Anchorage Water & Wastewater updates: pump station rehabs, Eklutna upgrades and Girdwood inflow work

David Persinger, general manager for Anchorage Water & Wastewater (AWW), briefed the Assembly oversight committee on Aug. 1 about a slate of ongoing capital projects across Anchorage and Girdwood designed to replace aging equipment and reduce service risk.
Persinger said the Eklutna water treatment facility is undergoing an approximately $8 million electrical replacement project to modernize systems installed in the 1980s. Pump Station 2 — the largest pump station near Westchester Lagoon — is receiving a full rehabilitation, including new pumps, mechanical and electrical systems and SCADA upgrades in a roughly $20 million project. Pump Station 12 is getting a similar but smaller rehabilitation.
A pipe-bursting replacement on Bridle (approximately $5 million) is nearly complete; the method bursts old pipe and pulls new pipe through the same corridor to reduce street disruption. The King Street Operations and Maintenance fueling system is being upgraded (about $8 million) to improve fleet fueling and emergency fuel staging.
In Girdwood, Persinger described an ongoing inflow and infiltration reduction program that began in the early 2000s to address frost-susceptible soils and groundwater that cause manhole failures and lateral separations; a small intertie project across the Alyeska Highway at Donner was also completed to improve redundancy.
When asked about funding, Persinger said most AWW capital projects are financed through state loan programs — the Alaska Clean Water Fund or the Alaska Drinking Water Fund (SRF loans) — generally at low interest (staff estimated around 4%). He said the utility is one of the largest SRF borrowers in the state.
No Assembly votes were taken; staff presented these items as informational updates and offered to provide detailed financial tables in follow-up materials.