The Harvard Honoring Nations awarded the Alaska Rural Utility Collaborative (ARUC) with its highest award on Wednesday, Oct. 12 during a special presentation at the National Congress of American Indians conference in Phoenix, Arizona. ARUC was one of six semifinalists from Tribal programs across the country, out of an original field of 87 applicants. Harvard Honoring Nations is an award of The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, a project of the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard ...

ANTHC is making great strides in sanitation construction across Alaska. The innovative, complex ongoing work is often centered on building and upgrading water and sanitation facilities so that our people in rural Alaska can live healthier lives, and the community infrastructure can run effectively and affordably. This season, construction crews have: Continued construction for fully-piped water and sewer systems in Eek, Kwethluk and Lower Kalskag; Installed more than 15 miles of water and sewer main, almost seven miles of service ...

Keeping water flowing and easily accessible is no small task in Hughes, Alaska, a remote community hundreds of miles northwest of Fairbanks. But a recent water treatment upgrade completed by one of ANTHC’s engineering teams is accomplishing just that. One of the challenges faced by the engineering team was bringing the plant into compliance with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s surface water treatment rule; at the same time, the team had to keep the plant running while replacing some of ...

Recognizing the high cost to operate sanitation infrastructure in rural Alaska, the ANTHC Rural Energy Initiative works with communities to implement innovative energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions, combined with local operator training, to make public sanitation affordable. Since 2010, ANTHC has completed energy projects in 66 rural Alaska communities. In 2013, ANTHC completed energy efficiency work and operator training in Chevak, Alaska. The City of Chevak was struggling with debt and had no money in reserves for parts or ...

This week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the expansion of the Local Environmental Observers (LEO) Network program, a concept initiated and championed by ANTHC and Alaska Tribal communities. The EPA expansion will extend the LEO Network reach into the Lower 48 states. This expansion will develop a Lower 48 LEO network hub at Northwest Indian College in Bellingham, Washington and create a model for the other 35 tribal colleges and universities in the Lower 48 to replicate across ...

This week, many ANTHC programs participated in the Water Innovation for Healthy Arctic Homes (WIHAH) conference held in Anchorage Sept. 18-21. The WIHAH conference brings together Alaskan, U.S., and international engineers, health experts, researchers, community members, policymakers, and innovators to discuss health benefits, challenges and innovations associated with making running water and sewer in remote northern communities safe, affordable and sustainable. ANTHC programs shared their expertise including Environmental Health and Engineering project management, Tribal Utility Support, Climate and Environmental Health, ...