Joining Tribal Communities to Fight for Cleaner Water

Tribal lands in the Norther Plains are affected by over 15,000 hazardous waste sites and 7,000 abandoned mines. Now a new interdisciplinary partnership aims to reduce exposures to hazardous metals such as uranium and arsenic in drinking water, which play a role in the high rates of heart disease and diabetes affecting rural communities. The Columbia University Northern Plains Superfund Research Program (CUNP-SRP) brings together researchers from Columbia Mailman, the Columbia Climate School, and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, along with community partners at Missouri Breaks in North Dakota and South Dakota.

“Our mission is to protect water resources in tribal communities from these hazardous metal exposures through the integration of system science, innovative technology, and traditional Indigenous knowledge,” says principal investigator Ana Navas-Acien, MD, PhD, MPH, professor of Environmental Health Sciences. The researchers are working to identify areas where water needs remediation, to trace sources of contamination and pinpoint biological pathways of exposure, and to develop sustainable technologies to treat contaminated water. Community partners will work with researchers on data collection and analysis, and lead dissemination of findings to residents of three communities in North Dakota and South Dakota.

The program builds on the Strong Heart Study, which linked arsenic and uranium exposures to elevated levels of cardiovascular disease in American Indian communities in the Northern Plains. The study dates to the 1980s, and Navas-Acien has led its environmental work since 2008.