One person was rescued by emergency personnel after flipping a kayak at Sitka’s Blue Lake on Saturday. Dispatchers received a call about the incident at about 5:30 p.m. Nineteen Sitka Search and Rescue and EMS personnel and three vehicles responded.

In an interview with KCAW, assistant fire chief David Johnson said that the kayaker, who is a Sitka resident, was transported to Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center by ambulance with possible hypothermia. Neither the age of the kayaker nor the severity of his injuries was disclosed.

Since noon today (10-21-22) the city has been using water from its reserve storage tanks, due to low levels of chlorine treatment in water coming from Blue Lake, caused by a treatment plant malfunction. 

Government Relations Director Melissa Henshaw says that crews are making repairs to the equipment, and will monitor and test the water before switching back to the Blue Lake water source. Until then, customers may experience low water pressure, especially in higher elevations. 

Once the repairs are made, it takes the city around five hours to flush out the system and go back online. Henshaw says they’ll publish updated information to the city’s website and facebook page once the repairs and flushing process are complete. 

Editor’s Note: This is a developing story and may be updated.

Sitka’s drinking water is officially “prize winning” on a national level. The city’s tap water, locally sourced from Blue Lake, won second place last week (6-14-22) at the American Water Works Association (AWWA) taste test competition. 

Environmental Superintendent Shilo Williams says Sitka was one of 26 finalists from the United States and Canada. In order to enter, competitors must first win their state or regional contests, and can’t have any drinking water violations on their record from the previous year. Sitka qualified after winning Alaska’s title. 

The contest took place at the AWWA national water industry conference in San Antonio, Texas. Williams shipped two one-liter glass bottles of Sitka water to the conference in a cooler, but her hopes were nearly dashed in a shipping disaster. 

“While I was there, I received an email from the contest coordinator that said our bottles had come broken,” Williams says. “So we were really bummed out about that. And I thought that was the end of it, and that we wouldn’t have a chance.” 

But the next day, Williams received word that only one of the bottles had broken, and they were back in the game. Three judges from the water industry tasted all 26 contestants samples.

“They certainly were taking their time, smelling and tasting the water and they were marking down their notes,” Williams says.

The judges then narrowed it down to five finalists, including Sitka, for a second round of sampling.

Sitka placed second, just ahead of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. First place was Water One, an independent public water utility that serves Johnson County, Kansas. Water One also won the people’s choice award. Sitka didn’t enter that contest, because it would have required shipping a larger volume of water to Texas. 

Williams says it’s the first time they’ve entered the competition, and she believes it’s the first time an Alaska utility has placed in the event. 

“I’m really excited about it. But you know, it really has really nothing to do with me. It’s all about our great source water,” Williams says. “Blue Lake is a pristine water source. So we’re really lucky to have blue lake as our source water. I mean, it’s fantastic water just on its own. We provide very minimal treatment, low chemical addition.” 

Williams says she’s thankful for the dedication of city staff that ensure safe water is delivered to Sitkans.

“We couldn’t do this without them.”

Several slip-ups on Sitka trails kept the Coast Guard and Search and Rescue teams busy this weekend. The Sitka Fire Department got calls on Saturday and Sunday about hikers in need of assistance.

On Saturday, June 15, the Coast Guard hoisted a 27-year-old man off Sisters Mountain after he had fallen as much as 100 feet at an elevation of about 2600-feet. Over the weekend, other media outlets misreported that the victim was 50-years-old. The Sitka Fire Department got a call about 1:30pm, Volunteer Search and Rescue Captain Matt Hunter told KCAW.

Hunter was training with his team on Saturday, working on rope rescue techniques. The Fire Department notified him of the accident, and he broke down the training equipment and headed to the fire hall. There, he started deploying teams and eventually requested helicopter assistance from the Coast Guard.

In a news release, pilot Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Jacobs reported that the foggy weather, high elevation, and steep terrain made for a difficult operation. Nevertheless, Hunter says that Air Station Sitka succeeded in locating the victim.

“The Coast Guard was able to host the man off the middle Sister Mountain and get him back to town without any assistance from the Sitka Fire Department’s search and rescue team,” Hunter said. The Coast Guard launched one of their jayhawk helicopters for the rescue mission. “We’re so lucky to have the Coast Guard here to just get out and pluck people off the mountains.”

The victim was taken to Mt Edgecumbe hospital with head and back injuries, but in stable condition. He’s back home now. Hunter says that a search and rescue team accompanied his two companion hikers back down the middle Sister after he was airlifted out.

But the weekend was just getting started for Sitka’s volunteer rescue team. Search and Rescue went to work again on Sunday, when the Sitka Fire Department got another call around 12:30pm with a report of a hiker with a dislocated or broken ankle on the Beaver Lake trail.

Search and rescue had 11 people on the trail and was able to stabilize the injury. The rescue workers got the patient in a litter and safely down off the Beaver Lake Trail.

“The person had slipped on some of the wooden steps and landed hard on their foot,” Hunter said. The victim was transferred to emergency medical services personnel and taken to Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital for treatment.

The Coast Guard also assisted state troopers in the rescue of two elderly men stranded near Lemon Creek Glacier in Juneau. The aircrew medevaced the men to safety, where they were met by emergency medical services.

The Blue Lake Reservoir provides unfiltered drinking water to Sitka, but a recent uptick in turbidity events is causing the city to move ahead with the construction of a water filtration plant. (Photo/2015/Courtesy Lance Ewers)

The Sitka Assembly voted, last night, to move forward with the development of a secondary water treatment plant. The resolution, which narrowly passed 4-2, is expected to cost the city $18 million, though rate increases have been in place to help fund the planned project for months. KCAW’s Katherine Rose reports.

Downloadable Audio

One might describe the water in Blue Lake as a little “troubled” lately. It’s seen an increase in turbidity- that is, a measure of how cloudy the water is. Brought on by heavy rainfalls and sediment, high turbidity can lead to contamination of Sitka’s water supply.

But rather than laying a bridge down a la Simon and Garfunkel, the Sitka Assembly last night passed a resolution permitting city staff to move ahead with the development of an $18 million dollar water filtration plant. The plant will provide a secondary water source for Sitka in case of a turbidity event, a planned inspection or other emergency. The city implemented an increase on water rates in July to help fund the project, and don’t anticipate any other rate increases right now. But several assembly members, including Richard Wein, still weren’t happy with the 18 million dollar price tag.

“This is, in essence, an 18 million dollar tax on the citizens of Sitka,” said Wein, who he felt that less expensive options hadn’t been thoroughly explored. Assembly member Kevin Mosher said that while he didn’t want to approve an $18 million dollar project- he thought moving ahead with the plant was the lesser of two evils.

“If we don’t do it and we lose our waiver, it could cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars more,” Mosher said, “and over time that adds up quick.”

Sitka’s water is technically unfiltered. A special federal waiver allows the city to bypass the filtration process, though they do add chlorine and treat the water with UV light. But that federal waiver requires no more than 5 turbidity events in a 10 year period. The city experienced the 4th turbidity event in four years just last month.

Assembly member Aaron Bean wondered if the turbidity events are becoming more likely, why build the plant? Bean said he didn’t see how a plant would change the fact that turbidity events are on the uptick, and wondered what the point of a filtration plant was if the events are inevitable.

“From the horse’s mouth, what will happen if we have greater than 6?” Bean asked. “I said before at our work session, I see it no different from having three if there’s no bacteria in the water. And if there is, we have a turbidity event in Blue Lake, this further speaks to the point that we’re not, in fact getting rid of those events.”

Public works director Michael Harmon said, with a new filtration system in place, turbidity events won’t be counted as strikes against Sitka’s filtration waiver. 

Mayor Gary Paxton said that not moving ahead with the project would increase the liability and ultimate cost to the city.

“We’re going to be very aggressive in dealing with our federal government, primarily, and our state government, to try to get some money to allay this unfunded mandate,” Paxton said. “In my view it’s a heck of a lot more likely we get money to help the 18 million cost of the secondary water treatment then it is to change regulations for FERC.”

That, Paxton said, was far more likely than the city getting a deferment on federal regulations. Ultimately the assembly voted to move forward, 4-2 with Richard Wein and Aaron Bean voting against.

The Sitka Assembly heard from city staff about their proposal for a secondary water source on Tuesday night (12-04-18). From left to right is Utility Director Bryan Bertacchi, Environmental Superintendent Shiloh Williams, City Clerk Sara Peterson, and Public Works Director Michael Harmon. (Emily Kwong/KCAW phto)

Sitka gets 100% of its drinking water from Blue Lake – unfiltered. If that sounds too good to be true, the City of Sitka worries it is and wants a secondary source of drinking water.

High turbidity events have city officials worried Sitka will lose its special filtration waiver. Combined with an upcoming federal inspection of the dam, the City is pushing the Sitka Assembly to approve the construction of a secondary water source. They presented their plan during a work session on Tuesday night (12-04-18)

Downloadable audio.

To understand why the City of Sitka is pushing for a secondary water source, we’re going to have to roll back the clock. To 2014. The project to expand the Blue Lake Dam was in full swing and for two months, Sitka was cut off from its potable water supply. The city built a backup system. They spent $4 million on a temporary filtration plant at Indian River.

The water met tightened federal regulations, but wasn’t great. Public Works Director Michael Harmon remembers the city got complaints about the color and the taste. “You’d hold it up and you’d smell rotten fish. It would look like apple juice or had a golden brown color to it,” Harmon told KCAW in a recent interview.

Now, a new set of conditions are pressuring the city to once again figure out a secondary water source. There’s two reasons for this. The first is a big inspection.

In 2019, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will inspect the penstock tunnel system. Picture a mile of tunnel – 7 to 10 feet in diameter – far below the ground. “That penstock and tunnel provides city drinking water, it provides fire water, it provides electric power, water for NSRAA, and it’s also the source of bulk water when bulk water does get sold,” said Utility Director Bryan Bertacchi.

To keep Sitka’s FERC permit, Bertacchi has to drain the tunnel completely and close the intake gate. That’s the nail biter for him. The gate weighs 26,000 lbs. Were it to fail in some way, as happened at Green Lake in 2016, the community would lose its source of drinking water. A boil water notice would take effect. The impact for the local economy and public health would be significant.

Fixing a failed intake gate at Blue Lake would take two weeks minimum, which Bertacchi described as a “disaster” in the spring with tourism and fishing about to start. Winter is tough too. “If we did that test in the winter and something goes wrong, we’d need a very large crane that’s not available in this town. We’d have to get the crane all the way up Blue Lake Road to the dam,” he said.

To avoid this whole scenario when the penstock is unavailable – due to maintenance or emergencies – the city wants a secondary water source. That’s the first reason. The second reason has to do with water quality.

The city is always monitoring the turbidity of Blue Lake, a measure of the amount of particles in the water. Harmon is worried that turbidity has been too high for Sitka to keep its federal filtration avoidance waiver, allowing the community to forgo filtering Blue Lake Water. To keep the waiver, Sitka cannot exceed five high turbidity events in ten years. Since the dam was expanded, there have already been four – one as recently as last month.

“We’re seeing this new trend of turbidity events that’s leading us to believe we will likely lose our waiver in ten years – if we have four [high turbidity events] in four years,” Harmon said. He added, “That really homes us in on the best solution for secondary water is a filtration system and a permanent one. We can use it anytime a FERC inspection needs to happen. We can use it any time we’re having a turbidity event. We can turn it on and avoid losing service to the customer.

A schematic of the design for the secondary water source, which includes a river intake system that moves water from Sawmill Creek to a brand new filter plant. The system would bypass the penstock tunnel entirely, in the event it is closed for maintenance or emergency. (Schematic courtesy of CBS)

Harmon doesn’t want to use Indian River again. A permanent filtration plant there would cost $23 million due to . After doing a study up and down the road system, they decided the most cost efficient option would be a brand new filtration unit drawing water from Sawmill Creek. It would cost $18 million.

The previous Assembly largely supported this plan, approving application for a low interest loan from the state and raising water rates this year to pay for it. The current Assembly, however, has their doubts and expressed as much during a work session Tuesday night (12-04-18).

Assembly member Aaron Bean wanted to know, “Why the elevated turbidity?” Harmon said staff are investigating. “The most obvious one is the raising of the dam has changed the lake dynamics. We hope that that will stabilize over time,” Harmon said.

Calling in over the phone, Assembly member Richard Wein described the secondary water source is an “added cost” of raising the Blue Lake Dam and said that this project needed further vetting.

Assembly member Kevin Mosher worried about the project staying within the $18 million budget. City staff assured him it would and that the project would only grow more expensive with time through inflation, by about $1 million every year.

City attorney Brian Hanson said building the secondary water source now would mitigate risk in the future. “Whether or not you talk dollars or cents, that is a primary reason that you should go forward, but don’t forget the health and safety of our community. You can’t ignore that. And to delay I think has a considerable risk in that regard,” Hanson told the Assembly.

This notion – that Sitka needs a secondary water source sooner rather than later – seemed to shift the conversation. While seeing the logic of the project, Mosher wondered whether there would truly be enough money within the water fund to pay for it.

Right now, water rates are not expected to rise. But what if they have to to pay for this project? “We may not have as much as we think we’re going to have,” Mosher said. He wondered, “What’s going to happen if this project does go over and then we’re wanting more rate increases? I just really hope this project stays within budget.”

Mosher is narrating what some on the Assembly have described as a “rate death spiral,” which is exactly what happened with the Blue Lake Dam expansion. The project went over-budget. Rates went up to pay for it, but electric usage went down. The echoes of that deficit – which the city is actively working to close – are all over this conversation about a secondary water source in Sitka. But if there is common ground, it’s in the desire to provide clean drinking water and reliable electricity to Sitkans.

After the work session ended, everyone lingered to chat – Assembly members with City Staff – to unpack the pros and cons even further.

The previous Assembly put the decision-making power for this project in the hands of the current Assembly. On December 11th, they’ll vote on whether to enter into a Compliance Order by Consent with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation – accepting that $18 million loan and moving ahead with the secondary water source. The vote will be on first and final reading. Should it pass, Bertacchi says he will ask FERC to delay their inspection until that secondary water source can be built.

The City of Sitka shut off water supplied from Blue Lake after registering high turbidity levels early Sunday morning, shown above in the hydro electric afterbay. Environmental Superintendent Shilo Williams said the green water is a sign of glacial silt introduced to the water by heavy rains this weekend. (Photo courtesy of Shilo Williams)

The City of Sitka used a different water source on Sunday due to high levels of turbidity at Blue Lake. They supplied water to Sitkans through back-up storage tanks. By Sunday night, turbidity levels had dropped to an acceptable level and the flow from Blue Lake was restored.

But what exactly is turbidity?

“Basically the cloudiness of water,” Shilo Williams, the environmental superintendent for the City and Borough of Sitka, said. “The cloudier the water, the higher the turbidity is going to be.”

Turbidity is caused by tiny particles that are suspended in water, Williams said. She added turbidity is just one of the many things the public works department monitors to ensure Sitka’s drinking water is up to federal standards.

“We have a computer program that is tracking data all the time,” Williams said. “we know what the turbidity is coming into our system all the time. We know basically everything that we need to know at all times.”

The reason for the high regulation? Blue Lake is one of 10 bodies of water in Alaska that does not have to be filtered. The federal Environmental Protection Agency granted the City of Sitka a filtration waiver because of the lake’s purity.

Instead of being filtered, the water is disinfected using ultraviolet radiation that inactivates most pathogens. In other words, water drawn from the lake is blasted with light to kill waterborne bacteria and viruses.

Treating water using ultraviolet radiation is a lot less expensive per-gallon than using a filtration system, which is more labor intensive and requires the use of chemicals. But without a filtration system, Williams said, the EPA requires that turbidity levels in water be very low. 

Turbidity is measured with what’s called a nephelometer. The device shines a beam of light into the water and measures the amount of light that bounces into a detector set to one side. The amount of light that’s detected is directly correlated to the density of particles within the water. The EPA requires that turbidity in water from Blue Lake be less than 5 NTUs or Nephelometric Turbidity Units.

These samples of water are used to calibrate the nephelometer that monitors the level of turbidity in water drawn from Blue Lake. The EPA requires that turbidity in water from Blue Lake be less than 5 NTUs or Nephelometric Turbidity Units. Shown above from left to right are samples of water with 10, 20, 100 and 800 NTUs. (Photo by Enrique Pérez de la Rosa)

The cloudiness at that level is imperceptible to the the human eye. Water at 5, 10 or even 20 NTUs can look just like water that has no particles at all. But if the level of turbidity is too high, pathogens attached to particles in the water can bypass ultraviolet treatment and contaminate Sitka’s water supply, Williams said. 

“If we have high turbidity there’s a good chance that our disinfection won’t be achieved and that can cause gastro illnesses, diarrhea and stuff like that,” she said. “It’s really important to keep that turbidity low.”

If the level of turbidity exceeds federal standards, the filtration waiver could be rescinded. High turbidity events cannot occur more than five times within a 10-year span or more than twice within one year. According to Williams, the last high turbidity event in Blue Lake occurred on October of 2017. This is the fourth such event in four years.

So, what changed since 1983, when the City of Sitka started drawing water from Blue Lake? Williams points to the expansion of the Blue Lake Dam in 2014, which has caused the level of the lake to rise and fall and bring glacial silt from the lake’s surroundings into the water.

“And I think that is getting disturbed with the new lake levels,” she said. “And of course, when you have a lot of rain, that brings more glacial silt into the lake itself and making its way to our intake.”

The system is designed to shut off the Blue Lake intake when water exceeds EPA standards for turbidity. But Williams stresses the importance of the Blue Lake system in the long term. The Assembly will have a special meeting on Blue Lake and the upcoming federal inspection of the whole system on December 4.

The City of Sitka receives drinking water and hydroelectricity from Blue Lake. Due to an upcoming inspection and concerns about the penstock, which regulates the flow from Blue Lake, the city is getting state loans to create a secondary water source for Sitka at Indian River – an $18 million project. The cost is driven by new federal requirements which declare Indian River’s water turbidity too high for safe drinking. (Photo courtesy of Flickr / Creative Commons user thedamian)

The Sitka Assembly has approved several rate increases on first reading. Wastewater, solid waste and moorage are slated to go up 6% to pay for infrastructure and water delivery by  22% increase. Electric rates are not changing this year, but do fluctuate with the seasons and could change if consumers buy more.

Why the big boost to water rates? It’s all to pay for a secondary water source, which would kick in during a planned or emergency outage. A water outage could happen in 2019, when FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) will inspect the penstock regulating Blue Lake. The $18 million project will be paid for with a loan from the state.

Assembly member Steven Eisenbeisz said this rate increase to water, which amounts to $8.92 a month for most residents, is the only one he would support.

“With the information that’s currently in front of me, I do believe that our secondary water source is a necessity. It’s not that we want to build it. It’s that we will be mandated to build it. I need to find a way to pay for that,” Eisenbesiz said.

Only Assembly member Richard Wein opposed the water hike. It passed, on first reading, along with the other rate increases to wastewater, garbage, and moorage. Eisenbeisz voted against everything, but the water hike.

Speaking during persons to be heard, Kevin Mosher implored the Assembly not to raise rates any more. He argued that the capital plans, which are driving rates to pay for infrastructure, are based on assumptions that usage will stay the same. He continued, “[Assumptions] that people will not use less, that people will not convert to alternative methods, [like using] fuel oil or smaller garbage cans. And so increasing these [rates] based on those  assumptions…I think that would be a faulty thing,” Mosher said.

The Assembly also made a decision on how to divide the money within the Fisheries Enhancement Fund, a $42,000 pot. It broke down as such: the Sitka Sound Science Center received $22,500, the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association received $10,000, and the Chinook Futures Coalition received $9,500.

That last vote – for Chinook Futures – was close, 4-2, with Mayor Matthew Hunter and Assembly member Kevin Knox voting against.

The fish box tax was set up by voters in 2004 to pay for “fisheries enhancement.” The definition of fisheries enhancement was debated Tuesday night, with Sitka Sound Science Center Director Lisa Busch saying it meant aquaculture. She requested the full $42,000 to pay for the SSSC hatchery and historic Mill Building.

“This tax is an excise tax which means the money collected should benefit the people who are being taxed, in this case guided sport [fishermen]. When the fish sent from our hatchery return, they are caught by commercial fishermen and sport and guided sport fishermen. They’re also caught by little kids who climb down the rocks on the sea walk and families who head to our beach after work. We see them as our community’s fish,” Busch said.

Chinook Futures Coalition is making a one time request for this money (Chinook Futures Coalition Proposal), which they will use to pay for a legislative liaison to recover lost king salmon allocations.

Assembly member Kevin Knox made a motion to reconsider how the money was divided between the Sitka Sound Science Center and ALFA at the end of the meeting. He said later to KCAW over the phone that he would have included Chinook Futures in that reconsideration, but legally couldn’t as he did not approve their funding request in the first place.

The Assembly also approved a resolution to eliminate fees at the fishermen’s work float and drive down load zone from September 15th through March 15th. Harbor Master Stan Eliason hopes this will encourage some to do major boat repairs in winter, so it doesn’t bottleneck over the summer.

The Assembly also approved an application for a Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) to hire a police officer to perform drug investigations and directed the city administrator to seek federal Pitterman-Robertson funding to build a public-use cabin. The city currently operates the Tom Young Memorial Cabin, which generates $8,000 in revenue a year.

Trident Seafoods Corporation pulled their request to lease space at the Gary Paxton Industrial Park and it may come up at a future meeting. The company wanted to do further legal review. Assembly member Aaron Bean was absent from this meeting.

The Assembly’s next meeting is tomorrow to hear an appeal from Tamico, Inc. on how the city awarded a bid for replacing the pilings at the O’Connell Bridge Lightering Facility. The contract went to Turnagain Marine. The Assembly may enter executive session to discuss some, or all, of this matter.

The Blue Lake Road opened last week- it is one of few municipal watersheds in the country that doesn’t have to be filtered, only chlorinated. (KCAW Photo)

Downloadable Audio

The Blue Lake Road reopened last week, but for the City of Sitka and the U.S. Forest Service, increasing public access comes with a price. Community Affairs Director Maegan Bosak and Environmental Superintendent Shilo Williams joined us to talk about how citizens can protect the Blue Lake Watershed- the community’s main source of drinking water.

The electrical conduit inside one of the Green Lake dam tunnels. A leak has allowed water to be released down the conduit and into the Green Lake powerhouse. (Photo courtesy of CBS Electric Department)

Sitka’s Green Lake power plant was shut down yesterday (06-19-17), after electric department staff discovered a leak in an electrical conduit. 

The conduit, which is a galvanized two-inch pipe, is located inside the tunnel that carries water from the dam to the powerhouse. Water is leaking into that conduit. The city shut down the whole operation at at 1 p.m. Monday afternoon and is determining the cause of the leak, as well as plan for repair. This is the second time in the last year the city has shut down the Green Lake operation due to broken parts.

Bryan Bertacchi, the city’s utility director, considers this a further failing of Sitka’s aging electrical infrastructure, some of which is 40 to 60 years old.

In a press release issued Monday, Bertacchi said, “These failures are a reminder to the community that our established plans to repair our old infrastructure are important to the success of our City and Borough.” The city has also also developed 10-year capital plans for Sitka’s harbors, wastewater, and drinking water systems. 

Moreover, Bertacchi hopes the city will explore alternative sources for drinking water in the event there’s a similar failure at the Blue Lake power plant.

“The problem with the city is we only have eight hours of water storage capability for that water coming down from Blue Lake. Many of us in the city have been working trying to identify clearly what the alternative is, to provide a secondary source of domestic water supply,” Bertacchi said.

The Green Lake closure does not impact the city’s drinking water. But it’s closure does mean that Sitka will receive all of its electricity from the Blue Lake power plant. The diesel plant on Jarvis Street will serve as a back-up.  

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