By Bryan Eneas

UPDATE: Muskoday First Nation continues state of emergency

Jul 28, 2016 | 2:25 PM

UPDATE: Muskoday First Nation has voted to continue their state of emergency.

“According to the provincial or federal legislation states of emergency are declared seven days at a time. Our seven days were up yesterday, we’re still in the same situation, so we felt that we would extend (the state of emergency) for seven more days,” Councillor Herman Crain said of yesterday’s decision, Aug. 4.

Since the taps have been shut off, Muskoday has trucked in roughly 335,000 gallons of water, Crain said. A total of four trucks are now transporting water between Melfort and Muskoday; two Husky trucks and two trucks from the First Nation. The trucks are no longer running all day, shutting down around 9 p.m.

Crain said Muskoday hasn’t an idea when the city of Prince Albert will turn their water back on.

“We haven’t been able to get a definite answer on that. It depends entirely on the city of P.A. and how their water situation improves with the new pipelines coming in… it could be anywhere between a few days and a week,” Crain said.

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According to Crain, Muskoday will consider extending their state of emergency further should there be no change in the communities’ situation next Wednesday.

“It’s unfortunate but we’re getting through it,” Crain said.

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In order to get the help the First Nation community needs, Muskoday declared a state of emergency.

“We have to continue to monitor the situation and the crisis and the threat of the loss of water. Particularly watch the levels in our reservoirs because if the water levels go dangerously low on the one side of the river the pumps will shut down and they can’t deliver water to the homes,” Chief Austin Bear of Muskoday First Nation said.

With water running out in the community Bear said that as of July 27, water was coming in from Wakaw, St Louis, and Hoey. On July 28, St. Louis and Hoey are no longer supplying Muskoday with water as their own situations grew dire.

One Arrow First Nation, also part of the Saskatoon Tribal Council, stepped forward to offer water to the struggling Muskoday First Nation.

“They also provided a truck, a tanker truck to help provide water to Muskoday, so we’re particularly grateful to One Arrow,” Bear said.

The Saskatoon Tribal Council (STC) had been working with Muskoday to ensure the community receives the support it needs to deal with the water crisis.

“We have environmental health officers on scene as well as our tech services people,” Chief Felix Thomas from the STC said.

According to Thomas, there is only one First Nation in Saskatchewan which had been affected by this oil spill in terms of water supply and that was Muskoday.

“We’ve been kind of disappointed in terms of the lack of action at the community in terms of support or even acknowledgement (at the provincial and federal levels),” Thomas said.

Thomas said that the STC wasn’t informed or contacted about the spill until learning the Prince Albert water supply was going to be turned off.

“There was no process to tell the First Nation and the Tribal Council we were going to be affected by this,” Thomas said.

“As we move forward I know the province and Indian Affairs have an agreement on the provincial disaster assistance plan, and this is something with that agreement, they need to step up quicker in terms of this and other issues,” Thomas said. “We don’t know how long this water situation will last… at some point we don’t want to be able to wear out our welcome in these communities.”

Bear said that no one in the senior levels of government had even contacted him until Muskoday declared a state of emergency.

“When we needed (the government) the most, they were silent… we were able to manage the situation and provide safe water to our community. If we didn’t have the ability or capacity to take those actions our people would have been out of water,” Bear said.

With no long term plan in place, both chiefs are unsure what the future holds for Muskoday. On July 28, one of the reservoirs was operating at two thirds capacity while their second reservoir had been filled up with the support from the surrounding communities.

Husky Energy supplied Muskoday with two large water tankers to haul water, and Husky had made arrangements with the R.M. of Hoodoo, located south of the First Nation, to ship water between the communities according to Bear.

“They started that delivery last night… right now we have to rely on that, hopefully that arrangement can provide the water supply for as long as we need it,” Bear said. “Right now, today it’s stable but the concern is how long we can maintain that stability.

“I’m actually quite pleased with Husky’s response… Husky has been in contact with us very regularly. All yesterday afternoon we had discussions with them by telephone conferencing starting at 2 p.m. in the afternoon until 7 p.m. last evening… On that part, I’m quite pleased with Husky. I’m not particularly pleased with the incident being allowed to happen in the first place.”

Bryan.Eneas@jpbg.ca

On Twitter, @BryanEneas