Alaska News

Bush Caucus hears need for water, sewer work in rural Alaska

JUNEAU — There is a total of about $900 million in needed water and sewer work throughout rural Alaska, state officials said.

The House's Bush Caucus heard an update Thursday on rural sanitation that touched on current projects intended to cut costs and improve life in rural Alaska and work that remains to be completed or funded.

The $900 million figure includes new water and sewer projects, as well as needed upgrades and maintenance for existing systems, said Bill Griffith of the state Department of Environmental Conservation's Village Safe Water program.

Funding for such projects has leveled off at just above $60 million per year, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium's David Beveridge said. That money comes from a mix of state and federal sources. The consortium works with the state program on such projects.

The state and the consortium have worked on developing less expensive systems to help address the gap between needed work and available funds, Beveridge said. They also are developing cheaper energy to lower costs, he said.

For water treatment in Akhiok, the consortium built a modular plant in two shipping containers in Anchorage, transported them to the village and set them up, at a cost of about $1.5 million. That is less than the $3 million to $5 million that a water system appropriate for that community would usually cost. Money for that project came from the consortium and the federal Indian Health Service, Griffith said.

The state and consortium are working on a study to see if piped systems are feasible for the roughly 30 communities with no sanitation system and about a dozen with small haul systems that rely on trailers to deliver water and pick up sewage, Griffith said. The study is looking at the cost of a piped system in each community and what other issues might be, such as water availability. That project is funded primarily by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, with a 25 percent match from the state, Griffith said.

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Other projects include movable water and sewer systems in Kivalina and biomass or wind boilers in several communities to reduce energy and heating costs, which could lower the overall cost of water and sewer systems, said Gavin Dixon, a project manager for the consortium.

Rep. Neal Foster, D-Nome, said he understood the importance of the projects, and that if all the toilets were removed from the state Capitol, there might be a better understanding throughout the building.

"It would be a revolution," Foster said. "We wouldn't stand for people essentially living in a Third World-type situation."

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