Travelin’ Man

Last week I flew to the village of Selawik, Alaska an Inupiat Eskimo community just above the Arctic Circle.  The group I traveled with was made up of mechanical engineers, AutoCAD draftsman, construction, and Indian Health Services.  Our mission was to do an emergency evaluation of the existing water treatment plant and come up with a design and construction plan to renovate the plant as quickly as possible.  The 35% design drawings completed by another firm were almost useless as when we arrived on site we discovered much of the information in the “As-Built” drawings was wrong.  Equipment was located in the wrong place and the measurements for things were so out of whack that the easiest way for us to proceed was to make a new drawing to work from and design the new system.

We gathered in the Anchorage airport just after 4 am to begin our journey first on an Alaska Airlines flight to Kotzebue and then chartering a Bering Air flight to Selawik.  The flight over was on a Piper Navajo with nine in our group.  We would later be joined by one of the water plant technicians who would arrive on another flight as he was bringing in some supplies.

We landed at the airport just before daybreak as first light was starting to creep in from the east across the frozen tundra landscape.  Our gaggle of people walked about a mile from the airport, down across the frozen river to the water treatment plant on the far side of the village.  There is a large bridge that crosses which had a good bit of ice and snow on it so the group decided to walk the river instead of heading up and over the river.  It looked like snow machines had used it lately as opposed to foot traffic.

The existing water plant also had the village washeteria where people could wash clothes or use showers but that part was decommissioned when another one was erected a year or so ago.  In this area of the old washeteria is where the new treatment plant equipment will go once the structural changes are in place after demolition of the equipment.

Once we realized our drawings were wrong we started taking measurements of every piece of equipment, electrical panel, piping, pump, or chemical treatment so we could produce a new drawing to work from.  We were able to accomplish that in about three hours and were on our way to a new design.  Part of our difficulty is getting a design, and me ordering the packaged treatment plant equipment in time to make one of the two barges that re-supply this village once the ice melts. 

This area is comprised of tundra marshland and the whole village uses wooded boardwalks to get from one building to another in summer as water is everywhere.  Moving heavy equipment and material from the barge landing into the village is hard during those months and sometimes not easy in winter when everything is frozen solid.

One would not think in a “normal” living environment in other places Outside that with the high water table it would be ‘normal’ to run the water and sewer lines above ground. 

Here you have to do that since buried pipe tends to ‘float’ up and out of the ground.  Another twist is the sewer system is not based on gravity flow but is on a vacuum system much like a commercial airplane only on a much larger scale.  The toilets are made by the same company as the airlines use so everything is sucked out of the homes and into the community system where it is pumped into holding tanks then pumped down into a wastewater lagoon past the edge of the village.

While we were in town several of the lines had frozen up and the technicians were using bullet heaters to thaw them so the system could be back up and running.  We assisted them and made several adjustments to the plant to help it operate more efficiently until someone could come out and train them on several things we found in our inspection.

During our time in the plant there was another member of our team who was going door to door to interview the locals in their needs and how we were doing providing the village clean drinking water and waste management.

By three in the afternoon we had completed the drawings, conceptual plan, equipment package, construction budget, and a rough time line for getting the work done keeping the existing plant operational during the installation of the new equipment providing a limited amount of down time to the system once we make the changeover connections.

I made my way on snow machine to the barge landing area by the river so I could scout out whether we could move the new water treatment equipment could be moved in fall once the package arrives before freeze up.  The landing is just past the four electrical wind generators which provides power to the Community lessening the cost of fuel powered electricity.  There is a big movement in rural Alaska for alternative energy sources using wind, geothermal, and water power and this community has been making its own electricity for about two years now.

There were also a flock of 30 ptarmigan standing along the edge of the river when I drove up on the machine and I tried to get a picture of them but most moved about 75 feet away and only a couple remained fairly close to the edge for me to snap a picture.  Their coloring and the white snow made for a difficult picture but if you look hard you can see them.

Walking back to the airport to meet our flight one of my co-workers commented that with the large group of people involved in this trip he did not expect to get much accomplished during the amount of time spent in the village.  Someone else chimed in that our group was the A-Team who could make things happen.  I would like to believe that we can make magic happen in making living in bush Alaska a healthy fulfilling lifestyle for those living as their ancestors have for centuries.

Our ride back to Kotzebue was in a Cessna Caravan, another workhorse airplane that is used to bring in supplies, people, or just about anything. 

It was starting to snow as the sun was going down around 6 pm for the 45 minute flight back to Kotz. 

It was quiet during that flight leg as everyone was tired as there were no breaks or stops in our working that day.  Everyone nibbled here and there on whatever they had brought with them as there are no restaurants within a hundred miles or so.

We landed and made our way into the terminal to catch our next flight to Anchorage with a stop in Nome first.  One of the guys came up with the idea that if we called a pizza place in Nome they could deliver two pizzas to the plane once we landed.  A couple of phone calls later and we were off to Nome with the high hopes of food awaiting us.  One of the Alaska stewardess’ talked with us trying to figure out what our group was doing in the bush communities.  Everyone is dressed in their Carharts (Alaska work clothes) and as I take off my jacket revealing my Hawaiian shirt everyone on the plane cracks up.  It was a fun flight after a long day.  The quick hop gave us time to get an orange juice or water from the cabin stewards before we landed.

Arriving in Nome the passengers deplaned and we were waiting for the cargo to be off loaded and the new passengers to board when the stewardess came up to me and asked, “This has to be your group, who ordered the pizza?”  One of the guys left the plane and made his way into the terminal to pick up the pizza and bring it back onboard so we could have a late in-flight dinner.  He was gone a long time as everyone boarded and prepared to takeoff.  Just before the plane was to depart he returned with the pizzas and told us the TSA agents were mad that someone delivered pizza to the plane.  They made him go into a room while they inspected the pizzas and did another search of his body even though he had not crossed pass the “secure” area of the terminal.  Just another TSA hassle but he returned with still warm pizza’s where the flight crew gave us napkins and drinks once we were airborne.  The pizza was excellent and filled our stomachs and there was still time to settle down in the darkened cabin to relax a bit before we arrived in Anchorage.

We landed just after 11:30 pm and the nine of us said our goodbyes and made our way to the parking lot realizing that it would only be a few hours once we drove home before we would be back at the office at seven am.  Not much sleep but a fulfilling day.

Ice