The City and Borough of Sitka welcomes proposals from companies or individuals who are interested in bulk fresh water export. We currently have 17 million gallons a day (MGD) available for sale directly sourced from the Blue Lake reservoir, a water source within Sitka that is fed by snowmelt, glacier, and rain precipitation. A 36-inch diameter raw water pipeline is complete and ready to load water right on our waterfront.

To date, the municipality has a contract with one bulk water exporter, True Alaska Bottling Company (TAB). This agreement gives TAB two years to purchase the first 20 million gallons (MG) of water. TAB has until December 2008 to take delivery of and export this volume of water. Assuming TAB meets that goal, they must move at least 20 MG per year each subsequent year to retain the contract. The contract is modeled with the “elastic guarantee” whereby Sitka agrees to increase the amount of water available as TAB’s bulk water business grows; and in the event TAB’s business contracts, Sitka’s guarantee shrinks accordingly.The sale price of the water is $0.01 per gallon. The price is held constant until July 1, 2016 at which time a CPI adjustment factor is applied each year.

Under the TAB bulk water contract the City is obligated to refer all third party inquiries for bulk water to TAB for servicing. If the third party and TAB are unable to come to terms within 90 days, the third party is free to negotiate directly with the City and Borough of Sitka.

TAB also operates a water bottling facility in the Sawmill Cove Industrial Park where they own a 100,000 square foot building and 3 acres of land. The building was renovated and set up as a high-speed, automated bottling plant in 1999. The plant is capable of increasing its line operations three times within the current facilities.

If you want to learn more about exporting raw bulk water from Sitka, Alaska, call or email the Sawmill Cove Executive Director: