Reflecting on 2023 with Reporter Brian Beach

This holiday season, Nebraska Public Media is reflecting on stories and topics our newsroom has covered over the past year. Our team is made up of ten reporters, each one with their own beat, or area of focus for their reporting.

Reporter Brian Beach joined Nebraska Public Media in 2023. His beat is politics. He also writes feature stories highlighting communities across the state. In 2023, Beach covered staff shortages at Nebraska state prisons, storms wreaking havoc on Central Nebraska farms and Nebraska election officials testifying on Capitol Hill. To him, one of the most memorable was when he worked with the Santee Sioux Nation to tell their story of living through four years without safe drinking water. Beach sat down with Dale Johnson to reflect.

Dale Johnson: Brian is a reporter that finds himself on the road a lot out of the Nebraska Public Media newsroom. So Brian, describe the genre. What interests you that you cover?

Brian Beach: Yeah, well, I think what really has interested me, throughout the state, anything having to do with politics that are done in Lincoln, and then what is the effect of those policies statewide? I think there's a lot of good coverage, Fred Knapp does a phenomenal job of covering what's going on in the state capitol, so I think my role is then seeing, how does this affect people everywhere from Chadron to Peru, essentially?

Dale Johnson: The focus of a story that we'll talk about, I found unimaginable when you discovered this in the summer. In northern Nebraska, along the banks of the Missouri River, Village of Santee, home to fewer than 1000 people on the Santee Sioux Nation reservation, for the past four years have not had access to safe drinking water. You spent some time in the village. Why no water? Brian Beach: Well, that's a very complicated question. But the simple answer is that the EPA in 2019, found that there were dangerously high levels of manganese in the water and that it was unsafe to drink. And so for the last four years, there have been some efforts to try to get funding but so far, there still is no safe drinking water there. There's plans for a pipeline across the Missouri River from South Dakota, but that costs about $40 million and so right now they're finding an environmental study, getting the engineering study done, and then they can start applying for some of that grant funding. But yeah, it's been an exceptionally slow process and one that is kind of hard to believe that you have these communities that can go so long without any drinking water right here in Nebraska.

Dale Johnson: How is it progressing? Going from absolutely no water for four years? Have they made any progress at this point?

Brian Beach: It does seem like there are some pieces that are starting to get moving again, the environmental impact study, the preliminary engineering report has been approved, the appropriations bill in Congress, right now has over a million dollars that would go for the Santee water project. So there are some things that are working their way through the bureaucracy. But as far as the on the ground, you know, ‘when will they get clean water?, it won't be for several more years, because even once this bureaucracy and the funding is done, they still have to construct the pipeline. So this is a long term issue, even as they continue to actively work towards solving it.

Dale Johnson: So in the meantime, they're drinking bottled water, who's paying for the bottled water?

Brian Beach: So right now, it's a grant from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. It was $100,000 to deliver these pallets of bottled water. That's expected to run out by the end of this year. And so after this, the tribe is expected to start paying for some of this water. But again, there isn't a ton of money that the tribe has to provide in this way, while also still, you know, paying for the water that's unsafe to drink. So that's definitely a financial strain on the tribe.

Dale Johnson: See if I understand you correctly, you said by the end of the year, the grant runs out to buy bottled water. That’s only a few days away?

Brian Beach: Well, yeah. So somewhere around then, I guess. When I last talked in November, it was with Kameron Runnels, the tribal Vice Chairman up there, he had said that, yeah, by the end of this year, we're expected to have that grant run out and they're looking at ways to extend that funding going through the EPA. They were in Kansas City recently. So they're taking steps but bureaucracy is working rather slowly. And so yeah, they even mentioned that if there are churches or groups that want to help send bottled water, the first thing to do is get in contact with them and don't just show up with giant pallets because there is a logistic system that they have to work through.  But they are open to having that sort of support from outside groups in the meantime, while they look for a more permanent solution.

Dale Johnson: You can find Brian's original story about no safe drinking water in Santee at Nebraska public media.org, How about for you? And 2024? What will you be up to?

Brian Beach: Honestly, I don't know. But what I do know is the that by going out and meeting people and hearing stories from across Nebraska, that is the best way to find stories. In fact, the way I found out that Sandy hadn't had to clean drinking water was by going up to the reservation. And actually, I was going to do a story on the casinos up there and then had heard that no, this is actually the real important story. And so I think that, well, yes, I can sit at my cubicle and look on the internet to find story ideas, the best story ideas, the best stories really come from going somewhere, talking to real people, finding out what's important. And so, that's my plan for 2024 And hopefully, I'll be able to find some other important stories to share with the public.

Dale Johnson: We're glad you're here on Nebraska Public Media. Thanks, Brian.

Brian Beach: Thank you.

Dale Johnson: And I'm Dale Johnson, Nebraska Public Media News