EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part of a series on how tribes and indigenous peoples are dealing with and fighting climate change.
HALCHITA, Utah (AP) — After five years of waiting, Lorraine Black and Ricky Gillis heard the rumble of an electrical crew reaching their home on the sprawling Navajo Nation.
In five days, their home would be connected to the grid, replacing their reliance on a few solar panels and propane lanterns. No longer would the CPAP machine Gillis uses for sleep apnea or his home heart monitor that transmits information to doctors 600 miles away face interruptions due to intermittent power. It also means Black and Gillis can now operate more than a few appliances — like a refrigerator, a TV, and an evaporative cooling unit — at the same time.
“We’re one of the luckiest people to go electric,” Gillis said.
Many Navajo families still live without running water and electricity, a product of historical neglect and the struggle to get services to remote homes on the 27,000-square-mile (70,000 sq km) Indian reservation located in parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. Some rely on solar panels or generators, which can be erratic, and others have no electricity at all.
Gillis and Black submitted an application to connect their home back in 2019. But when the coronavirus pandemic began ravaging the tribe and all but essential services were shut down on the reservation, that further stalled the process.
Their wait highlights the persistent challenges of electrifying every Navajo home, even with recent infusions of federal money for tribal infrastructure and services and as extreme heat in the Southwest amplified by climate change increases the urgency.
“We’re a part of America that a lot of the time feels a little left out,” said Vircynthia Charley, district manager of the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, a nonprofit that provides electric, water, wastewater, natural gas and solar energy services.
For years, the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority has been working to get more Navajo homes connected to the grid faster. Under a program called Light Up Navajo, which uses a mix of private and public funding, outside utilities from across the U.S. are sending electrical crews to help connect homes and extend power lines.
But installing power on the reservation, which is roughly the size of West Virginia, is time-consuming and expensive because of its rugged geography and the large distances between homes. Drilling for power poles there can take several hours due to underground rock deposits, while some houses near Monument Valley must have power lines installed underground to meet strict development regulations in the area.
About 32% of Navajo homes still have no electricity. Connecting the remaining 10,400 homes on the reservation would cost $416 million, said Deenise Becenti, director of government and public affairs at the corporation.
This year, Light Up Navajo connected 170 more families to the grid. Since the program started in 2019, 882 Navajo families have had their homes electrified. If the program remains funded, Becenti said it could take another 26 years to connect every home on the reservation.
Those who join immediately reap the benefits.
Until this month, Black and Gillis’ solar panels that the utility installed a few years ago would last about two to three days before their battery discharges in cloudy weather. It would take another two days to recharge.
“You had to really watch the wattage and whatever you’re using on a cloudy day,” Gillis said.
Then a volunteer power crew from Colorado helped install 14 power poles while the tribal network drilled holes six feet deep where the poles would sit. The crew then ran a wire about a mile down a red sand road from the power line to the couple’s home.
“The lights are brighter,” Black remarked after her home was connected.
In recent years, significantly more federal money has been allocated for tribes to improve infrastructure on reservations, including $32 billion from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 — of which the Navajo Nation received $112 million for electrical connections. The Navajo tribal utility also received $17 million through the Biden administration’s climate law, known as the Inflation Reduction Act, to connect families to the grid. But it can be slow to see the effects of this money on the ground due to bureaucracy and logistics.
By next spring, the tribal network hopes to connect another 150 homes, including Priscilla’s and Leo Dan’s.
For the couple, having electricity in their home near Navajo Mountain in Arizona would end a nearly 12-year wait. They currently live in a recreational vehicle elsewhere closer to their jobs, but have been working on their home on the reserve for several years. With the power there, they could spend more time where Priscilla grew up and where her father still lives.
It would make life easier, Priscilla said. “Because otherwise, everything seems to take twice as long to do.”
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— By JOSHUA A. BICKEL and SUMAN NAISHADHAM Associated Press. Naishadham reported from Washington.
