Alaska’s water and wastewater systems can be generally divided into two categories: municipal and rural. Most municipal systems that serve more densely populated areas are stable and have good management and funding to operate and maintain those systems. However, many homes in these communities still rely on individual well and septic systems due to the high cost of expanding existing systems. The state has over 280 rural communities, 31 of which have no centralized water or wastewater system and must rely on hauling water from rivers, lakes and ice to meet their needs and on outhouses for wastewater disposal. For those rural communities that have water and wastewater systems, their systems are degrading due to the high cost of energy, lack of population to support higher than average maintenance costs, and a shortage of experienced operators to maintain the systems. Alaska has a total estimated funding need of $1.5 billion for water and wastewater systems based on current conditions

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