Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation – 2019 Project

NOTE: Project pages are being updated regularly to reflect changes, if any; however, some of the information may be dated.

Summary

The Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation are constructing a 50,039-sqare-foot Wellness Center in Poplar, Montana, on 20 acres of land adjacent to U.S. Highway 2 on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation.

The Fort Peck Tribes (FPT) will design the building with seven energy efficiency measures (EEMs) and a 72- to 78-kilowatt (kW) roof-mounted photovoltaic (PV) system to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels and lower energy bills for the benefit of tribal members.

The proposed project is estimated to reduce utility bills by 29.04% per year and save $31,561 annually and $631,220 over 20 years.

The Fort Peck Indian Reservation is located in the northeastern corner of Montana approximately 40 miles south of the Canadian border and 60 miles west of the North Dakota border. As of January 2019, there are 13,238 enrolled members, with 6,785 members living on the Reservation and 360 members living adjacent to the Reservation.

One element of the tribal vision contained in the FPT 10-Year Strategic Plan is “Model Green Tribal Community,” with one of the goals being, “In 2019, the Fort Peck Tribes will be enjoying the benefits of an early investment in a variety of green energy projects.” The FPT have invested in projects involving ground source heat pumps, a geothermal power production feasibility study funded by the U.S. Department of Energy; and energy efficient technologies.

This Wellness Center Energy Project (WCEP) will invest in the combined installation of energy efficient technologies and solar PV generation within the Wellness Center. The project follows the Tribes’ recent success with energy efficient buildings and will further their vision of a Model Green Tribal Community.

The FPT will begin achieving their vision of a Model Green Tribal Community and can build upon this success when developing energy efficient homes and buildings for tribal members.

The WCEP will support the installation of seven EEMs and a 72- to 78-kW roof-mounted PV system at the new Wellness Center to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels and reduce energy bills for the benefit of tribal members. The projected combined savings from the EEMs and solar PV will total $631,220 over 20 years. The Tribes anticipate that the project will create 87 short-term construction jobs, and the Wellness Center is projected to have 72 full-time employees. Overall, the FPT will reduce approximately 281.3 metric tons of CO₂ over 20 years.

The Wellness Center is projected to be a two-level building with approximately 50,039 square feet of space. When completed, it will be operated by the Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Program, which provides dental, physical, and occupational therapy, suicide prevention programming, and mental health assessment and therapy services to tribal members. To enable these services, the Wellness Center will provide dedicated physical and occupational therapy offices and exam rooms, as well as medical administrative staff rooms.

The goal for the WCEP is to invest in the combined installation of energy efficient technologies and power generation within the Wellness Center to further the Tribes’ vision of a Model Green Tribal Community.

The scope of this project is not for the construction of the Wellness Center. The WCEP will install seven EEMs and 72–78 kW of roof-mounted PV at the new building. Construction of the building will begin in spring 2020 after the snow melts and will be substantially completed in summer 2021. The expected timeframe for installation of the EEMs and PV system is summer 2020 through fall 2021.

The WCEP consists of analyzing the building envelope options, updating and finalizing EEMs and solar PV plans and designs, permitting, installing equipment, conducting inspections, testing, running, and monitoring. The EEMs include high-efficiency skylights, high-efficiency windows, LED lighting, building heating high-efficiency boilers, a pool dehumidification unit with heat recovery, a pool heating high-efficiency boiler, and pool covers.

The Fort Peck Indian Reservation is in the northeastern corner of Montana, approximately 40 miles south of the Canadian border and 60 miles west of the North Dakota border. The Reservation is approximately 2.1 million acres, and its exterior boundaries overlap the counties of Roosevelt, Valley, Sheridan, and Daniels, with six communities spanning the southern border.

The Wellness Center will be located in Poplar, Montana, on 20 acres of land adjacent to U.S. Highway 2 on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, in an area locally referred to as “The Old Airport.” The center is projected to be a two-level building with approximately 50,039 square feet of space and will provide dental, physical, and occupational therapy, suicide prevention programming, and mental health assessment and therapy services to tribal members.

The project is complete. The final report and project status reports provide more information.

The project was competitively selected under the Office of Indian Energy’s Fiscal Year 2019 funding opportunity announcement “Energy Infrastructure Deployment on Tribal Lands - 2019” (DE-FOA-0002032) and started in September 2019.