Center for Environmentally Threatened Communities April newsletter

Center for Environmentally Threatened Communities We support communities to address environmental threats and achieve their vision for a safe, healthy, and sustainable future. Newsletter Issue 34, April 2020 Four Things You Should Know From This Issue We share several possible ways to answer the question, “which Alaskan communities are environmentally threatened?” and describe what is required to precisely answer the question.Alaska Native leaders provided recommendations to the National Science Foundation’s Navigating the New Arctic program to improve the societal benefit of its Arctic research.Don Antrobus has dedicated his career to using his skill set as an engineer to support healthy, resilient communities around the world.Comments on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s new Building Resilience Infrastructure and Communities program, which replaces the Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program, are due by May 11, 2020.  Which Alaskan Communities are Environmentally Threatened?Environmentally threatened community (ETC): A community experiencing significant impacts to infrastructure from erosion, flooding, and/or permafrost degradation.Which Alaskan communities are environmentally threatened? Over the course of a decade, several research efforts have sought to answer this question. All came to the same conclusion. Most communities have not yet been able to access baseline data and risk assessments to develop a long-term understanding of risk using western science methodologies. Therefore, we don’t precisely know the magnitude and timing of the risks faced by communities or what solutions those communities might pursue. The following maps show how our understanding of statewide risk has changed over time and three possible ways to define an ETC. Figure 1: In 2009, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Baseline Erosion Assessment identified 26 “Priority Action Communities” (meaning that the erosion threat warrants immediate action) out of 178 Alaska communities that reported erosion issues, but did not assess flooding hazards. A few months later, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report that identified 31 communities imminently threatened by erosion and flooding, but concluded that the “threat assessment is incomplete” because a comprehensive analysis of both erosion and flooding hazards had not yet been completed. Credit: GAO. Figure 2: In 2019, the Statewide Threat Assessment (STA) assessed the risk of erosion, flooding, and permafrost degradation to rural Alaskan communities. It found that 73 communities were in Group 1 (the highest level of threat) for at least one of the three hazards, shown above. Credit: State of Alaska Coastal Hazards Program. Figure 3: The STA also found that 144 communities were in at least Group 2 (the second-highest level of threat) for at least one of the three hazards, shown above. Credit: State of Alaska Division of Community and Regional Affairs.The STA recommended that site-specific risk assessments be completed for all ETCs to understand statewide risk and enable communities to develop mitigation solutions. Completing risk assessments in all threatened communities is necessary to help communities to develop and implement long-term solutions, and precisely understand the relative level of risk statewide. Unfortunately, only an estimated 5% of 144 threatened communities have completed all necessary site-specific risk assessments. According to a desktop estimate, the approximate cost to complete risk assessment for the remaining communities is $31.8 million.   Recent Events Alaska Native Leaders Provide Recommendations to the National Science Foundation on How to Spend $30 Million Annually in Ways That Benefit Arctic PeopleAlaska Native leaders have voiced their strong recommendation that research funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Navigating the New Arctic program (NNA) focus on early, meaningful, and collaborative partnerships with indigenous communities and on producing science that benefits Arctic people. Recently, Kawerak, the Association of Village Council Presidents, the Bering Sea Elders Group, and the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island provided detailed feedback to NSF and suggestions for corrections to the program such that the $30 million of federal funds invested by the program annually lead to greater societal benefits.Read the letter here. Submit Comments on FEMA’s Draft Policy for the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program by May 11, 2020 The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has released a summary of stakeholder feedback and the draft policy for the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, which will allocate hundreds of millions of dollars annually for hazard mitigation and resilience activities nationwide. If designed appropriately, this program could be of tremendous benefit to Alaska. However, the primary change that must be made to the draft policy is eliminating the 10% cost-share requirement for small, rural, and impoverished communities. (This barrier currently excludes most Alaskan communities from being eligible for awards.) We encourage all interested parties to submit comments on the draft BRIC policy before May 11, 2020. For more information and instructions on how to submit comments, click here. Contact CETC to feature a recent event from your community!  Solutions Spotlight: Celebrating the Retirement of Don AntrobusCaption: Don Antrobus (left) with his daughter (middle) and wife (right) has worked around the world to build healthy, resilient communities. Credit: Don Antrobus. When water and sanitation systems knock, Don Antrobus answers. As a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal in the 1980s, Don worked with communities to develop gravity-flow water systems. Upon his return stateside, Don took a post with the US Public Health Service building water and wastewater systems in Tribal communities from the Gulf Coast to Alaska. In 2005, after six years with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC), the Antrobus family moved across the Pacific so Don could serve as Chief Engineer of the Guam Waterworks Authority. A decade later, the Denali Commission asked Don to manage its newly-formed Village Infrastructure Protection (VIP) program. Over four years leading the VIP program, Don guided nearly $39 million in investments to prevent impacts to infrastructure in the face of accelerating environmental threats.After twenty years of experience working in rural Alaska as both an engineer and as a decision-maker in a funding agency, Don has seen that there is no “magic bullet” that immediately guarantees community sustainability. Instead, he thinks that it is important to carefully identify local problems and develop local solutions by looking at all the technologies available and choosing the most appropriate for each location. Critical to this process is thinking not just about the effects that the environment has on infrastructure, but also how infrastructure impacts the environment. “The anthropomorphic impact on the landscape can be large,” Don said. “If we are not aware of that impact that we have had, then we will repeat those same impacts.” This year, having served the maximum term in the Public Health Service, Don is retiring. Look out for him fishing on the Kenai this summer! Don’s Impact in Alaska in the Words of Statewide PartnersOur opinion:  During his time with the VIP program, Don made strategic and effective investments that advanced solutions in individual communities and, critically, he shaped how a variety of organizations at all levels approach solving this problem. His contributions will be felt across the state for generations to come. Sean McKnight, Kawerak Transportation Program: “His work on the November 2019 Statewide Threat Assessment is a classic piece of engineering in Alaska. Its publication last year provided the needed focus in addressing the threatened communities in Alaska. Nice work Don.” Sally Cox, State of Alaska Division of Community and Regional Affairs: “Don has been a great partner in the effort to help Alaska Native communities respond to environmental threats.  I especially appreciate his calm, measured, rational approach to some of the most difficult and complicated situations communities face. Through his work on the Statewide Threat Assessment, he created much-needed models for the types of studies and assessments communities need to better understand their risk to environmental threats. The prototypical scopes of work he developed to assess the risk of damage from erosion, flooding, and thawing permafrost are invaluable and will help many communities understand and respond to these threats in the future.” Jaci Overbeck, State of Alaska Coastal Hazards Program: “Working with Don over the past few years has been an absolute pleasure. He has shown an incredible focus and determination to provide assistance to communities and bring people together to solve problems. Don is a person that gets things done, which has made it incredibly rewarding to work with him. It will be hard to fill his shoes after he retires, but he has set a standard of excellence for us all to look up to.”  Funding Opportunities Center for Disease Control (CDC) Coronavirus Funding Opportunity CDC is offering a non-competitive grant to support Tribal public health capacity in preparing and responding to coronavirus. This emergency funding opportunity is designed to fund federally recognized Tribes that contract or compact with the Indian Health Service under Title I or Title V of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act. However, all federally recognized Tribes should apply for this announcement to be considered for future funding. Eligible activities include emergency operations, increasing testing capacity, mitigation, and recovery activities, among others. Due Date: May 31, 2020 Send any questions to TribalCOVIDnofo@cdc.gov Click here to read the notice of funding opportunity  Upcoming Events 2020 National Tribal & Indigenous Climate Conference All Tribal members in the United States are invited to attend the first National Tribal & Indigenous Climate Conference hosted by the Institute of Tribal Environmental Professionals (ITEP) with support from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Tribal Resilience Program. August 31 – September 4, 2020 St. Paul, Minnesota Registration will open soon  Resources COVID-19 Tribal Resource Center The National Indian Health Board (NIHB) is hosting a Tribal Resource Center with resources for Tribes to respond to COVID-19. The site includes informational resources on how to protect communities from COVID-19, Tribal response strategies, and how to request financial and technical assistance.  News Roundup Tribal Nations Demand Response to Climate Relocation:  The Native Village of Kivalina joined four Louisiana Tribes in a formal complaint to the United Nations, alleging the United States has violated their human rights by failing to provide adequate resources to help the communities relocate due to coastal erosion issues. Travel Mandates and Future Impacts in Napakiak: Walter Nelson, Napakiak City Council Member, and the community’s Managed Retreat Coordinator discussed the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on erosion mitigation projects in the community.  About the Center for Environmentally Threatened Communities  The goal of the Center for Environmentally Threatened Communities (CETC) is to support rural Alaskan communities experiencing infrastructure impacts associated with flooding, erosion, and permafrost degradation. The team does this primarily through grant writing, technical assistance, and project coordination. ETC@anthc.org | (907) 729-4521 | www.anthc.org/cetc | 4500 Diplomacy Drive, Suite 561, Anchorage, AK 99508If you enjoyed this issue, please forward this email to a friend.  Subscribe to the CETC Newsletter   Forward Preferences  |  Unsubscribe