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NEW SOUTH DAKOTA SANITARY DISTRICT ESTABLISHED

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Under an arrangement approved June 16, 2000 by a federal court in South Dakota, the Enemy Swim Sanitary District will be dissolved because it violated federal law by excluding Native American citizens. In its place, a new sanitary district that includes all the residents in the area has been created, the Justice Department announced today.

The legal moves resolve a suit filed by the Justice Department in May 1999 alleging that the Enemy Swim Sanitary District violated provisions of the Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution. The district, which is created to focus on residents' waste water needs, was comprised of several noncontiguous parcels of land that excluded all Native Americans from its boundaries.

Under an agreement filed in U.S. District Court in Rapid City the Enemy Swim Sanitary District will be dissolved as of July 17, 2000.

In a separate order approved simultaneously by the court, a new sanitary district has been established. This district includes Indian and non-Indian residents around and near Enemy Swim Lake and Campbell Slough, including the Village of Enemy Swim. An election for trustees of the new Sanitary District will be held in the next 60 days, and the Day County auditor is expected to announce that election schedule.

The new district was established under an agreement between the Justice Department and Day County, South Dakota. Day County had agreed to approve a new district in a consent decree negotiated in 1999, shortly after it was informed by the Justice Department that the district violated federal law.

"Native American citizens at Enemy Swim will no longer be excluded from waste water protections in the very area in which they live," said Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Bill Lann Lee. "I am very pleased to achieve a resolution that will ensure that the Native American citizens have a voice in the democratic process."

The Justice Department suit asserted that the deliberate exclusion of Native Americans from the Enemy Swim district had the purpose and effect of denying their voting rights on the basis of race in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, and the guarantees of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Both Day County and the Sanitary District admitted in the consent decrees that the Enemy Swim Sanitary District as presently comprised violates these federal laws.

Sanitary districts in South Dakota are governmental subdivisions incorporated for the purpose of addressing problems (or potential problems) with waste water disposal. A sanitary district has the power to construct and operate storm sewers, sanitary sewers, waste disposal systems and water systems. The district is governed by a board of trustees who are elected at-large and serve three-year staggered terms.

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