The leader of an Arizona tribe has compared a recent power outage his community experienced to one in a developing country.
On Tuesday, Terry Rambler, chairman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe in Arizona, issued a statement in response to a recent power outage in the tribe that left parts of his reservation without electricity for a day due to a storm.
“This type of blackout is usually associated with developing countries, not the United States,” he said in the statement.
Tribal officials say residents and businesses in the area are often without power due to routine power line outages. Saturday’s outage was particularly disruptive, with cellphone service knocked out, two community wells shut down and the local hospital relying on a backup generator, the tribe reported.
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On Sunday, residents of the reservation were assisted by a tribal emergency response team that provided water and ice to those without power.
In his statement, Rambler said the tribe has continued to ask federal authorities for better power lines on the reservation. Rambler also mentioned that he will meet with U.S. Secretary of the Interior Debra Haaland to discuss ways to prevent similar outages in the future.
The transmission line is located in a remote area near Coolidge Dam and Winkelman. The line has been in operation since 1924, having been originally built as part of the San Carlos Irrigation Project by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs to provide electricity to both on- and off-reservation residents, as well as irrigation water and pumping services to private landowners.
In a similar statement on Facebook, Rambler said, “I am very saddened by the recent 24-hour power outage for tribal members receiving services from the San Carlos Irrigation Project (SCIP). This has caused extreme hardship for our people.”
“Our tribe needs the additional power line. A new line running through the Globe area and located near Highway 70 will make it much easier to respond to and resolve power outages. We are scheduling a meeting with the BIA to resume those discussions. Our council will be reaching out to our congressmen to put pressure on the BIA/SCIP. We will be meeting with the BIA soon. We also plan to meet with U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and will demand that we agree to and fund a solution immediately,” he said.
From 2010 to 2022, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Indian Energy has invested more than $120 million in tribal financing projects to promote clean energy and help these tribes avoid similar power outage situations.
