A Mini-PASS unit and explanatory posters are displayed on Aug. 10, 2021, at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium in Anchorage. ANTHC distributed hundreds of the units during the COVID-19 pandemic to homes in villages that lacked piped water. (Yereth Rosen / Alaska Beacon)
A key step to preventing the spread of diseases like COVID-19 or influenza is simple: washing hands. But lack of piped water in parts of rural Alaska has made that simple practice not so easy to carry out.
Now a technological innovation has boosted rural Alaskans’ ability to do that important disease-fighting task.
The Miniature Portable Alternative Sanitation System, or Mini-PASS, a portable water station that does not require connection to any piped water system, proved effective at helping people wash their hands properly, and there are signs that its use is fending off contagious diseases among children, according to a recently published study.
The Mini-PASS is a stripped-down version of the full Portable Alternative Sanitation System that was also designed by Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium and its partners.
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The full PASS units typically store 50 to 100 gallons of water, and the units include connections to septic tanks, allowing for flush toilets to take the place of “honey buckets,” the plastic-bag-lined buckets commonly used in rural Alaska areas lacking water and sewer systems. The Mini-PASS units lack those septic connections, and they typically allow for storage of 20 gallons of water. Storage tanks are placed above sinks, and used water drains into collection buckets.
The Mini-PASS units are much cheaper than full PASS systems, costing a little over $10,000 for construction and delivery, according to ANTHC. A full PASS system can cost about $50,000 per household, according to ANTHC. That sum is vastly lower than the cost of extending piped water and sanitation service, which can total $400,000 or more per household in parts of rural Alaska.
Simplicity had its virtues during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, there was urgency for distributing Mini-PASS units to several rural communities — places where people living in unpiped homes were hauling water, often in difficult circumstances, then using and reusing it in germ-spreading basins.
The consortium, with the help of partners, distributed hundreds of Mini-PASS units to rural households during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. At least 350 units had been distributed as of 2021, and more have gone out since then.
“The idea was people were not going to be reusing the water, that it was free flowing, that you’d wash your hands, and then it would go into the wastewater bucket, the gray water bucket,” said Laura Eichelberger, an ANTHC research consultant and co-author of the study.
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“And because the pandemic was this urgent situation of crisis, they needed to get as many of these units in as they possibly could. And so they took the idea of the PASS and just made it as simple and cheap as possible,” she said.
The recent study used interviews to measure the effectiveness of mini-PASS. In all, there were 163 interviews from 52 households.
Water use is considered an indicator of public health, and the Mini-PASS units led to an increase in water use that expanded over time, the results found. Average water use per person increased by 0.08 gallons per month in households that used the units, meaning that after a year, water use was up by 0.96 gallons a day per person, or 3.6 liters per day, the results found.
Additionally, people with Mini-PASS units reported that children 12 and under had fewer symptoms of contagious diseases.
There was a “statistically significant decrease in the reported symptoms, respiratory in particular, for households who were actively using the Mini-PASS as their primary hand- washing method, compared to those that were still using wash basins,” said Amanda Hansen, the study’s lead author and another ANTHC health researcher.
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Prior to the distribution of Mini-PASS units, water use in unpiped villages in Alaska averaged only 5.7 liters per person per day, according to a 2021 study by researchers at Canada’s McGill University. That was well below the World Health Organization standard of 20 liters per person per day, according to that study.
Parts of rural Alaska continue to face daunting challenges in securing adequate water and sanitation services. According to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, more than 30 communities were considered “unserved” as of 2020. The category applied when less than 55% of homes are served by piped, septic and well or covered haul systems.
Still, there has been significant progress in recent years. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the number of rural Alaska homes without water, sewer or both has decreased by a notable 70% over the past two decades.
Originally published by the Alaska Beacon, an independent, nonpartisan news organization that covers Alaska state government.
Last month, Alaska Attorney General Stephen J. Cox announced that his office entered into a settlement with a group of Swickard car dealerships, resolving false advertising allegations against the dealers. As part of the settlement, the dealers agree to pay a civil penalty of $800,000.
The Alaska AG alleged that the dealers engaged in bait and switch advertising by promoting vehicles that were not actually available for purchase in order to draw customers to its lots. The AG also alleged that the dealers refused to honor advertised prices, requiring customers to purchase expensive dealer add-ons.
In announcing the settlement, Cox said, “Car dealers don’t get to advertise one price and charge another—or advertise cars that aren’t really there. That’s a bait-and-switch, and it’s unlawful. Alaskans already face higher costs than most—this settlement holds Swickard accountable and reinforces that the price you see should be the price you pay.”
Interestingly, the consent decree includes a provision that says that if the dealers engage “in a reckless violation or persistent violations” of Alaska’s consumer protection laws in the future, the court may impose an additional penalty of up to $200,000.
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This enforcement action is yet another example of the heightened scrutiny that car dealer advertising is under right now. Earlier this month, the Federal Trade Commission settled a similar action. And, in March, the FTC sent warning letters to nearly 100 car dealers.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Palmer’s Colony High School Northern Knights Robotics won the First Robotics Competition (FRC) regional championship on April 4, becoming the first team from Alaska to win the title.
The Northern Knights’ business manager, sophomore Carter Fickes, said that the FRC is one of the most prestigious robotics competitions in the world.
“The game elements are a lot bigger,” he said.
“There’s a lot of more coding challenges as well, because you have what is called an autonomous period where your robot’s running strictly on code, and then you have a teleop period where it’s driver controlled.”
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According to Fickes, the regional competition in Minneapolis saw the team paired with and against groups from Minnesota, Illinois, the Czech Republic, Japan, and China.
Teams were required to make “alliances” with each other, before competing together in the quarterfinals.
“Being collaborative with other teams and being open to their strategy is great.” he said.
“We were telling them our main marketing strategy was ‘we’re flexible, and if you want us to do something, we can do it.’”
Fickes told Alaska’s News Source that the competition required teams to program and direct their robots to shoot balls towards targets in order to score points.
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The Northern Knights programmed their 85-pound robot to focus on defense, blocking shots from the opposing team.
“Our alliance partners had semi-automatic turrets that could shoot like hundreds of balls in a minute,” he said.
“We were blocking the other robots from getting on the other side and scoring fuel.”
Fickes said this was the first year that their team was selected to be a part of an alliance.
After the quarterfinals, the Northern Knights went on to dominate the rest of the competition.
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“We were untouched,” he said.
“We were outscoring them by 200 points, and then the finals matches, I think it ended up being like 400 to 200 or 300.”
By winning both the finals match, as well as the Rookie Team of the Year award, the Northern Knights earned themselves a ticket to the FRC Worlds Competition in Texas beginning on April 29.
“Our mentality is kind of like, ‘we’ve made it this far, so why not try our best?’” he said.
“If we don’t win the whole competition, it’s not the end of the world. A team from Alaska has never done this before, and if we like our goal is to win and to qualify and do good.”
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Unlike many other robotics teams across the country, Ficker said the Northern Knights are entirely funded through private donations.
“We built our robot in our team captain’s basement. He let us use his house, and we spent hours upon hours upon hours in his basement building and testing.”
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A U.S. Senate race in Alaska is turning into one of the most expensive in the state’s history as a Democrat tries to flip a seat held by two-term incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan.
The fundraising bonanza comes as the odds of Democrats taking control of the Senate in this year’s midterm elections appear to be improving, according to political analysts.
Democrat Mary Peltola, who held Alaska’s sole House seat from 2022 to 2025, raised almost $9 million in the first quarter of 2026, Politico reported. It’s the largest first-quarter stockpile in Alaska political history, according to her campaign.
“I’m so grateful for the support we’ve received from every single borough and census area across our state, and it’s that support that will bring us to victory this November,” Peltola said.
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GOP incumbent also has millions
Sullivan, who’s seeking a third term, brought in $2.1 million in the first quarter and has $7.5 million of cash on hand, Politico reported.
“This historic support sends a clear message: Alaskans know that Dan delivers,” Sullivan campaign spokesperson Nate Adams said in a statement.
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In 2020, Democrat Al Gross outspent Sullivan but still lost by 13 points.
Alaska is a heavily Republican state. President Donald Trump carried the state by 10 to 15 points in each of the last three elections.
However, Democrats are optimistic about a recent poll from Alaska Survey Research. The survey showed Peltola with a positive rating of 48.5%, compared to Sullivan’s 40.7%.
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Dozens of US Senate seats in play
Thirty-five U.S. Senate seats are up for grabs in November, with Republicans defending 22 and Democrats, 13.
With the GOP holding a current majority of 53-47, Democrats need to flip four seats to take control of the upper chamber for the remaining two years of Trump’s second term.
The Cook Political Report reported Monday that “the Senate battlefield is shifting in Democrats’ favor.” However, securing the magic number of 51 is still a “tall order.”
Cook rates the Peltola-Sullivan race as “leans Republican.” Eighteen other races are currently rated as either “likely Republican” or “solid Republican.”
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The nonpartisan newsletter shows three races in the “leans Democrat” category. One other is “likely Democrat,” and nine are listed as “solid Democrat.”
With Election Day more than six months away, three races — in Maine, Michigan and Ohio — are listed as toss-ups.
National Democrats see Peltola as a key to winning a majority in the Senate.
Politico said super PACs supporting Democrats have already spent more than $3 million in ad buys in Alaska, while the Republican’s Senate Leadership Fund has indicated it intends to spend $15 million on the race for Sullivan.
