In Napakiak, located downstream from Bethel on the Kuskokwim River, a quickly eroding shoreline has put some of the village underwater. Much of the rest of the village is likely to be underwater in the coming years. At the moment, the water plant is 53 feet from the shore.
This week, officials from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation and Village Safe Water, a branch of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, visited Napakiak to assess an old water plant, that the city owns but hasn't used in decades. The plan is to upgrade it and create a temporary new watering point, a central place where people bring their own containers to haul clean drinking water from.
There’s about 10 feet between the old water plant building and the city office washeteria, one of the three water sources in town. Right now, the well there is only for the washeteria’s laundry and shower facilities. The organizations will attach the old water infrastructure to the washeteria since the washeteria is about 300 feet from the eroding riverbank.
One of Village Safe Water’s main priorities right now is to get Napakiak’s temporary community watering point upgraded and running in three months time. Luckily the foundation already exists and the washeteria has its own well. It’s important because right now the city’s only water plant is 53 feet from the shore, and the shore keeps getting closer. Since August 2020, Napakiak has lost 87 feet of shore to erosion.
The temporary water plant building has been robbed of its good pieces over the years, and its electric board is corroding. The plant had a short life in the 90s, but its water wasn’t clean enough. The village shut it down since the other water plant was sufficient. The first step for the local and state collaboration is to get the building’s heat working enough so that the pipes won’t freeze.
For the reboot, they’ve tested the old plant’s tanks and they’ve been approved for drinking water, plus it will be able to hold more than four times as much water as the current water plant and has more space than the washeteria. When the current water plant goes underwater, the washeteria and the new extension into the old water plant will be the only water source owned by the city.
There’s a third and final water source, the school, which is owned and operated by the Lower Kuskokwim School District (LKSD) and is much more expensive to operate and maintain. Plus, the school is just 73 feet from the shore. In 2022, LKSD knocked down the high school and middle school wings to buy some time.
“Then we could salvage the classrooms and still conduct school. So there was kind of like to, I guess, cut off the arm to save the body so that we could still educate our kids and not have to go remote,” explained William Miller Memorial School Principal Nicholas Mills.
Since the washeteria is the farthest inland water source, Village Safe Water and the city are rushing to set up the temporary water station in case things go badly weather-wise this fall. If they do, it could become the village’s only water source.
Still, this is a short term solution. All three water facilities are in the relocation zone, expected to be underwater soon. They expect the river to reach the washeteria, which is the furthest inland, in 10 to 15 years if they’re lucky.
“It is a temporary situation," said Walter Nelson, the managed retreat coordinator for Napakiak. "Currently, we had funding over on the west side of the new subdivision area to open a larger, much bigger, well-watering point with LKSD.”
Nelson is excited for the long-term water plant, which will be connected to the new school’s water. They even plan to install piped water in the village for the first time. The community is still working out the preliminary engineering plans, fleshing out the exact plans and costs. He said that all of this will take a number of years. Still, even that relocated infrastructure will likely be on the shores of erosion again by 2100.
The washeteria is still in the erosion path, but its distance from the shore will buy the village some extra time.
