ANTHC’s efforts have helped make water and sewer service more affordable for the residents of Chevak and Noorvik, two Alaska Rural Utility Collaborative (ARUC) member communities in western Alaska. Monthly water and sewer rates in Noorvik decreased from $175 to $157.50 per month in the last year, while Chevak rates decreased from $165 to $85 per month in the last two years. Reduced energy costs and more customers were key to lowering rates. Both communities saw large cost savings from ...

After the Hurricane Irma storm cleared, a rapid public health response was needed for the citizens of the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. On Sept. 14, ANTHC Environmental Health and Engineering’s Safety Program Coordinator, Christopher Fish, a Lieutenant Commander in U.S. Public Health Service, was deployed to Puerto Rico to help with Hurricane Irma recovery efforts. The Commissioned Corps for the United States Public Health service offer their talents to the Alaska Tribal Health System as part of their ...

After going without clean water for almost a decade at one point, the residents of Akhiok, a community of 71 on the south end of Kodiak Island, now have a new water storage tank to ensure regular access to clean water. This project was a partnership between the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, and Akhiok city and Tribal leadership. Construction recently wrapped up on the 100,000-gallon water storage tank. Its construction is the capstone in a series of projects ensuring ...

Water is a resource vital to the health and wellness of our people. To help guide Alaska Native and American Indian communities managing and operating their water systems, the National Tribal Water Center (NTWC) has created an interactive, online resource: Our Water toolkit. NTWC developed the Our Water toolkit to help educate and support action planning in order to ensure sustainable access to safe water and maximize health benefits in our Native communities.The Our Water toolkit is designed to assist ...

On Aug. 17, Admiral Randall Gardner, Chief Engineering Officer for the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS), visited ANTHC to present the Cumming Award to the Division of Environmental Health & Engineering’s Engineering Services group. This award recognizes outstanding contributions in public health engineering and science and is named in honor of former Surgeon General Dr. Hugh S. Cumming, USPHS. ANTHC was awarded the plaque in 2005 in recognition of the Alaska Rural Utility Cooperative’s (ARUC’s) Rural Utility Cooperative Demonstration Project. ...

The one-mile road that once connected the village of Newtok to the Ninglik River is gone, washed away by storm-driven erosion. All that’s left of the road is a broken skeleton of its metal support beams and fading memories of village residents. “There used to be hills where I went sledding as a kid,” said Newtok resident Teddy Tom as he boated along the river bank where the road once sat. “From the other side, you couldn’t see the village ...