DEC to monitor Chukchi water quality

The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation will receive $2.25 million in federal revenue sharing to monitor water quality off northwest Alaska.

The Minerals Management Service grant comes from its Coastal Impact Assessment Program.

The grant will be used to expand the Alaska Monitoring and Assessment Program, now in Southcentral and southeast Alaska waters, to part of the Chukchi Sea. The coastline from Point Hope to Point Barrow will be studied.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski announced the grant and said it’s essential to update information about coastal areas to make sound policy decisions.

This project uses water-sampling techniques to estimate and monitor water quality.

—The Associated Press