A remote Kodiak village tries tp fix its water

The tiny village of Karluk — 88 miles from the nearest city, ringed by wildlife refuge on Kodiak Island — is finally getting a fix for something most Americans never think about: reliable, safe drinking water year-round.

The Native Village of Karluk is replacing its failing water treatment system, along with the aging storage tank, mains, and service lines that go with it, and won a needed borough permit for the work Wednesday. Borough staff backed it plainly, finding it would improve the safety of the village's water supply. State environmental regulators have signed off too.

The upgrade matters because clean water isn't a given in rural Alaska the way it is almost everywhere else. Across the state, remote Native villages have spent decades short of the water and sewer infrastructure most communities take for granted — a gap the federal government has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into narrowing.

As the new water lines go in, a separate cleanup is underway nearby at the village school, where crews are remediating a contaminated underground fuel tank close to where the new pipes will run.

Borough engineers flagged it, the state is aware of both projects, and the two crews are in contact — a coordination that will matter, since new drinking-water lines and an old fuel leak are not things you want to get close together by accident.