Alaska has $27 million to get PFAS and other contaminants out of drinking water

About $27 million in federal money is available to help Alaska communities get PFAS and other emerging contaminants out of their drinking water, the state Department of Environmental Conservation estimated in a plan it sent the EPA in July. The money goes out as loans that don't have to be repaid.

PFAS are widely used chemicals that break down very slowly, and exposure to some of them may be linked to harmful health effects, according to the EPA. The state also uses the money for projects that deal with high manganese levels in water.

The plan says the department has issued about $5.8 million of these loans, to five small rural water systems serving 150 to 3,200 people. Three of those projects address PFAS and two address manganese. That's the same total the department reported in its plan a year earlier.

The plan also says the department is processing a $5.1 million application to extend piped water to homes whose private wells are contaminated with PFAS. In June, the top project on the department's priority list was a $5.1 million request from Anchorage's water utility to do that for 26 properties in the Tanaina Hills subdivision. It isn't on the updated list the department released in August, which doesn't say why.

The August list includes about $14 million in requests for this money, and three of its four projects are for manganese. Anchorage's water utility holds the top two spots, seeking $5 million toward a new Girdwood well to replace one with high manganese levels and $1.1 million for a West 74th Avenue project connecting six properties with high-manganese private wells to its water system. The Sherwood Estates water system in the Wasilla area wants $2.6 million for manganese treatment. The only PFAS requests come from Nikishka Bay Utilities, which serves about 470 people in Nikiski and wants $5.1 million for two new wells, PFAS treatment and new water mains.

This year's $7.64 million federal grant is the last of five years of emerging contaminants money authorized by the 2021 federal infrastructure law. Separately, the EPA said in May that nearly $9.5 million is available in Alaska from a grant program for small or disadvantaged communities dealing with PFAS and other emerging contaminants, including help for private well owners.

Water systems can apply anytime. The department's next review deadline is Oct. 31.