D Summary

The Kenai River Baseline Water Quality Monitoring project is funded both direct as well as in-kind financial support from project partners¹.
Project costs include contractual laboratory expenses, research staff personnel time, equipment, and other smaller expense categories. Partners are invoiced on an annual basis.
While project support has remained mostly steady, inflation of the U.S. dollar since 2005 (56%) has reduced the purchasing power available to the project since 2005.
In order to continue Kenai River water quality monitoring efforts, the project must sustain necessary funding levels.
Download the Project Partner Update Letter Below

Download Kenai River Water Quality Monitoring Project Partner Request Letter

D.1 Inflation leads to declining project income

Since the year 2005, inflation of the US dollar has reduced it’s value by 56%². Figure D.1 plots this trend from 2005 - 2023.

Figure D.1: Inflation Adjusted Value of $1.00, Years 2005 - 2023. Data from https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/.

Download figure source data, Inflation History data of US Dollar 2005 - 2023

Adjusted for inflation, project income has seen a steady decline in purchasing power from 2005 - 2022. Figure D.2 displays inflation adjusted project income and expenses history.

Figure D.2: Project Income (Inflation Adjusted) and Expenses, 2005 - 2022

D.2 Income Detail

Project income history fluctuates annually as partner contributions vary. Figure D.3 below displays annual cash contributions by individual partner organizations. Most partner organizations have continued to contribute a constant annual amount once the original agreement was established.

D.2.1 Notes on income history

In 2022, the project received a lump sum contribution from Kenaitze Indian Tribe that had originally been intended to be dispersed annually over years 2018 - 2022. Similar levels of annual contribution are not anticipated for future years. Additionally, in 2023 the project received a contribution from Salamatof Tribe via it’s IGAP³ program. As of 2024, the IGAP program is no longer active with Salamatof Tribe, thus further cash contributions are not anticipated.

Figure D.3: Income by partner organization

With the atypical timing and receipt of funds from Kenaitze and Salamatof, the project saw increased income in 2022 and 2023; see Figure D.4. However as seen in Figure D.5, when adjusted for inflation, even these two high-income years are lower than typical total annual project income received through year 2014.

Figure D.4: Project income by partner organization

Figure D.5: Project income by partner organization, adjusted for inflation relative from 2005 - 2023

Figure D.6: Total annual project income, adjusted for inflation relative from 2005 - 2023. Accounting for inflation, year 2023 purchasing power is 31% lower (~$6,619 less) than year 2005.

E Expenses

E.1 Expenses History

Project expense trends from years 2005 - 2022 are detailed in figure Figure E.1 and source data is available in the link below the figure.

Figure E.1: Kenai River Baseline Water Quality Monitoring Expenses 2005 - 2022

Download Kenai River Baseline Water Quality Monitoring Project expense data 2005 - 2022

In general, laboratory analysis expenses and staff scientist time are the largest expense categories. In years where little to no staff time was is recorded for the project, staff were funded by similar related projects.

E.2 Projected 2025 Expenses

Projected 2025 income and expenses are detailed in this Google Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VbYnY4f8eyhQwbgrpnDrOTIJEsu7pkg_uMbVN5kecKA/edit?gid=1388741346#gid=1388741346
As of November 2024, a projected income gap of $20,045.84 exists for year 2025.

F Recommendations

Ensure that project income matches project needs
Project manager will continue to seek new sources of income and efficiency
Project partners may be asked to annually adjust contributions based on inflation

F.1 Source Data

All source data not linked at this page is available in the project GitHub repository at https://github.com/Kenai-Watershed-Forum/kenai-river-wqx in the following directories:

other/input/financial
other/output/financial