With presentations from three remaining teams, the Alaska Water and Sewer Challenge has moved into its third phase of a multiyear project aimed at eliminating “honey buckets” (hand-carried pails) in the state’s rural communities. According to the project’s website (watersewerchallenge.alaska.gov), the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation began the project in 2013 to “spur worldwide research to develop innovative and cost-effective water and sewer systems for homes in remote Alaska villages. The project focuses on decentralized water and wastewater treatment, recycling and water minimization.”

More than 3,300 rural homes have no running water or flush toilets, with many using buckets to collect human waste and carry it to community sewage lagoons. A 2010 study found higher rates of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) among Alaskan children who did not have access to piped water. IPD is a serious bacterial infection that can affect the brain, blood and lungs, and residents of southwest Alaska suffer rates among the highest in the world.

Funding for prototype development and pilot lab testing will be awarded to three of the six teams that presented detailed proposals. Results of the testing will be presented in fall 2017.

Those that meet the performance targets will be provided further funding, followed by field testing and technology improvement.

The final three teams are:

DOWL Alaska (engineering firm) — Water and wastewater holding tanks located in a small vestibule attached to the house to minimize space requirements in the home and avoid the use of expensive heat trace to a separate holding tank outside the home. The pilot system will be set up in Fairbanks at the Cold Climate Housing Research Center.

Summit Consulting (engineering firm) — Treatment of raw water by means of a two‐stage cartridge filtration process followed by ultraviolet disinfection, which allows flexibility to treat a wide range of raw water quality. The pilot system will be set up at the company’s main office complex in Tok.

University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) — Recycle both graywater and some black water, as well as the use of a modular approach that will allow homeowners to select in-home components that fit their lifestyles and space available. UAA’s pilot system will be set up on the school’s Anchorage campus.

Canada

The failure of a referendum in a British Columbia community has officials wondering what will happen next with septage. It started in 2014 when the City of Fort St. John announced it was closing its septage receiving facility because several illegal dumping cases threatened the city’s treatment system. Septage has become a problem in recent years due to an increase in waste from oil drilling worker camps. Many of the trucks carrying septage are also used to haul chemicals for oil operations that can harm sewage treatment plants.

In response, the 46,000-square-mile Peace River Regional District (PRRD), located northwest of Calgary, began planning for new septage receiving stations to serve its rural residents and worker camps. The City of Dawson Creek also built a $3.5 million trucked waste facility at its municipal wastewater treatment plant.

Last fall, a referendum to fund operations at a newly opened (PRRD) receiving station in Charlie Lake failed. It would have levied a tax of 11.4 cents per $1,000 of assessed improvements to properties. Operations will have to be funded through user fees, expected to be high because of the small pool of users. That may cause many people to take their septage to Dawson Creek, posing capacity problems and increasing operating costs.

Idaho

Several updates to onsite wastewater rules are being considered in Idaho. The Department of Environmental Quality says revisions will cover easements for when septage is stored, treated or disposed of on property other than where it originated, and minimum recommendations for intermittent filter dosing and constructed wetlands used for secondary wastewater treatment.

Minnesota

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is offering $270,000 in grants to improve or replace old diesel engines to reduce their impact on the environment. Since 2006, the MPCA Clean Diesel program has reduced emissions equivalent to taking 750,000 cars off the road.

The grant requires the vehicle owner to cover 60 percent of the cost of upgrading or replacing a diesel engine, or 75 percent of the cost of replacing a truck or piece of construction equipment. Vehicles to be upgraded must be fully operational, and if the engine is replaced, the old engine must be permanently disabled. The agency says it has completed projects on more than 1,800 school buses along with garbage trucks, tanker trucks, construction cranes and delivery trucks.

Missouri

Ozarks Water Watch has received a second $1 million grant from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to replace and repair failing septic systems in the White River watershed that feeds the Lake of the Ozarks. Under a previous grant, 130 systems were repaired or replaced. Homeowners can get up to $25,000 with half being in the form of a grant and the other half a no-interest loan. With the new grant money and loans, 200 systems are expected to be repaired or replaced in this round. New is a $50 rebate to help with septic system pumpouts.

Oregon

While food carts in the state are licensed by local health departments, removing and hauling their wastewater requires a license from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, according to a reminder posted on the agency’s website. That’s because such a license is required to pump or haul wastewater that is defined as sewage: “water-carried human and animal wastes, including kitchen, bath and laundry wastes from residences, buildings, industrial establishments or other places.” Portland has more than 500 such carts, according to Food Carts Portland.