
“We’re remote, we’re off-thegrid, which is the greatest thing for us as Xeni Gwet’in … but these are common-sense things. Water means everything to us; it heals us.” The same day StarMetro toured with Chief Lulua, a letter arrived from Ottawa. Despite long-standing federal reluctance, funds would flow to replace the ineffective chlorine treatment plant with a system allowing both chlorine and UV.
Philpott said “all of the work is done in full consultation with chief and council, and band leadership” on fixing water issues, “so that whatever design solutions are implemented, they are driven by communities and we are there to provide the appropriate support.”
That’s not how Chief Lulua describes it.
“Ottawa still makes decisions from there,” he said. “The water tower and one water treatment plant basically didn’t involve us, they just came in and said, ‘This is what you get.’
“We are getting there but it’s slow. We’ve got a long way to go yet, but at least we’re at the table with Canada now.”
The government has already spent $3.2 million on Xeni Gwet’in water system improvements. Indigenous Services Canada said via email the advisory could end by December. But its plans for a UV and chlorine system won’t bring water to homes with none.
“Now they’ve come out a little bit,” Chief Lulua said. “But at the end of the day, they’ve got to walk their talk. So far, it’s been empty promises.”