Santo Domingo Pueblo awarded $2 million for waste management

Santo Domingo Pueblo has been awarded more than $2 million to improve wastewater infrastructure and waste management.

The funding includes a $1.5 million grant that U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján secured through the Fiscal Year 2022 Appropriations process as well as an Environmental Justice Government to Government Award for $539,452 funded through the Inflation Reduction Act.

“Every person deserves access to clean and safe drinking water. Improving wastewater infrastructure and waste management is an important part of that,” Heinrich said. “I’m proud to have secured over $2 million through the Inflation Reduction Act and the appropriations process for the Santo Domingo Pueblo to design a wastewater treatment plant and remove open dump sites. These new investments will help pueblo leaders address pollution, make their communities safer, and protect the health and well-being of families.”

The $1.5 million grant is for planning and engineering design activities associated with improvements to the Domingo, Galisteo and Main Village lift stations as part of the comprehensive Santo Domingo wastewater distribution system project. The $539,452 grant will educate residents on the dangers of open dumps and remove several open dumps within Tribal lands.

“I’m proud to welcome this critical investment of more than $2 million to the Santo Domingo Pueblo to improve wastewater infrastructure throughout their community and help safeguard their environment. This funding will help clean up the land and help educate residents on how to better remove waste to keep their community safe,” Luján said. "Critically, I’m pleased that $1.5 million of this funding will be used to install an efficient wastewater system that will benefit the Santo Domingo Pueblo and the surrounding areas for generations to come.”

Santo Domingo Pueblo, also known as Kewa Pueblo, is a federally recognized tribe of Native American Pueblo people in Sandoval County, identified the need for a long-term and efficient wastewater system to manage wastewater across pueblo lands. With this $1.5 million grant funding, the pueblo will plan and design a centralized wastewater treatment plant that will improve wastewater infrastructure across the territory. The estimated duration of this project is 14 months.

With the $539,452 grant, Santo Domingo Pueblo plans to clean up 11 nonhazardous waste open dump sites and conduct six free trash weeks, three tire amnesty events and two open dump community workshops. The grant will also fund outreach efforts to 2,000 community members to ensure residents understand proper waste disposal methods and the hazards of open dump sites, including soil and water contamination, to eliminate the practice of open dumping.