Kick The Bucket: Rural Sanitation in Alaska

Intro to the 5-part series "Kick the bucket: Rural Sanitation in Alaska"

KNBA | By Joaqlin Estus

Published June 26, 2015 at 1:00 PM AKDT

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Kivalina City Manager Janet Mitchell at the village landfill where people dispose of the contents of their honey-buckets. A few years ago, the landfill flooded during a storm. The water overran the landfill and flowed, spreading pollution, into a lagoon.

Joaqlin Estus / KNBA

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Bags of human waste at the landfill in Kivalina.

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Broken, leaking bags of human waste at the Kivalina landfill. The contents are spread around by the wind, and after the landfill is compacted and leveled. "It's just nasty," said City Manager Janet Mitchell.

Joaqlin Estus / KNBA

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In about 100 rural Alaskan communities, people buy water from a central watering point, collect rain water, and haul water or ice from rivers or lakes. A 5-gallon jug of water, like the ones this young man in Kivalina is carrying, weighs about 40 lbs.

Joaqlin Estus / KBNA

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Aerial shot of Kivalina, located on a barrier island in NW Alaska. Sea ice once protected Kivalina from fierce fall storms. Now that ice forms later in the year, the island is predicted to be inundated in 10 to 15 years.

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Village scene, Kwethluk in SW Alaska.

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Kwethluk Mayor Boris Epchook describes the piped water system being installed by the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, Alaska Village Safe Water program, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

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A sign posted in the Kwethluk washeteria. At one time, the only showers were in the school and washeteria. Now, the half of the community that's hooked up to piped water can shower at home.

Joaqlin Estus / KNBA

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People empty their honey buckets into bins like these, which cost a couple of thousand dollars each. Kwethluk will keep some in case of emergency. The others will go villages still using honey buckets.

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This is the honey bucket sewage lagoon in Kwethluk, where bins are emptied. This picture was taken in February, when it was cold enough that the chunks of sewage were frozen.

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Bob Smith, Yukon-Kuswkokwim Health Corporation at left, with Charles Enoch, a reporter for KYUK FM in Bethel, in Kwethluk.

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Water from the Kwethluk River is pumped into and out of the Kwethluk Treatment Plant.

Joaqlin Estus / KNBA

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Diesel fuel and boilers keep the water at 42 degrees so it won't freeze and burst pipes or cause other damage.

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Bob Smith demonstrates a pump that had to be adapted to Arctic conditions. The pumps are installed at each building to keep water, and waste, moving.

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Dawn on the Kuskokwim River delta.

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Adolph Lupie empties the family honey bucket into an underground bunker in Tuntutuliak. Sometimes the bunkers overflow in the spring, and raw sewage spills out onto the ground, creating a "gross and smelly" mess.

Joaqlin Estus / KNBA

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Another way to handle waste is to put it into a holding tank that gets emptied regularly. Nick David's toilet leaks, backs up into the bathtub, and seeps behind the walls. His family has gone back to using a honey bucket.

Joaqlin Estus / KNBA

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Waste flows into a "doghouse" storage bunker. Heat tape is wrapped around the pipe to keep it from freezing.

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In Tuntutuliak, many residents chip out blocks of ice from the Kinak River to melt and use for drinking and household needs.

Joaqlin Estus / KNBA

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We'll be posting interviews with some of the people we talked with, including 93-year-old Samuel Jackson, Sr., of Kwethluk. Of the monthly $106 utility bills for people with piped water, he said, "I''m sure there will be people who can't pay their bills."

Joaqlin Estus / KNBA

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Tuntutuliak Tribal Administrator Dee Anne White says water sells for 12.5 cents per gallon. Because they prefer un-chlorinated water, or can't afford to buy water, most villagers get water, or ice, from the Kinak River.

Joaqlin Estus / KNBA

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About 40% of Bethel residents are not hooked up to the piped water system. Some have water delivered and waste picked up. Others come to the water treatment plant and buy water by the gallon.

Joaqlin Estus / KNBA

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In the Kwethluk water treatment plant, river water goes through multiple filters and is treated to remove sediment and add chlorine.

Joaqlin Estus / KNBA

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James Charles, of Tuntutuliak, after observing plumbing in the school he attended, created a hot water system for his home. Shown here: copper tubing wrapped around a stovepipe.

Joaqlin Estus / KNBA

The slide show above gives glimpses of life in the dozens of villages in Alaska that lack flush toilets and running water.

To find out more, click on the links below, Parts 1-5, to see and hear the series "Kick the Bucket: Rural Sanitation in Alaska."

This project was made possible with the support of: Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism, University of Southern California; the Dennis A. Hunt Fund for Health Journalism; RAVN Airlines, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, Sonosky, Chambers, Sachse, Miller & Munson, and KYUK-FM in Bethel, Alaska. A special thanks goes to KYUK's Charles Enoch, field producer for interviews in Bethel, Kwethluk, and Tuntutuliak.