Sawmill family seeks answers after years of mysterious illness

The children of the late Sam Billiman grew up in Sawmill drinking water that, on bright days, often looked as if a film of oil sat on the surface. In a community of 564 people in Apache County, that kind of uncertainty can linger for years, especially when families are trying to connect illness, water quality and the slow grind of accountability on the Navajo Nation.

Sawmill sits on the Navajo Nation and traces its origins to the 1920s, when the chapter formed around sawmill operations. After a fire in 1940, a new mill was built at the current site, and the chapter was certified in 1957. That history matters because the Billiman family’s story is not just about one household. It is about a small community where environmental problems can touch nearly everyone, and where it can take a long time to determine whether the source of a sickness is in the water, the soil or somewhere else entirely.

The Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency was established in 1995, but the scale of the water challenge remains daunting. Tribal water authorities say groundwater is the source of drinking water for 99% of the population served by public water systems on the Nation. That means a problem with a local water source can reach far beyond one home, especially in rural places like Sawmill where families often have few alternatives.

The federal government has also identified the Navajo Tribal Sawmill Enterprise Site in Sawmill as a place requiring cleanup attention. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it was working with the Sawmill Chapter House and the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency to clean up asbestos at the site, and an EPA action memorandum sought up to $1.17 million in direct extramural costs to mitigate asbestos hazards there. That cleanup record adds another layer to the Billiman family’s search for answers: in Sawmill, questions about health have had to pass through water systems, environmental oversight and federal response all at once.

For Apache County families, the stakes are larger than one diagnosis. If exposure goes untested or unexplained, people can keep living in the same conditions that may be making them sick, while the costs build in medical bills, lost time and mistrust. In Sawmill, the Billiman family’s long wait for answers now stands beside a broader record of contamination concerns and unresolved risk on the Navajo Nation.