The municipality of Anchorage, Alaska has a population of approximately 260,000 people, 2,100 moose, 250 black bears, 60 brown bears, and 59,000 dogs. Anchorage has septic and sewage systems that handle human waste and nature seems to keep up with the moose and bears. What hasn't been addressed is the estimated 22 tons of dog waste deposited each and every day. Individual yard owners pick up some of this waste, but a significant amount is concentrated along trails, roads and public lands. There are 8 creeks and 3 lakes in the municipality that are on the state 303d list for fecal matter pollution. In an effort at public education on this issue, a group of agencies partnered in a three-step program. An organizing committee was formed including the UAF Cooperative Extension Service, Anchorage Waterways Council, the Municipality of Anchorage, the State of Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, and the US Bureau of Land Management. The first phase was an awareness program. A series of posters highlighting obvious public personalities such as Olympic skiers and hockey stars and personnel associated with dogs such as police K9 officers and firemen, all with their dogs was produced (see photos).

The second phase was putting on an event that demonstrated the need for and results of a "Scoop the Poop" program. The event was the clean-up of the trail system on the BLM land tract within the municipality. This is an area with hiking and skiing trails heavily used by the public year round. An educational "Science Center" is also located at the site. Approximately 50 people showed up for this event and collected over 1,200 pounds of poop. The third phase was the installation of sponsored poop stations at trailheads and parks in the municipality. Over 30 stations have been sponsored and constructed within the municipality at this time. They include signage, a poop bag dispenser and a trash can to deposit the bags. Most of the sites are located so the municipality crews can collect the waste. One unforseen problem is that at some sites the trash cans will need to be bear proofed.

Pacific Northwest Regional Water Quality Coordination Project Partners Land Grant Universities Alaska Cooperative Extension Service Contact Fred Sorensen: 907-786-6311 http://www.uaf.edu/ces/water/ University Publications: http://www.alaska.edu/uaf/ces/publications/ Idaho University of Idaho Cooperative Extension System Contact Bob Mahler: 208-885-7025 http://www.uidaho.edu/wq/wqhome.html University Publications: http://info.ag.uidaho.edu/Catalog/catalog.html Oregon Oregon State University Extension Service Contact Mike Gamroth: 541-737-3316 http://extension.oregonstate.edu/ University Publications: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/ Washington Washington State University WSU Extension Contact Bob Simmons: 360-427-9670 ext. 690 http://wawater.wsu.edu/ University Publications: http://pubs.wsu.edu/ Northwest Indian College Contact Dan Burns: 360-392-4328 dburns@nwic.edu or http://www.nwic.edu/ Water Resource Research Institutes Water and Environmental Research Center (Alaska) http://www.uaf.edu/water/ Idaho Water Resources Research Institute http://www.boise.uidaho.edu/ Institute for Water and Watersheds (Oregon) http://water.oregonstate.edu/ State of Washington Water Research Center http://www.swwrc.wsu.edu/ Environmental Protection Agency EPA, Region 10 The Pacific Northwest http://www.epa.gov/r10earth/ Office of Research and Development, Corvallis Laboratory http://www.epa.gov/wed/ For more information contact Jan Seago at 206-553-0038 or seago.jan@epa.gov
	The Project Land Grant Universities, Water Research Institutes and EPA Region 10 have formed a partnership to provide research and education to communities about protecting or restoring the quality of water resources. This partnership is being supported in part by the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Our Goal and Approach The goal of this Project is to provide leadership for water resources research, education and outreach to help people, industry and governments to prevent and solve current and emerging water quality and quantity problems. The approach to achieving this goal is for the Partners to develop a coordinated regional water quality effort based on, and strengthening, individual state programs. Our Strengths The Project promotes regional collaboration by acknowledging existing programs and successful efforts; assessing program gaps; identifying potential issues for cross-agency and private sector collaboration; and developing a clearinghouse of expertise and programs. In addition, the Project establishes or enhances partnerships with federal, state and local environmental and water resource management agencies, such as by placing a University Liaison within the offices of EPA Region 10.
	To learn more about Alaska's "Scoop the Poop" program, contact Fred Sorensen at dffes@uaa.alaska.edu, 907-786-6311, or visit the Anchorage Waterways Council web site at http://www.anchoragecreeks.org/.
	National Water Quality Program Areas The four land grant universities in the Pacific Northwest have aligned our water resource extension and research efforts with eight themes of the USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Animal Waste Management Drinking Water and Human Health Environmental Restoration Nutrient and Pesticide Management Pollution Assessment and Prevention Watershed Management Water Conservation and Agricultural Water Management Water Policy and Economics
	NIFA is the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, a sub-agency of the United States Department of Agriculture, and is the federal partner in this water quality program.

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HOME | About | Calendar | Contacts | Links | PNW Water Updates | Sitemap NIFA National Water Quality Program This material is based upon work supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under Agreement No. 2008-51130-04734. all external sites will open in a new browser window page last modified on August 27, 2006