The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded a $15 million grant to the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska to expand composting operations in five Southeast Alaska communities — and Wrangell could be one of them.
The intent of the grant is to reduce organic waste in landfills, reduce greenhouse gas methane emissions generated from decaying garbage and promote local food production, said Brandi Tolsma, an environmental specialist with Tlingit & Haida in Juneau.
The tribal council plans to expand its composting operations in Juneau and four other Southeast communities.
Composting is a natural process of recycling food scraps, leaves and other organic material into fertilizer to enrich soil and plants.
“Right now, we have yet to select the communities,” Raymond Paddock III, Tlingit & Haida’s environmental director, said Sept. 9. “The Wrangell Community Association has expressed interest.”
Tlingit & Haida plans to decide on the communities later this fall, Tolsma said. “We want buy-in from the communities.”
A small-scale, cold-composting operation is available at the Wrangell community garden. The WCA is waiting for a replacement part for its larger equipment to resume its compost pickup program, said Alex Angerman, Tl'átk Earth Branch coordinator for WCA.
“We were interested in expanding that program, with approval from the tribal council, so we could strengthen the organic waste mitigation from our waste stream. It’s just an idea at the moment, we have not expanded on it or brought it to council’s attention yet,” she said Sept. 11.
In its application for the competitive EPA grant, Tlingit & Haida said increased composting will help communities reduce the expense of shipping trash to out-of-state landfills and cut fuel use in handling the waste, while also creating training and job opportunities for community members.
In addition to installing new or expanded composting equipment, the five-year federal funding program will pay for staff and training to manage the operations, Tolsma said.
That could include “workshops and training sessions on proper composting techniques for community members,” according to Tlingit & Haida’s application.
The intent is to “work with local tribes to empower them to take charge and take ownership” of the composting program in their community, Tolsma said.
Depending on what each tribe wants for their community, that could include using the compost in a greenhouse, Paddock said.
“We know right now that there is not a big market out there in Southeast for compost,” but developing and promoting uses for the fertilizer could help ensure that the operations are economically sustainable after the federal money runs out, he said.
Tlingit & Haida already is involved in a composting and food sovereignty project in Juneau, which includes sites such as the Taay Hít greenhouse built in 2021.
The grant was announced Sept. 5. The funding is part of $78 million in climate pollution reduction Grants awarded to tribes in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, according to an EPA statement.
Other major Alaska grants include $24.2 million to the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium to install two wind turbines and wind-to-heat boiler on the Toksook Bay grid in Southwest Alaska, and $14.8 million to the Aleut Community of Saint Paul Island for three new wind turbines and upgrading three existing ones.
The Juneau Empire contributed reporting for this story.
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