River erosion threatening community water supply

Observation by Jeffrey Luther:

The attached photos provide a timeline of the river erosion at the Well Island, exposing the well transmission lines we get the drinking water from. Friday, July 19, no transmission line exposure, the following Monday, a buddy of mine came in the office asking what that pipe was that start sticking out the water at 'Inisaqs' (what we call the well island). I flew the drone over to see, dang it the well transmission line is exposed, what we're looking at is the carrier pipe, inside the carrier pipe are 2- 2 or 3" pipes - 1 from each well, 1 copper pipes that has heat tape in them, and 2 flex lines that has the electrical wiring in them. From the last 2 photos you can see how drastically it's eroding at Well Island. This carrier pipe is the heart of Noatak's drinking water, it serves the entire community, including the Noatak Clinic (The health facility for the entire town) and the school (who don't have their own water source)! I think I'll work with the clinic, and school, to see what will have to be done to have storage tanks put into place for their facilities, not only for operating purposes where they can keep operating during a "crisis" like this, but for fire suppression also, so they can have water on hand that won't affect the community's drinking water if they ever have a fire at their facility...

Comments from LEO Network:

Thank you Jeffrey for sharing the observation. The drone imagery is especially good and helpful. We have shared this post with engineering, environmental health and emergency preparedness personnel for their review and comment.

Comments from James Benzschawel with ANTHC Emergency Preparedness Program:

Here is the entry from today's State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) report: "On August 8, 2024, the Native Village of Noatak submitted a declaration of local disaster to SEOC reporting that the community's only clean water source (well) has been contaminated. SEOC is actively engaged with the Northwest Arctic Borough, but no state assistance is requested as of this report.

Comment by Chris Cox, with ANTHC's Alaska Rural Utility Cooperative (ARUC):

ANTHC Tribal Utility Support (TUS) department is securing Indian Health Service Emergency Funds and we're partnering with the Northwest Arctic Borough to help Noatak address this issue. A trip is scheduled out to Noatak next week to come up with a materials list needed to re-route the intake line away from the eroding riverbank. Once the list is developed, we will put a cost estimate towards it and strategize ways to fund it if it’s above what’s available to Noatak.

Update by Chris Cox on 09-24-24:

Jeff sent photos a week ago to me, we all know erosion is an issue there but was definitely surprised how fast the land eroded by the well and transmission line. TUS (ANTHC's Tribal Utility Support program), has ordered band aid materials for an overland bypass if that transmission line goes out, he (Jeff) said the current is still ripping pretty good from the transmission line to the cement pads in front of town but it hasn’t gone out yet. USDA has started the process of securing funding and working with the Tribe to engineer a permanent fix to this, we’ve connected those two groups together. That a few years out however. Jeff reported the SOA (State of Alaska) declared a state of emergency for Noatak.