Photos: Hooper Bay water and sewer project

ExpandAutoplay

Image 1 of 34

Walter Carl stomps on the bottom of a honey bucket to loosen the plastic bag of human waste at the landfill in Hooper Bay, AK on Monday, February 9, 2015. There is an ongoing project to bring the whole village running water and flush toilets.

On a February day with the temperature hovering around zero, with the wind howling and gusts so strong it's hard to stand, Walter Carl rides a four-wheeler to the town landfill carting frozen 5-gallon buckets of human waste.

The 18-year-old stomps on the outside of the buckets to loosen the plastic bags inside, then dumps them among a mess of bathroom waste and garbage on the edge of one of Alaska's largest villages.

They call it "throwing the honey bucket." In a home bustling with 15 family members, it's a frequent chore, Carl said.

It's how people have disposed of sewage here for decades. But now this basic element of human life is being redefined on the edge of the Bering Sea, in one of the country's harshest construction environments. Street by street and home by home, much of Hooper Bay slowly is being retooled into the modern era with running water and flush toilets, with sinks and showers and, in some homes, even washers and dryers.

Read more: For one Western Alaska village, honey buckets are gradually going away