Four Southeast towns face 2030 deadline to disinfect sewage, with costs up to $14 million

Sitka, Haines, Skagway and Wrangell have until Nov. 1 to tell regulators how they plan to start disinfecting the sewage they pipe into Southeast Alaska's waters. It is the first deadline on a five-year schedule that ends in November 2030, when each town's discharge must contain a small fraction of the bacteria it does now.

All four plants give sewage primary treatment, which removes solids but is not designed to kill bacteria. Skagway's plant adds chlorine part of the year. For decades, a waiver in the federal Clean Water Act has let the towns skip the secondary treatment the law otherwise requires.

Their discharges are "not consistently disinfected" and carry high levels of fecal coliform and enterococcus bacteria, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said when it renewed the towns' permits in December 2024. Both kinds of bacteria signal the presence of human or animal waste.

The change traces to 2017, when Alaska tightened its water quality standards for bacteria to protect marine waters used for recreation and subsistence. As a condition of signing off on the permits, the state required the towns to meet the new standards within five years. The permits took effect Nov. 1, 2025.

What's in the discharge

Fecal coliform is measured in bacteria per 100 milliliters of water. By 2030, each plant's monthly average must fall to 200.

Sitka's plant, which serves about 8,500 people, averaged about 397,000 a month from 2016 to 2021, according to EPA's review of the plant's monitoring reports. Haines averaged about 597,000, and its highest reading was 1.43 million.

Skagway averaged about 62,000, with summer readings as high as 870,000. Wrangell's levels were far lower, averaging about 15,000.

Until the plants are upgraded, the permits set interim limits based on those past readings: 977,000 in Haines, 856,000 in Sitka, 445,000 in Skagway and 48,300 in Wrangell. Each town must post shoreline signs saying primary-treated sewage is being discharged and that harvesting shellfish to eat raw, and bathing, are not advised within the mixing zone around the outfall.

What it could cost

The towns told EPA the work would be costly. Haines estimated it would cost more than $4 million to add chlorine disinfection and then remove the chlorine before discharge, plus about $218,000 a year to run. Without grants, the borough wrote, the requirements would mean "doubling, tripling or even quadrupling" monthly sewer fees.

Sitka put its cost at $7 million to $12 million in 2023. Its latest rough estimate, from April, is about $14 million, including an expansion of the plant. Skagway estimated more than $10 million, and Wrangell about $12.5 million. In 2022, Wrangell said sewer rates might need to rise nearly 50% more to cover debt payments.

EPA answered that cost is not a factor in setting the limits. Sitka, Skagway and Wrangell asked for 10 years instead of five. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, which set the schedule, said it cannot extend past the permits' five-year terms.

Three of the towns have federal money lined up. A spending law Congress passed in January includes $10 million each for Sitka and Wrangell, requested by U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Skagway received $10.2 million in 2024 for a broader plant upgrade that includes disinfection. No federal money for Haines turned up in the spending records Alaska News reviewed.

The state's clean water loan program is helping with the early work. Haines got a fully subsidized $550,000 state loan to design upgrades to its plant. Sitka has asked for a $1 million loan to design its system. On Oct. 14, the state cleared that design work of further environmental review. Sitka also has an $11 million loan request for the full project on the state's priority list.

What comes next

The towns are picking different ways to kill the bacteria. Sitka plans to make its own chlorine-based disinfectant at the plant. Skagway's request for design proposals called for ultraviolet light. Wrangell hired an engineering firm in May to compare ultraviolet light with chlorine. The state's loan list says Haines will most likely use chlorine.

After the facility plans due Nov. 1, the permits require final designs by late 2027, funding and contractors by late 2028 and the start of construction by late 2029.