Procuring water in the Arctic has always been a problem. Only 40 years ago in order to get water in winter, ice blocks had to be cut from freshwater lakes, hauled by dog team and stacked next to the house until they were needed. In summer, the water itself had to be hauled over the spongy, uneven tundra.

In 1966, Barrow resident John Nusinginya devised a clever solution to the problem. He installed a 21,000 gallon aboveground plastic swimming pool in his backyard, pumping water from a lake four miles away. He then delivered water to homes using small water vehicles. Because water could not be pumped during the winter, he filled big plastic bags with water, froze them and delivered them during the winter.

The first commercial water companies pumped water from “Freshwater Lake” into tank trucks. During much of the year, this involved drilling through ice, pumping out a slushy semi-liquid, and delivering it to household storage containers that varied in size form a large insulated tank to a plastic garbage can.

Today, water is pumped from “Isatkoak Reservoir” into BUECI’s water treatment plant. The water is then treated to remove minerals, solids, and potentially pathogenic bacteria using a state of the art Microfiltration/Nanofiltration System. Isatkoak reservoir started as a tidal lagoon and was isolated from the ocean in the early 1970s. The reservoirs’ salt content has since been lowered below the regulatory maximum by pumping salt water out of the reservoir in the winter, then recharging it with fresh water in the spring and summer.

BUECI produced over 68 million gallons of treated water in 2004 with an average of 135 gallons per minute. The Coop has a water storage capacity of 1.5 million gallons, and can process up to 345,000 gallons a day (240 gallons per minute).