Water Pooling Around Houses and Flooding Ice Cellars

Lloyd K. Tagarook writes:

Permafrost is melting in the village, and its making houses tilt. There are rows of houses in town that are right down to the ground. Ice cellars are filling with water. They hold up better when there is a small covering built above them, with an open window facing the ocean- that lets the cold air in. The road is filling with potholes, and the houses have little ponds under them. Post created by Erica Mitchell on behalf of Lloyd K. Tagarook

Erica Mitchell writes:

Rick Thoman, the Climate Science and Services Manager for the National Weather Service, contributed to an Arctic Sounder article discussing winter temperature trends in northern Alaska. He writes that the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 winters have been the warmest on record, by far. As a result, the active permafrost layer - or the layer that thaws and re-freezes- is becoming deeper, reaching depths that previously stayed frozen year-round. This change in permafrost is impacting infrastructure - homes and ice cellars included. In addition to warming winters, precipitation levels in most regions of Alaska were above normal.

In April of 2017, the Arctic Sounder reported on the integration of traditional designs and modern technology to create a climate-adapted ice cellar. The article, titled "After the last sigluaq", describes the issues community members in Kaktovik experienced as permafrost began to thaw, and ice cellars began to flood, sometimes spoiling the meat stored inside. The Kaktovik Community Foundation, in partnership with Marnie Issacs, created a test cellar using thermosyphon technology. According to the article, "thermosyphons are refrigeration devices. They typically look like long tubes and they function by transferring heat from the surrounding permafrost out to the air above, thereby cooling the ground they are placed in. They can help maintain stable temperatures in sensitive environments." Success of the ice cellar depends on the type of soil it is constructed in, and depends on regular maintenance and monitoring. Residents of Kaktovik are waiting to see how well the new ice cellar design preserves harvested whale meat, but are willing to share their design and experience to anyone who is interested. A presentation with project highlights, titled " Kaktovik Community Foundation Ice Cellar Presentation - February 2017" is attached to this post.

This observation was sent to the North Slope Borough Housing Solutions Group for more information on how to address the impacts to housing from permafrost thaw.

Mike Brubaker writes: In 2008 ANTHC began to perform assessments of climate change impacts in Arctic communities. One of the big topics was thawing ice cellars, which we first documented in Russia, but later in other communities as well. We documented failing cellars in Kivalina, Point Hope, Wainwright, Barrow, Kaktovik, Pt. Lay, Nuiqsut and in Lavrentia and Lorino in Chukotka Province of Russia. These ice cellars that were thawing, flooding, eroding, and collapsing. Not all cellars were failing in every community, but many based on location, depth, design or maintenance practices were more vulnerable then others. We documented many of these and in some cases worked with the Permafrost Laboratory at UAF, to install data loggers and see how the temperatures and other conditions were changing, inside the cellars and outside. Some cellars were beyond hope, either eroding into the sea or so flooded and eroded that they were abandoned. Others were have occasional problems but owners were able to build cover, sheds, or improve ventilation to help keep them cold and dry. It is important to note that as well as locations for storage of food, residents often store ice used for drinking water in these cellars. The Kaktovik project mentioned above is an effort to develop a new type of cellar that is more resilient to changing conditions. For more information on assessment of ice cellars you can contact us at the Center for Climate and Health. We published two bulletins on the topic in 2009; Climate Change Effects on Traditional Inupiat Food Cellars and Climate Change Effects on Traditional Food Cellars in Barrow, Alaska. See also the YouTube video Thawing: Climate Change & Traditional Storage Cellars about ice cellars in Point Hope Alaska.

Resources:

In 2014, Mike Brubaker from the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium traveled to Wainwright to help produce an assessment of climate-related change in the community. The report documents a variety of impacts, including extreme weather, changes to the ice and coast, and the preservation of ice cellars, subsistence practice, and community infrastructure. Read the full Climate Change in Wainwright report.