With thousands of Alaskan homes still without adequate sewer and water connections, state Sen. Albert Kookesh, D-Angoon, is proposing a new state task force be charged with solving that problem.
Alaska, he said, has people “living in third world conditions” while the state is bringing in billions in oil revenue that was promised would help the state’s citizens live better.
In a public letter Wednesday, Kookesh cited figures from the Department of Environmental Conservation’s Division of Water that showed 6,028 homes and families in the state remain without potable/clean drinking water and safe sanitation and sewer systems.
Kookesh said that the state 40 years ago promised a better quality of life for all Alaskans as it championed the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, but many people remain without minimum needs met.
The state had collected $102 billion in oil revenues between 1977 and 2009, but has spent less than half of one percent of that on rural sewer and water projects.
“Alaska can afford to do more, and I say it has a responsibility and a duty to do more,” Kookesh said in a letter to Gov. Sean Parnell, legislative leader, rural and community leaders and the citizens of Alaska.
Much of what the state spent during that time was for matching grants for federal spending, but additional millions when to urban communities where no matching grant was available.
Kookesh’s letter came the day before Parnell was scheduled to release his 2013 budget proposal. The state senator said that 2012’s budgeted amount of $7,647,226 for village safe water and $21,817,963 for municipal sanitation matching grants was “clearly not enough.”
Kookesh’s rural southeast and Interior districts includes dozens of small communities, many of which struggle to provide those services to their residents.
Kookesh said he was asking Alaskans to provide information about where improvements in water and sewer systems need to be made to his office to get an accurate assessment of the need.
Kookesh said people with information can contact Dorothy Shockley at his Fairbanks office at 888-452-3471, or by email at Dorothy_Shockley@legis.state.ak.us. After the Legislature resumes, she can be contacted in Juneau at 888-288-3473.
• Contact reporter Pat Forgey at 523-2250 or patrick.forgey@juneauempire.com.
Comments (14)
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It's not merely a coincidence that the municipalities having no centralized sewer and water have no property taxes, contribute nothing to local school costs, and largely see government as an economic engine rather than a cost. If a village, town or city has no economic reason to exist then propping it up with government spending, including government jobs, takes away from needed progress in parts of the state that do pay something for government.
Interior villages are sited where they are only because the federal government centralized government handouts to indigenous people at those locations. In most cases the final decision for location of those villages was made by a bureaucrat in Washington, DC who never saw Alaska. Maintaining those villages has now cost taxpayers (yes, even including the oil companies) billions of dollars.
Starbucks too
There's a reason villages are called villages and not called cities. At some point every paved road ends to become a dirt road. Just as each dirt road cannot be paved, so too cannot every village have a Starbucks and McDonalds. There is little to no economic justifiation for a private business to locate in a village, so too for modern (taxpayer funded) conveniences.
Suspicious timing...
Albert Kookesh has been a legislature for fourteen years and has never authored a single piece of legislation, and as far as I can find, has never really done anything substantive. Now, in the face of his first contentious election, he gets proactive. If legislators get paid around 100,000 a year then the people of Alaska have paid 1.4 million for him to come up with this initiative. If I was in his district I would be asking why I had to wait 14 years for his attention.
The man needs to, in his own words, "ride off into the sunset." He's leverage his position for his and his family's gain long enough.
It's campaign season...
so it's only goes to follow to make moves like this. Albert Kookesh didn't just show up now regarding rural water & sewer, but has long been an advocate. AND, Kookesh is a much better candidate to represent the new district than Bert Stedman, who touts his biggest accomplishment as being moving PERS/TERS to a Defined Contribution system from a Defined Benefit system - a debacle that is costing the state more money, as well as loss of trained staff, and retirement accounts that are not viable to provide an actual retirement with dignity, as opposed to one with welfare assistance. For that alone, Stedman should be shown the door.
Ya gotta wonder
Why Al just doesn't just threaten someone a little?
Retirement nonsense...
Wolf, your statement about defined contribution is not informed. I'm a Tier IV employee, making lower than average state salary, and at my current earnings (which will actually grow), assuming 4% growth (which is below average long term growth) I stand to retire with over a million dollars in annuity and I'll get healthcare. I'll be much better off than today's defined benefit retirees. Do your research. To address your other point: At least Stedman has done something... what has Kookesh done? You say he's advocated for water and sewer? Where is the evidence? Seems to me all he advocates for is overfishing Kanalkoo with his family.
glacierdogs? Cean water
glacierdogs? Cean water benifits every one.
The reason villages are where they are is because this is where they have always been. Remember indigenous people lived in Alaska before Alaska even had our cities.
Thank you Mr. Kookesh this is an important issue for all Alaskans today and tomorrow. I appreciate your efforts to keep Alaskan waters clean from sewer.
Is AL still threatening Craig?
Is AL still threatening Craig?
That was a hoot !
yellow flowers
Just a quick comment from someone who has studied the history of Alaska. Villages are not there because they have always been there. Perhaps you need to find out more about the way of lives of the Native people of Alaska before the arrival of Europeans/Americans.
Yupiit and Innuit ("Eskimos") had winter settlements, but most of the Athabascans did not. For them and for many "Eskimos" villages were created by the government, not by the people, and there were not villages. Yes the ancestors of present day Native people lived here - but not all lived in villages.
There are some really good books and television programs about the history of Alaska that you might consider reading or viewing some time before you comment.
Added comment to yellowflowers
I forgot to mention that indeed the Tlingit and Haida did have permanent villages and even "safe places" some now call "forts" after the Haida people moved into what had been Tlingit territory, just as the Tlingit moved into what had been Eyak territory.
Then, in historic times, three Haida villages were relocated into what is today the town of Hydaburg.
The history of Alaska can be kind of exciting if one really studies it.
Rainpedaler...
I respectfully disagree. Go to the Alaska Pension Coalition for some good figures. Without debating in the blog, do a little homework on Defined Benefit vs. Defined Contribution. There is a White Paper out on this subject with very revealing facts and figures, that I will try to locate a post the directions to it. Also, I wish you luck with Tier IV. It almost sounds like you're repeating the propaganda Retirement & Benefits is putting out on Tier IV. Your retirement is not safe, or garunteed in the Tier IV DC system.
Wolf, thanks for your respect but...
My perspective is not based on propaganda, it's based on math. And if I revealed all the homework I had done on this I'd reveal who I am and what I do, and this is not the forum for that. Suffice it to say, that if your concerns come down the my retirement being "safe," I don't need the state to secure my retirement; I would much rather have the control over my investments that Tier IV gives me. I'm willing to accept the risk that comes with self determination. As for the Alaska Pension Coalition, they're as partisan as the Commissioner of Administration who lobbies for the other side, so see what you can do to come up with a white paper from a truly non-partisan source and then I'll give your perspective some thought. As it is I've read what their site has to offer and its not compelling to free thinking, self motivated types who don't need the state to hold their hand through financial decisions.
Another thing to consider Wolf.
When the oil money started flowing into this state our legislators modified existing programs and created many new ones based on the cash flow of that era. Although, I firmly believe their hearts were in the right place when they did so, it was not sustainable. The unenviable task of rectifying the excesses of the past fell on the sholders of Senator Stedman and his colleagues. Only time will tell if their actions were the best possible solution under the circumstance. What is for sure, is stedman and company had the brass and "took on the responsibility" to pursue a solution. When has Senator Kookesh ever been part of the solution?
Creating bills doesn't mean your a succesful Legislator
Just because Sen Kookesh has not created more and more laws for the people of Alaska does not mean he has not been a champion active legislator. Sen Kookesh has clearly made his stance clear when it comes to creating unnecessary bills, he doesn't believe in creating unnecessary bills "laws". It is commonly known that most Legislators compete to see who can introduce the most bills each session clearly wasting money and time as most are not worth the money spent on all the paper printing them or the designated committee's time to hear them! Imposing more and more laws on Alaskan's doesn't make you a successful Legislator. New laws should be forcused on health, education and safety for the people of this great state. Sen Kookesh has over 130 communities in his district and has had great success in creating relationships with each one of them while helping with whatever need or situation is going on in that community so being a Legislator involves much more than bogus bill creating!