Sitka will receive $10 million dollars for a new wastewater disinfection system. Municipal Administrator John Leach made the announcement at the Sitka Assembly meeting on Tuesday (1-27-26). He said U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski secured the money for Sitka as part of an Interior and Environment appropriations bill that passed the House and Senate earlier this month.
“Her support is definitely going to reduce the financial impact on Sitka’s rate payers who would otherwise have to bear the cost of getting us in compliance with the federal mandate,” Leach said.
Sitka is one of nine communities in Alaska that has long held a waiver allowing it to opt out of a federal requirement to disinfect its wastewater twice before it’s discharged into the ocean.
Alaska tightened its water quality standards for bacteria nearly a decade ago. In response, in late 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency re-issued a stricter wastewater discharge permit to Sitka — and several other Southeast Alaska communities whose discharges are not consistently disinfected and contain high levels of fecal coliform and enterococcus bacteria — to meet the updated standards, which are intended to protect marine waters for recreational and subsistence uses. Sitka has five years from that date to comply.
Over the past few years, the assembly has been raising wastewater rates at a higher level than other utilities to pay for the upgrades. Last year, the city budgeted $7,750,000 for the project.
In a press release from mid-January, Murkowski said the new wastewater disinfection system will help “modernize Sitka’s wastewater treatment facility and improve water quality.”
Murkowski was also able to secure investments for 18 other Alaska communities for projects she said were “requested and prioritized by local governments and organizations.”
It could be several months until the money is available, according to Leach. Once the bill is enacted, he said the funds will be directed to the appropriate agencies.
