This Friday, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that 14 communities in Alaska will receiving $23.6 million in grants as part of the Rural Alaska Village Grant program for water and wastewater improvement projects.
The grants today will go directly to rural communities in Alaska, especially those that are majority Alaska Natives, and will help the communities improve water quality, increase the amount of available clean water, and improve sanitation and wastewater systems and services. The grants are part of the new Memorandum of Understanding, which was launched by the USDA in April of 2010 through the Rural Alaska Village Grant program. The funding goes directly to rural communities and villages and helps improve public infrastructures, prioritizing clean water and sanitation systems.
"Rural Development made a commitment to streamline the Rural Alaska Village Grant program and this funding is the result of that commitment," Vilsack said. "Residents of these rural communities will now be able to have running water for cooking, cleaning and laundry that most people take for granted."
The communities receiving grants today from the USDA are Toksook Bay, $5,252,400; Stebbins, $5,064,367; Kasaan, $3,393,750; Togiak, $937,509; Old Kasigluk, $4,082,250; Shungnak, $1,492,500; Nunam Iqua, $137,655; Igiugig, $1,326,122; Kwigillingok, $973,875; Saxman, $303,938; Eek, $210,000; Golovin, $74,700; Kobuk, $33,750; and Kotlik, $375,000.
Although overall the funding will go to clean water and sanitation projects, many communities have already announced what specific projects will be done with the USDA grant. Old Kasigluk, which lies roughly 170 miles off the coast of the Bering Sea on the western portion of Alaska, is one community that has listed which projects their grant will go to. Old Kasigluk will be getting a water treatment plant, a water storage tank, and a washeteria (a running water facility), as well as a sewer force main that will transport wastewater and sewage to a sewage lagoon.
The USDA has also announced other federal funding for rural development projects in the last month. According to Yahoo News, in late June the USDA announced that 11 states would be receiving a total of $12.3 million in both grants and loans in order to boost rural economies, business growth, and job creation.
Both the grants announced for the rural Alaskan communities and villages and the loans and grants announced for assisting rural economies in 11 different states are part of the Obama Administration's commitment to bettering the lives and communities of rural Americans all over the country.
Rachel Bogart provides an in-depth look at current environmental issues and local Chicago news stories. As a college student from the Chicago suburbs pursuing two science degrees, she applies her knowledge and passion to both topics to garner further public awareness.
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