Providing Sustainable Communities in Alaska's Rural and Remote Villages

In 1960, Indian Health Service began funding sanitation facilities in Alaska. In 2001-2008, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium conducted a pilot in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta demonstrating how cooperative principles could be applied to drinking water and sanitation. These communities formerly had sewage lagoons and water haul. Alaska Rural Utility Collaborative has grown to 31 villages from this initial pilot.

Changes in permafrost, freeze-thaw cycles, severe storms and coastal erosion, along with high energy prices, are affecting public health. Average 2012 diesel fuel prices in rural communities averaged over $6.00 with some Arctic communities higher. An emerging crisis looms in sustainable operation and maintenance and developing resources that can lower energy costs.

Clean water and proper sanitation have significant public health benefits. Investing in renewable energy sources does not generate significant pollution and carbon emissions impacting air quality and human health. High energy costs requires efficiency and renewable energy investments that improve rural utility economics over dependence on very expensive diesel fuel. Alaska is at the coalface in these efforts.

Facilities must be maintained in harsh environments where qualified personnel are scarce. Capability and capacity building in villages are key to integrated public health infrastructure withstanding changes in environmental conditions. Applying collaborative principles can assist in achieving more sustainable communities. Our goal remains: “Alaska Natives become among the healthiest people in the world.” We need solutions that put communities at the leading edge of public health practice.

Sustainability of utilities has emerged as one of the major Alaskan policy issues; challenges remain for energy and environmental public health practitioners. We can leverage success in applying cooperative principles to providing sustainable utilities and healthy communities. However, there is no time to rest on progress, the sustainability of these unique villages is becoming an issue of our times. Climate change is driving changes in environmental conditions, and as sea level rises, loss of shorefast ice, receding glaciers are the norm in the Arctic. Case studies will be presented here with extensive data analysis, focused on meeting the energy needs of communities in the Arctic Northwest Borough of Alaska through renewable energy solutions.