Juneau's city-owned ski area has carried EPA's most urgent water violation for six months

Eaglecrest Ski Area, Juneau's city-owned ski hill, has been under the EPA's most urgent category of drinking water violation for six months, with no record of it being resolved as of this week.

The ski area's water system serves 771 people. The EPA logged the violation on March 1, a failure of required water treatment serious enough to demand that the operator notify anyone affected within 24 hours, the highest urgency level the agency uses. The violation is tied to the federal rule governing treatment of surface water, which guards against contaminants like Cryptosporidium.

State records show 11 informal enforcement actions at the ski area, including a boil-water notice in December, but no formal enforcement action.

The situation isn't unusual for Alaska. The state's most recent compliance report found more than 4,400 federal drinking-water violations across 566 systems, nearly half the systems in the state, and just one formal enforcement action all year.