The Alaska office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Rural Development has awarded three grants to rural communities for environmental assessments related to water and wastewater projects.
The grants are for projects in Kasaan, Teller, and Port Graham.
Tasha Deardorff, a spokesperson for USDA-RD Alaska, says Port Graham will use the funding to upgrade their water and waste water infrastructure systems.
“Port Graham has five wastewater sewage outfalls. And the outfalls were installed as recently as 1977, so roughly 38 years ago. And they are currently exhibiting severe corrosion. They have septic tanks that are exposed due to bank erosion. They’re experiencing frequent breaks that result in raw sewage being discharged on the beach near the homes, and subsistent areas of the community,” said Deardorff.
USDA-RD announced the grants last week. All three communities will receive a grant of $26,250 dollars each.
In Kasaan the grant will be used to prepare an assessment needed to begin work repairing a broken ocean waste water disposal pipe.
In Teller, their existing water treatment plant needs to be brought into compliance with current regulatory standards, which requires upgrading in order to receive a new discharge permit.
Deardorff says USDA-RD and the state of Alaska fund the grants.
“The way the Rural Alaska Village Grant Program works is Rural-Development, through our Rural Alaska Village Grant Program, provides 75% of the funding, and then the State of Alaska Village Safe Water Program provides 25% of the funding,” said Deardorff.
The funding is provided on behalf of those communities to the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. Since 2009, USDA-Rural Development has invested more than $2 billion dollars in 226 rural Alaskan communities.
