Lack Of Water, Sewer Service Brings Health Risks To Some Alaska Villages

"On a ridge rising over the Bering Strait coast lies the resting place for one community’s sewage.

In Teller, an Iñupiat community of about 250, homes have no flush toilets — nor are there pipes carrying waste to municipal treatment plants. Instead, there is a dumpsite about 5 miles from town for plastic bags filled with urine and feces, many of them punctured and leaking.

This is what is known in Alaska as a “honey bucket lagoon” — a disposal site for the contents of the 5-gallon buckets that serve as toilets for Teller’s residents.

“At least it’s not overflowing,” said Blanche Okbaok-Garnie, Teller’s mayor, who shielded her nose at times when the wind carried the stench from deposited waste and the containers that held it."

Yereth Rosen  reports for Arctic Today November 30, 2021.