Hooper Bay has closed the hole in its sewage lagoon. It took the community about a month and a half to plug the hole. In the meantime, sewage kept spilling out onto the tundra.
The city was finally able to plug the hole in April. The city’s utility manager, Dennis Hunter, led the effort, filling the hole with sandbags.
“About 50 of them. We made three rows in the bottom and two rows on top,” said Hunter.
Now the community is reinforcing the wall with sand.
The community of Hooper Bay discovered the leak in its sewage lagoon on Feb. 25. Within hours, the community’s sewage had completely emptied out into the surrounding tundra after part of a wall collapsed. The leak remained unplugged for the next month and a half.
The community was able to partially plug the hole in March with sand from one location. Then they ran out. Hunter found some nice soft sand, perfect for hole-plugging, on a beach about 3 miles away from Hooper Bay, but there was no road to transport it. Hunter thought of the Kuskokwim Ice Road, and built the community’s own overland ice road from the beach to the sewage lagoon.
“Just plowing the tundra and make our own road to the lagoon. It's helped a lot,” said Hunter.
Hooper Bay is letting the tundra absorb the contaminants from the spilled sewage. The city administrator said that the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation (YKHC) advised her that using chemicals to clean up the spill would lead to more contaminants in the tundra than leaving it. She said that they’ve been testing the area for contaminants, and have found E.Coli in one small area near the lagoon.
According to YKHC, the leak in the lagoon could have been caused by extreme weather. The Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta had on-and-off rain throughout the winter. YKHC suspects that the lagoon broke open after it overfilled with heavy rain.
Hunter said that there’s still work to be done. He needs to reinforce the wall around the lagoon with sand, but it could take a while because workers have been taking off to hunt seals instead.
“It’s hunting season. I can’t say no to subsistence,” said Hunter.
Hooper Bay also has plans and grants in place to build a new sewage lagoon. It should be finished in about three years.
