HomeMy WebLinkAboutAttachment 5 - support letters“Protecting the natural
environment of the Tongass while
supporting the development of
sustainable communities in
Southeast Alaska –since 1967.”
Sitka Conservation Society
Box 6533
Sitka, Alaska 99835
(907) 747-7509
info@sitkawild.org
www.sitkawild.org
September 4, 2014
Dear Alaska Energy Authority,
We enthusiastically support the City and Borough of Sitka’s grant application for funding
to construct a heat pump at our wastewater treatment plant.
As a community, Sitka is not in a position to waste any resources. We are an island
community and almost everything we need has to be shipped in. Energy, in the form of oil,
becomes a huge expense.The City of Sitka along with community members, agencies, and
partner organizations, are looking for ways to develop renewable energy sources and energy
efficiency investments to lower our costs and dependence on imported resources.
City of Sitka staff has gone so far as to find way to utilize the heat energy present in
treated wastewater effluent. That valuable resource is currently discarded into Sitka Sound. The
way that we would use that energy is through heat pump technology. The City is proposing
using heat pumps to convert much of that wasted energy into building heat, displacing the need
to burn 14,000 gallons of fuel oil per year. The heat pumps will be powered by electricity,
utilizing a renewable energy source –hydropower.
We encourage the City to pursue this project whether it receives grant funding from AEA
or not. It just makes sense. But a project such as this –one that allows the City to replace a non-
renewable energy source with a renewable one –strikes me as the exact kind of project the
Renewable Energy Fund was created for: it will use revenue from non-renewable energy sources
to fund renewable energy investments that will provide for current and future generations of
Alaskans.
The proposal put for by the City of Sitka for the wastewater treatment plant is innovative,
creative and utilizes the best and most appropriate technology for heating. We hope that you will
consider this proposal and make the investment in this project.
Thank you,
Andrew Thoms
Executive Director
Sitka Conservation Society