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A Commionent to Alaskans Rural Strategy 



ACTION STRATEGY: 



New technology- research & development projects. 



The Department proposes active investigation and promotion of innovative and alterative 

 technology for the delivery of rural sanitation services. Demographic, economic, and 

 climatic conditions make sanitation construction and operation in rural Alaska among the 

 most expensive and technically challenging in the nation. A research and development 

 program needs to be instituted to develop alternatives to expensive and complex piped 

 systems capable of providing an equal level of service. 



Research and development activities should represent a community. State, federal. 

 University and private sector cooperative effort both in funding and design. A multi- 

 tiered approach to investigating and developing new sanitation technologies is suggested. 



As the first step in this cooperative effort, the Department advocates sponsoring annual 

 technology seminars where promoters of innovative and alternative sanitation technolo- 

 gies can present their concepts to the engineering community. This would encourage new 

 ideas from manufacturers and designers and would introduce sanitation engineers to 

 nontraditional technologies. 



It is suggested that the Interagency Task Force include a research and development 

 subcomminee to review new technologies including those presented during annual 

 technology seminars to determine which merit further study . 



As funding allows, those technologies recommended by the subcommittee as showing 

 the most promise would undergo field testing which would consist of three phases. The 

 first phase would include targeting a receptive village to host the demonstration project, 

 a project inception briefing during a council meeting of the hosting community, and (if 

 necessary) fabrication of prototype units. During phase two, prototypes would be 

 installed in the homes of four to ten volunteer families. Phase 3 would consist of project 

 evaluation. If the project is a success and well received by the village, expansion of the 

 technology into the rest of the community would be recommended through the capital 

 budget process. 



This phased approach would allow communities to participate in and assess each step 

 of a demonstration project before continuing on to the next phase. Further, it would allow 

 communities to observe and evaluate technologies prior to deciding whether to adopt the 

 new technology on a community-wide basis. 



All studies, evaluations, and reports regarding the successes or failures of new sanitation 

 technologies in village Alaska would be made available to interested parties. 



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