With summer sun warming the Arctic coast, residents of Kivalina in Northwest Alaska have made it through their winter of water supply challenges. School let out in May after a year of hard work trying to make up for lost time.
Kivalina students missed five weeks of school at the beginning of the year after a fall storm damaged the town's water supply piping and the school's running water was cut off.
The school's teachers, administration, parents and students worked throughout the year to make up the lost time by adding 30 minutes to each school day. They were able to make up two of the five mixed weeks with the longer school day.
Though the challenges of subzero temps are behind them, said City Administrator Janet Mitchell, it's still not easy to keep the basic water needs met.
"We were down to five feet in the treated tank by last week," Mitchell said. "I'm hoping it holds until it's time to fill the tanks."
The plant manager reports that the current water available should last until mid-June. That's perfect timing, Mitchell said, right around when they plan to open the hatches, clean the tanks and begin refilling.
"In the meantime, those of us that want to, are gathering snow to make wash water," Mitchell said. "Some residents prefer to retrieve drinking water from melt water on top of the ocean ice during this time, or simply use the reverse osmosis units to filter the tank water."
It was a heavy snow year, Mitchell said, but the sun has been making short work of it lately -- which has been promising for the local greens and berries. But Mitchell is hoping that this year's warm season doesn't bring the heavy rains that caused so many problems last year, wreaking havoc on their water supply infrastructure.
It's "quite an undertaking to provide clean water for ourselves," Mitchell said. "I've informed our water plant operator that we'll have to start pumping whether we have revenues or not, as soon as the turbidity level allows."
Once water is flowing into the tanks again, Mitchell said, she hopes to open the washeteria and generate some funds to pay for the pumping.
"That's how we've always done it," she said, "but last year we didn't have that capability. We had only one washer that was operable. That wasn't going to generate anything so we had asked for donations from the entities in this region."
The community is working on some changes to storm preparedness, but not as far as water supply is concerned. Disasters that pose a threat to residents are dealt with through evacuation or gathering in sturdy, higher-ground buildings.
"The best alternative is to remain on site and gather at the designated storm shelter, which is the school," Mitchell said. "It's grounded by poles about six feet underground anchored by permafrost, or used to be. There is no way to evacuate should we flood. Our only recourse would be to take shelter at the school."
Plans are underway, however, to build an evacuation road away from the village and its precarious perch on the coast.
Plans for a new school would put the building about seven miles from the current village location up the Kivalina River.
This story first appeared in The Arctic Sounder.