An agreement permitting Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA) to assume responsibility for customers of the Arizona Windsong Company to ensure those customers receive safer water at lower costs was recently approved by the Arizona Corporation Commission.

Arizona Windsong has had difficulty in providing its 69 customers in Sanders with water. The well where the water comes from is contaminated with uranium and has been declared unsafe. NTUA is able and willing to connect Arizona Windsong customers to its system immediately. The current NTUA rates, which will be carried over to its new customers, will result in a 41 percent decrease in price.

The Navajo Nation is currently experiencing a high degree of poverty. The access to electricity, water and nutrition is severely low. The solution to bringing them clean water is the model the community hopes will end their poverty.

NTUA currently serves more than 40,000 customers with electricity and water, approximately 14,000 wastewater customers and provides natural gas to nearly 8,000 customers. NTUA will pay Arizona Windsong $10,000 for its distribution system.