Vacuum Sanitation Energy Efficiency Retrofits Project

Technical Report · Wed May 01 04:00:00 EDT 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1509914· OSTI ID:1509914

Uhlig, Cody ^[1]; Smith, Daniel ^[2]

---

1. Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, Ancorage, AK (United States); Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium
2. Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, Ancorage, AK (United States)

The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) is a non-profit Tribal health organization designed to meet the unique health needs of Alaska Native and American Indian people living in Alaska. In partnership with communities and health organizations across the state, ANTHC provides health services to over 175,000 Alaska Native and American Indian people. Part of ANTHC’s mission includes ensuring that Native Alaskan communities have access to clean and safe water and sewer services. ANTHC works with communities to provide safe drinking water and healthy wastewater services that directly supports the health of Alaska Native people. To ensure water and sewer facilities operate sustainably, ANTHC Alaska Rural Utility Collaborative (ARUC) and Tribal Utility Support (TUS) programs provide operations and maintenance services on rural sanitation facilities. A key component of many water and sanitation systems in rural Alaskan villages is the vacuum sewer system, which is typically installed in places where the topography is primarily flat, and the elevation differential is not enough for a gravity powered sewer system to function without freezing during the winter. The vacuum sewer system is also the most costly and energy intensive form of sewer system, due to many factors including: large horsepower vacuum pumps needed for operation, potential for frequent vacuum leaks which increase the pump’s run-times, manpower needed to maintain pipe grade throughout the system, and the amount of heat needed to be added to the above ground pipes to keep them from freezing. The Vacuum Sanitation Energy Efficiency Retrofits Project implemented strategies to reduce the operating costs for vacuum sewer systems located in the remote Alaskan communities of Alakanuk, Kotlik, and Noorvik. A variety of deep energy efficiency retrofits were installed to reduce the amount of diesel fuel and electricity required to operate these systems which use large amounts of energy to pump, heat, and collect sewage from the community.

• Research Organization: Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, Ancorage, AK (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Indian Energy Policy & Programs (IE)
• DOE Contract Number: IE0000031
• OSTI ID: 1509914
• Report Number(s): DOE-ANTHC--Z61
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
ANTHC
Alakanuk
Alaska
Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium
Energy Efficiency
Kotlik
Noorvik
Retrofit
Rural Alaska
Sanitation
Sewer
Sustainability
Vacuum Sewer