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The Native Village of Karluk.

The Native Village of Karluk.

For years now, Karluk has had an insufficient drinking water treatment facility. That may soon change.

A design for an updated facility is slated to be completed by the end of the year and, if all goes to plan, construction will begin in 2023, according to Joyce Jones, utility manager at Alutiiq Power Co., which runs the drinking water treatment facility in Karluk.

Right now, the water in Karluk is not safe to drink straight from the tap, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. It’s current water treatment facility lacks adequate disinfection and filtration systems, Jones said. The village will need a modern modular water treatment plant and new storage tanks to get up-to-code, according to Jones.

The facility does have disinfection and filtration systems, but the filtration system does not include coagulation, according to Cindy Christian, the manager for the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation’s Drinking Water Program. This is a method that makes impurities clump together so they can be more effectively filtered out, according to Christian. The ADEC is in charge of monitoring drinking water systems and enforcing the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Even though the facility has failed to meet the surface water treatment rule since 2010, the village only recently received approval for the project from the Indian Health Service’s Sanitation Deficiency System, according to Jones. The IHS will fund the project, which will cost around $1 million, she said.

“I’ve been dealing with the water and sewer [systems] for Karluk for about 30 years and it’s been a long battle [and] process to finally get to this point with this project for the health of our people,” Jones said. “It takes a lot of paperwork, sampling and determination to get through the process. There have been a lot of disappointments along the way as well, so I am relieved to finally see something taking place in our community.”

People can safely drink the water in Karluk, but they need to go through the process of boiling it first, Christian said. There have been no reports of waterborne illnesses, according to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation’s records.

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