"Is The Water Safe In Indian Country? EPA Says It Often Doesn’t Know"

"WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is sounding alarms over potential dangers in the water supplies on the nation’s Indian reservations, saying the vast majority of tribal members live on reservations that haven’t adopted federally approved standards.

“That is a shocking thing to say and it’s something that we need to fix as soon as possible,” said Gina McCarthy, chief administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

McCarthy told a gathering of National Congress of American Indians in Washington, D.C., late last month that only 42 of the more than 300 federally recognized tribes with reservations use federally approved standards to measure water quality."

Rob Hotakainen reports for McClatchy March 18, 2016.