The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Anchorage says it’s only the third time in the past 25 to 30 years that a formal intent to pursue the death penalty has been filed in an Alaska case.
According to the indictment against him, 32-year-old John Pearl Smith II committed several drug robberies that culminated in the fatal shootings of Wasilla residents 43-year-old Ben Gross and 30-year-old Crystal Denardi in June of 2016.
Prosecutors say Alaska State Troopers found Gross and Denardi dead in a burning home, along with another injured man. Smith was a suspect from the beginning and was arrested after two weeks of intense surveillance.
The indictment includes charges of using a firearm in a murder, burglary and attempted drug possession.
Prosecutors announced Tuesday that if Smith is convicted they will pursue the death penalty. The intent to seek the death penalty is a formal declaration by the U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, made Monday following a lengthy review by Department of Justice officials in Washington, D.C.
The last Alaska case in which the Department of Justice sought the death penalty was in 2008, against Joshua Wade, who ultimately admitted to two murders in a deal that allowed him to avoid the possibility of execution. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the only other Alaska case in modern memory seeking the death penalty was in the 1990s.
Capital punishment is not an option under the state’s judicial system, and the last time someone was legally executed for a crime in Alaska was prior to statehood.
Alaska Gov. Bill Walker listens to a question from KTOO and Alaska Public Media reporter Andrew Kitchenman in his Capitol office in Juneau on Tuesday. Walker joined a bipartisan group of governors asking the Trump administration to reverse its position of not defending protections for those with pre-existing conditions in the individual health insurance market. (Photo by Jeremy Hsieh/KTOO)
Americans with pre-existing medical conditions are protected under the current federal law in buying individual health insurance. But President Donald Trump’s administration says the protection included in the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. Alaska Gov. Bill Walker joined a bipartisan group of eight other governors in support of continuing the protection.
Walker, an independent, has been working with the governors’ group over the past year on health care issues.
The Trump administration said on June 7 that it wouldn’t defend protections for people who have pre-existing medical conditions. Up to half of Americans have these conditions, such high blood pressure and high cholesterol. On Monday, the group called on the administration to work with the states and Congress on a solution.
“When we see that this is not being defended by the administration, it’s appropriate for us to comment and express our desire that this be taken seriously,” Walker said.
Before the Affordable Care Act, insurers could charge more from or deny coverage to people who were already sick. The law stopped that. It required all Americans to buy insurance. That’s because there was a danger of having those who were likely to need medical care disproportionately buy insurance. Congress eliminated a tax penalty for not being insured in a law passed last year. Texas and 19 other states sued to eliminate other provisions of the ACA, including the protection for those with pre-existing conditions.
The federal Justice Department decided against defending that provision. If the courts agree to eliminate it, Walker said he’d be concerned about the effect on Alaskans.
The governor linked his position with his broader support for expanding access to medical coverage.
“There are folks who will be without coverage,” Walker said. “And I think that’s why I accepted the Medicaid expansion. It has brought coverage to over 40,000 Alaskans.”
The bipartisan governors’ group was last in the news in February, when it first called on Congress and the administration to work on a health care solution that crosses party lines. They issued a blueprint that called for market stability, innovation and competition.
Walker said the group has gotten attention in Washington, D.C.
“The Congress and the administration were both very appreciative of the effort that we put forth to bring the governors together on a bipartisan basis,” Walker said, later adding: “At the end of the day, the governors have to deal with the health care issue, so we said, ‘Let us be at the table.’”
The statement said everyone in the country deserves access to affordable, quality health insurance. The governors said the administration decision to no longer defend the provision protecting those with pre-existing conditions is “disappointing” and adds uncertainty and higher costs.
The governors asked the administration to reverse its decision.
The other governors were Republicans John Kasich of Ohio, Brian Sandoval of Nevada and Larry Hogan of Maryland, as well as Democrats John Hickenlooper of Colorado, Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania, Roy Cooper of North Carolina, Steve Bullock of Montana and Jay Inslee of Washington.
Since last week, processors have been waiting to find out whether secondary processing of Alaska fish will be subject to a new 25 percent tariff, which China announced Friday in retaliation to American tariffs on Chinese goods.
The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute says, as far as they can tell, the answer is no.
“Our information from our office in China and from our trade partners in China is that this new 25 percent tariff will not be applied to seafood that is processed in China for re-export,” Alexa Tonkovich, Executive Director of ASMI, said.
Tonkovich adds that the logistics of how these tariffs will be applied are still being worked out, and ASMI is monitoring the situation as it evolves.
Alaska seafood processors often head and gut fish then send it to China for secondary processing and it is exported to other countries from there.
Kodiak processors have told KMXT that they have product in China, on the way to China, and product loaded into frozen containers that they have been holding in Kodiak that they want to send to China for reprocessing.
A delegation from China is scheduled to visit Alaska in July.
ASMI will host the group, which plans to tour fish processing plants in Kodiak and Larsen Bay. The visit comes on the heels of Governor Bill Walker’s trade mission to China.
China is the largest export market for Alaska seafood and a major reprocessing location.
Responders from Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the North Slope Borough and BP Exploration Alaska have been established to respond to natural gas and crude oil discharge near Prudhoe Bay. (Photo courtesy EPA)
Companies drilling oil and gas wells in Alaska will now have to dig deep enough to avoid problems stemming from thawing permafrost.
Alaska’s Oil and Gas Conservation Commission announced a regulation change on June 19 that requires companies to set surface casings for wells below the base of the permafrost.
The surface casing is basically a pipe that protects the well from outside contaminants and keeps the sides of the well from caving in.
The change in regulation comes after a BP well failed last year, and leaked oil and gas on the North Slope. The company blamed the spill on a piece of the casing that buckled after thawing permafrost put uneven pressure on it.
Cathy Foerster sits on the conservation commission. She said BP has already shut-in the wells that have the flawed design. So, she doesn’t think companies operating in Alaska will have to spend any money to comply with the new regulations.
“Nobody is going to do anything differently than they’re already doing it,” Foerster said. “The regulation change was put in there for the new guys. When you come up here, if you’re going to drill a well, you have to drill it this way. The people who have been up here have learned that and they’re doing it. But, welcome to Alaska. Set it below the permafrost. ”
The new regulation will go into effect on July 18.
Juneau’s current electricity rates were calculated using the old, higher tax rate, and state lawyers and ALE&P agree it should be adjusted.
“Our electric rates are determined by the cost to provide power to our communities,” AEL&P spokeswoman Debbie Driscoll said. When costs rise, she explained, the power company applies to state regulators for permission to raise rates accordingly. “Likewise, if we have a significant decrease in our costs, then that gets passed through to customers.”
Beginning Aug. 1, electricity rates will fall by 6.73 percent, following an agreement reached by AEL&P and the state’s Regulatory Affairs and Public Advocacy section of the state Department of Law.
Regulators have until July 15 to approve the agreement.
The cut will be retroactive, which means ratepayers should receive a rebate for power purchased between January and the end of July.
The company says households using an average of 750 kilowatt hours per month can expect about $45 back in rebates.
The second man was injured Wednesday as a group searched for the missing hiker, police said.
Searchers found the body of Michael Soltis, 44, on a trail Wednesday near the end of Hiland Road in Eagle River, police spokesman M.J. Thim said.
“We’ve got multiple officers that are protecting the body from the bear, so we can safely remove the victim and return him to his family,” Thim said midday Wednesday.
In a Facebook post, a neighbor wrote that Soltis was due to be married and had a child on the way.
Soltis’s vehicle was found at his house near Mile 8 on Hiland Road. An avid hiker who regularly went out along, friends and family assumed he was out on an area trail.
Soltis was reported missing Tuesday. Police and volunteers searched the area through the night and into Wednesday morning, using information from Soltis’s cellphone. An Alaska State Trooper helicopter also joined the search Wednesday.
That’s when, according to police, the same brown bear attacked a man in the search party. That victim has not been publicly identified. He was rushed to a hospital with serious injuries to his leg, but is expected to survive, police said.
Thim said the bear likely attacked the second time because the volunteer searchers had approached Soltis’s remains.
“The brown bear was protecting the body for themselves,” said Thim, adding that the officers surrounding the body Wednesday were armed with rifles.
Thim said that as of midday Wednesday it is unclear if the bear will be killed as a result of the attacks but said that officers are ready to defend themselves, given the animal’s apparently aggressive behavior.
The attacks prompted a warning from Anchorage police to stay away from the end of Hiland Road.
Alaska Public Media’s Emily Russell contributed reporting to this story.
Governor Walkers looks out over Sitka Sound, as trollers pass by calling for him to not sign a Pacific Salmon Treaty that would further cut Alaska’s allocation. The salmon fleet organized a boat parade and rally to send that message. (Emily Kwong/KCAW)
Sitka’s salmon fishermen are worried about the state’s strategy for renegotiating the Pacific Salmon Treaty. That’s the document between the United States and Canada that allocates the king salmon harvest across borders and expires at the end of the year. The fleet took to the seas yesterday to send Governor Bill Walker a strong message not to sign “a bad treaty.”
Governor Bill Walker’s agenda in Sitka was pretty straightforward: meet with the mayor, speak at a conference, hold a campaign rally. He expected that. What he wasn’t expecting, was two dozen fishing vessels are parading along Sitka Sound on the blazing, sunny day.
They were blaring boat horns and shooting off fireworks. Perched on the bow, troller Cavan Pfeiffer had an orange traffic cone against his mouth, a makeshift megaphone.
“Governor Walker! We need you! Stand up,” Pfeiffer yelled.
Salmon fisherman are worried the Governor will agree to a Pacific Salmon Treaty that deepens cuts to Alaska’s king salmon fishery.
“It’s a tough time for trollers,” Eric Jordan said, standing with a group of conservationists and fisherman to greet the Governor’s vehicle. “There are things going on out here in the ocean. I fished all morning, got up at 3 a.m. in the morning and was out there in the fog and stuff for one fish.”
Aboard F/V Sword, troller Caven Pfeiffer used a traffic cone to amplify his voice. He shouted, “Governor Walker! We need you! Don’t forget about Southeast.” Another troller simply shouted, “This treaty is killing us Governor.” (Emily Kwong/KCAW)
King salmon populations are crashing across Alaska and no one knows why for sure. In response, the Board of Fish passed a conservation plan for Southeast in January and limited fishing at certain rivers. While Jordan supports those measures, he said he and other trollers cannot afford to lose more fish.
“We’re willing to make the sacrifices written into the treaty. But we’re not willing to just arbitrarily have our share reduced,” Jordan said.
Alaska’s negotiation team does not consider a reduction arbitrary. ADF&G Deputy Commissioner Charlie Swanton told trollers and processors at a Chinook Symposium in Sitka last month that the proposed cuts were carefully negotiated with Canada, as part of a strategy to protect endangered stocks in Washington state’s Puget Sound — and to avert a potential federal takeover of the fishery under the Endangered Species Act.
While Sitka trollers are on board with taking their share of cuts to protect fish runs in this region, they’re tired of taking the fall for problems elsewhere. The Sitka Conservation Society’s Heather Bauscher said the state needs to prioritize Alaskan interests. “Where are the positives? What are the things that are being done to support this region?,” she asked.
After arriving by car, Walker took in the whole scene. He waved to the vessels, listening to the words being shouted from the decks. He stood in the street and spoke with the group assembled.
“We’re going to try to get the best deal that’s available,” Walker told the group. “I’m known for doing bold things and so I’m not a very good follower of this is the way we’ve done it in the past necessarily.”
Walker did not elaborate on what that meant. He said he’s keeping an open mind on the Pacific Salmon Treaty as treaty negotiations are still ongoing.
“Well, I have nothing to sign at this point. What I like to do before I make any decisions on anything is I like to hear from all different sides of it. So, that’s the beauty of being in Sitka today and the graciousness of those who have come out to express their opinion. I celebrate that,” Walker said.
An aerial photo taken Tuesday of the Louise Creek Coal Seam 2018 Fire about 5 miles northeast of Healy. (Teo Fusco/Alaska Division of Forestry)
State Forestry firefighters are working to contain a fast-growing wildfire near Healy that was ignited by two smoldering fires burning in coal deposits at the surface that merged together. Forestry spokesman Tim Mowry says the fire was spotted yesterday, when it has burned only about five acres.
“Then last night, winds picked up down in that neck o’ the woods, and the fire got very active and grew to 600 to 1,000 acres at around 9, 10 o’clock at night,” Mowry said.
Mowry says the Louise Creek Coal Seam 2018 fire is now estimated at 1,800 acres. He says it’s burning in an area east of the Nenana River that had already burned over several years ago. At that time, crews brought in bulldozers that cut a fireline – or in this case a dozer line – around the area. But he says vegetation has regrown in the area, providing fuel for the wildfire.
“That dozer line is somewhat overgrown,” Mowry said. “So what we’re doing today is we’re getting some dozers down there on the scene and we’re going to rework that dozer line to make sure that fire stays east of that dozer line.”
Mowry says Forestry brought in personnel and equipment last night when winds whipped up the fire. He says more is now on the way today.
“We’ve got one crew on site, the UAF Type 2 crew, and a Type 2 initial attack crew, the Gannet Glacier crew, coming up from Palmer to tie-in with them. And then we also have multiple aircraft – two water-scooping aircraft and a helicopter equipped with a bucket that’ll be dropping water along that dozer line,” Mowry said.
Mowry says there’s no estimate yet on how much of the fire is contained and when it will be contained. He says there aren’t any homes or other developed property near the fire. So he says Forestry plans to keep the fire contained within the dozer line and let it burn out.
“We typically don’t go in and take action on these fires on the ground, because it’s dangerous,” Mowry said. “So typically it’s more monitoring from the air and taking action from the air and doing things like burnout operations along an existing firebreak.”
Mowry says coal-seam fires are fairly common in that area, where Usibelli Coal Mine operates. He says the fires present a hazard to firefighters, because they could be killed if they fall into a burning or smoldering coal-seam. And he says the smoke can hazardous.
Standing water and a mound of dirt on a section of trench are shown in this photo, which was included in a lawsuit filed by Quintillion Networks against Bortek, a GCI Liberty subsidiary, and its subcontractor Utility Technologies Inc.
Melting permafrost is creating a muddy mess in Alaska’s Arctic after two competing broadband projects dug trenches alongside the Dalton Highway for their separate fiber optic cables.
The telecommunications competitors leading those projects — Quintillion Networks and a subsidiary of GCI Liberty — are now embroiled in a legal dispute over who is to blame.
At the same time, state officials are still trying to sort out the scope of a problem that could threaten the only haul road to the oil fields at Prudhoe Bay, as well as dozens of streams along the way.
The two-lane gravel highway to the North Slope can see a couple hundred vehicles a day, between semi-trucks, tourist buses and others. The Dalton runs through forested, mountainous and tundra-covered terrain, and a lot of it sits atop permafrost.
If the permafrost stays frozen, the ground under the roadway stays stable. But in some spots right next to the highway, it’s not. That’s because if you remove the topsoil and vegetation that insulates the icy soil in summer, there’s a good chance it’s going to melt and keep melting.
State officials say that’s what happened after the trench-digging, and they’re worried it could spread.
“We work really hard to make sure that the frozen ground underneath those embankments stays frozen,” state Transportation Commissioner Marc Luiken said.
The Department of Transportation is one of three agencies to permit subsidiaries or subcontractors of Quintillion and GCI to dig trenches in its right of way, along with the Department of Environmental Conservation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
It’s possible the trench-related melting will threaten the highway, Luiken said.
“You know, that is the primary supply route up for that pretty significant industry up there,” Luiken said.
Luiken means, of course, the oil industry. But another industry has staked its claim in the Arctic.
Prospectors like GCI and Quintillion want to tap into a market that’s thirsty for cheaper and more reliable internet and phone service by using those fiber optic cables alongside the Dalton Highway to connect some of Alaska’s farthest-flung communities to the rest of the state’s networks. They’ll also hook up to a sub-sea cable linking Asia, North America and Europe, another massive and highly touted project Quintillion is also working on separately.
Faster and more affordable internet sounds great to Alaskans only served by microwave and satellite connections. But that has meant disturbing miles and miles of permafrost-insulating vegetation to dig the trenches to lay the fiber optic cables.
Both projects’ permits cover 240 miles of digging and require remediation of the ground, as well as preventing erosion and runoff of muddy water. But there are still at least 20 swampy problem areas parallel to the highway that range from 20 feet to 500 feet long. One inspection report even notes erosion caused the fiber optic cable itself to be left exposed in at least one spot.
Dr. Vladimir Romanovsky with the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute studies environmental and engineering problems involving ice and permafrost. Romanovsky has seen the melting along the Dalton Highway.
“It’s kind of a trench, with sometimes standing water in it. Sometimes even moving water,” Romanovsky said. “It’s just strange and unattractive, I would say. We were joking that someday we may start to use, instead of trucks, we’ll use boats, like in Venice. Just go along the Dalton Highway in the boat.”
Romanovsky said the companies digging the trenches for GCI and Quintillion apparently didn’t know any better. That’s unfortunate, he said, because oil producers on the North Slope have been working on and around permafrost for decades. The cost of dealing with impacts to the environment and to infrastructure from turning solid, frozen ground into soupy muck should be well understood by now, Romanovsky said.
“But usually when a project, especially when (they) do it in a hurry, like I think it was done in this case, they act like, I don’t know, very arrogant people,” Romanovsky said. “They just do what they normally do, but unfortunately they never deal with permafrost, and then problems start to pile up.”
Romanovsky said he doubts the restoration efforts will fix the problem anytime soon. That work has so far included simply piling more gravel and soil on top of the trenches as they subside. The problem is gravel conducts heat better than the original vegetation, Romanovsky said, so he expects the melting to continue.
“It all depends how much ice is in permafrost, and unfortunately at some locations there is lots of ice,” Romanovsky said.
It’ll probably take years of repeatedly piling gravel on top all of those spots — five, ten, maybe even 20 years — to prevent the melting from spreading even further, Romanovsky said.
Quintillion finished its trench before the GCI subsidiary Bortek, and they aren’t waiting to point fingers. The company has sued, accusing Bortek and a subcontractor, Utility Technologies Incorporated, of causing the melting and erosion problems. The lawsuit even alleges the GCI subsidiary and subcontractor removed soil covering Quintillion’s trench to put on top of their own trench. Essentially, Quintillion wants Bortek and UTI to take care of the remediation needed to put everything back into compliance with the permits.
In a written statement, GCI said Bortek, its subsidiary, had no knowledge of any soil being removed from Quintillion’s trench and said the subcontractor, UTI, denies the allegation.
But the question of who to blame is still an open one, as far as the state is concerned. The Department of Environmental Conservation has issued notices of violation to both sides after inspections saw continued problems with trench-related melting even after restoration efforts in summer 2017. The notice of violation is the middle step out of three levels of enforcement: more than a strongly worded letter but not quite to the level of civil or criminal action.
Mike Solter, compliance and enforcement program manager at the DEC’s Division of Water, said they’re looking at next steps. It’s not just the highway that’s at risk, Solter said.
As the name implies, his department is concerned with environmental impacts to water, and Solter said there are dozens, if not hundreds, of streams and creeks that could be polluted with runoff from the trenches.
“It kills fish, it can smother eggs, it can do a whole bunch of really bad stuff,” Solter said. “There’s really a lot that could be at stake here, and until we really get the chance to assess it, we won’t really know what the full impacts are.”
That assessment by DEC, DOT and others was planned for this month. But based on pictures of the trenches from this summer, Solter said it’s unlikely the situation has improved at all. He said it could still be a while before the full extent of impacts to the highway or habitat are known.
Camps set up along the Chester Creek Trail in Anchorage. (Hillman/KSKA)
Anchorage’s problem with homeless encampments in public parks and trails is reaching a new “crisis” point. That’s according to a collection of increasingly organized and vocal community groups petitioning the city to get more aggressive in dealing with the problem.
The tension was on full display at an Assembly meeting Wednesday at City Hall, where it was standing room only as advocates, municipal employees and elected officials crowded into a conference room.
Over the last year, meetings of the Assembly’s Homelessness and Public Safety committees have taken on a sense of urgency, with members of the public growing increasingly impatient with the city’s management of the sprawling, unlawful encampments that speckle Anchorage’s parks, trails, and green spaces. Neighborhood groups and community councils have become more organized and involved in the issue, criticizing officials for a lack of transparent communication, and even presenting assembly members with a 12-point list of recommended actions.
Assembly member Dick Traini has served on the body off and on since the early 1991, and says he and his constituents are seeing the issue of homeless encampments on public lands worsen.
“People are more frustrated than ever, because they don’t see anything being done. The camps are not done away with,” Traini said after Wednesday’s committee meeting.
The administration of Mayor Ethan Berkowitz has taken big steps to create new housing and support services to get people off the streets. But it is a long-term strategy that many say has inadequate solutions for addressing ongoing problems like overflowing shelters, a concentration of struggling individuals on the east side of downtown and messy, sometimes dangerous encampments throughout the green-belt that area residents say make them feel unsafe in their own homes.
The city has a system for cleaning up vacated campsites, but it lacks the resources to keep pace with the problem. Parks and Recreation Director John Rodda told the Assembly that since January 1st, crews have cleared 65 tons of material from unlawful encampments — double what they had collected by this time last year.
Right now, the Assembly is re-evaluating its strategy for clearing campsites. It includes a proposal to expedite removal when camps are close to a newly created class of “protected” public areas. That category could include popular trails, playgrounds, schools, as well as recreation areas, and mandate that all campsites within 100 feet be cleared within 72 hours. Currently, individuals have 15 days to leave a site once they are given notice by officials. The move is intended to classify broad zones where encampments cannot take root.
The proposal could spark a legal challenge from civil rights groups. Traini doesn’t think the potential for litigation should stop the Assembly from taking more assertive measures.
“My constituents are calling me up, demanding action (be) taken. And they’re right,” Traini said. “We’re the ones elected to do this.”
In addition to the Assembly’s revised abatement ordinance, the administration is set to unveil new components of its strategic action plan on homelessness in July.
President Trump signed an order Wednesday to address the family separations at the southern border, but it raises new questions for Congress. Trump’s order calls for families to be detained together.
“So we’re keeping families together, and this will solve that problem. At the same time, we are keeping a very powerful border, and it continues to be a zero tolerance,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “We have zero tolerance for people who enter our country illegally.”
Trump ordered the attorney general to try to modify a legal settlement that limits the detention of immigrant children so that the government can hold families indefinitely while their criminal or immigration cases are pending.
Among Alaska’s congressional delegation, Sen. Lisa Murkowski is the most critical on this issue and she’s wary of keeping children locked up for long periods, even with their parents.
Murkowski said the family separations have to end.
“But keeping families in detention for an unlimited period of time, I don’t believe that is the answer either,” Murkowski said Wednesday, before she’d had a chance to see the president’s executive order. She said the solution has to consider the needs of families seeking asylum.
“Let’s go through the process, the procedure that will determine whether or not this is a family that should be able to seek asylum and safety here in this country, and allow them that process,” Murkowski said.
Murkowski said families whose asylum claims are accepted by the government should be released from detention while they wait for their court dates. She added that the flight risk is lower for asylum seekers who’ve cleared that first procedural hurdle because they stand to gain legal status.
Murkowski also said she likes Republican Sen. Ted Cruz’s proposal to double the number of immigration judges and speed the process so asylum cases can be decided in two weeks, but she said she wants to be sure the bill is more than “aspirational.” She’s also considering a bill by Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein that bans family separations.
“I think that in a couple of instances it is too expansive, so we’ve talked to her about how we might address that,” Murkowski said.
Sen. Dan Sullivan did not respond by deadline to questions about the Trump executive order. But he, like Trump, has said it’s important to end what they call “catch and release,” where families and asylum-seekers are released from custody to wait for their court dates.
Congressman Don Young hasn’t taken a position on either of the two immigration proposals the House is set to consider this week. A spokesperson said he’s waiting for the final text. Young, in a written statement, said he applauds the president’s executive order.
One dead, another injured, after Eagle River brown bear attacks
Casey Grove, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage
Anchorage police say a brown bear attacked two men, killing one who had last been seen Monday and injuring another Wednesday who was part of a group searching for the missing hiker.
Alaska delegation mulls Trump order keeping children detained with parents
Liz Ruskin, Alaska Public Media – Washington D.C.
President Trump signed an order Wednesday to address the family separations at the southern border, but it raises new questions for Congress.
Sitka salmon fleet to Governor Walker: “Don’t sign a bad treaty”
Emily Kwong, KCAW – Sitka
Sitka’s salmon fishermen are worried about the state’s strategy for renegotiating the Pacific Salmon Treaty. That’s the document between the United States and Canada that allocates the king salmon harvest across borders and expires at the end of the year.
Two coal-seam fires merge to form rapidly-growing wildfire near Healy
Tim Ellis, KUAC – Fairbanks
State Forestry firefighters are working to contain a fast-growing wildfire near Healy that was ignited by two smoldering fires burning in coal deposits at the surface that merged together.
State: Permafrost melt from Arctic broadband projects violated permits
Casey Grove, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage
Alaska officials are still trying to sort out the scope of a problem caused by trenching for fiber optic cables owned by GCI and Quintillion, which could threaten the only haul road to the oil fields at Prudhoe Bay, as well as dozens of streams along the way.
Increasingly organized and vocal community groups are demanding that more aggressive steps be taken to deal with encampments along the city’s green-belt.
EPA rollbacks of cleanup regulations for mining companies draw ire of environmental groups
Krysti Shallenberger, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Bethel
The Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to roll back a regulation to make hard rock mining companies pay for clean up is sparking a new legal battle between Alaska and environmental groups.
University of Alaska moves forward with Chilkat Valley timber sale
Abey Collins, KHNS – Haines
The University of Alaska is moving forward with a controversial Haines-area timber sale. Amid concerns, the University’s Board of Regents delayed advancing the sale at its last regular meeting.
Equipment for collecting sediment samples from a lake bottom lies on the lake’s frozen surface during a research project on St. Paul Island in 2013. (Photo courtesy of Matthew Wooller, UAF)
Climate change may have spurred the first humans to move into Interior Alaska. A new University of Alaska-Fairbanks study, released on Tuesday, found that around 15,000 years ago, the Bering Land Bridge became much wetter and warmer. That coincides with when people began to leave it.
Mat Wooller is a professor in the college of fisheries and ocean science at UAF, and the study’s lead author.
“For anyone who has lived in Alaska and even been up onto the North Slope, you know that that environment is very tough to…move around in with wet kind of conditions,” Wooller said. “So that might’ve prompted people to move out of that, that environment into a more favorable landscape.”
Wooler said that as the already wet climate of the low-lying Bridge changed, that may have also increased the mosquito population, pushing caribou and the people that hunted them away from mosquitoes and into the interior.
“The Bering Land Bridge, which is where humans were coming across from Asia into North America, is now flooded. But at one time, of course, it was connected,” Wooller said. “And the site that we chose, St. Paul Island, has been exposed and part of that Bering Land Bridge all the way back at least 18,000 years ago.”
Lake Hill on St. Paul Island, where a UAF-led team collected a sediment core, is located in the former Bering Land Bridge, delineated in gray on the map. Organisms preserved in the core showed that the area’s climate warmed and grew wetter about 15,000 years ago, likely encouraging human migration across the land bridge. (Image courtesy of Royal Society Open Science)
Over the course of years, a team of international researchers studied a long core of sediment pulled from a lake bottom on the island. They were initially studying the environment before, during and after mammoths went extinct on the island but had leftover sediment and decided to expand their research.
From that, they created an 18,500-year timeline of temperature and precipitation patterns. They also studied fossils found in the sediment from bugs, plants and spores.
“When those organisms change and the species change, that tells you how the environment changed and you have this timeline constructed and you can see how the climate changed over time,” Wooler said.
There’s a lot of debate and questions about how exactly the earliest humans made their way to North America, and Wooller said the study helps fill in those gaps with empirical data. And the data can be used to help improve climate models. The better researchers understand how the Arctic’s climate has changed over time, the better they can predict how it might change in the future.
The 13,426 acres is scattered throughout the Haines Borough. (Map Courtesy of the University of Alaska)
The University of Alaska is moving forward with a controversial Haines-area timber sale. Amid concerns, the University’s Board of Regents delayed advancing the sale at its last regular meeting.
But with more information in front of them this week, regents were nearly unanimous in their decision to approve a development and disposal plan.
At a special meeting this week, regents voted 9-1 to approve a development and disposal plan for the sale of timber on 13,400 acres of its land in the Chilkat Valley.
The vote authorizes the university to move forward with contract negotiations for the 10-year negotiated sale, announced in March, estimated to generate 150 million board feet.
Regents heard from UA President Jim Johnsen.
“In the case of our land development, we can not only look at our regulations, we can look at our history,” Johnsen said. “We can look at actual cases of how we have done land management sustainably and timber harvests sustainably and responsibly.”
Johnsen presented information on the history of the University’s land grants and how those lands have been developed. He also discussed where that money goes, and recent examples of successful harvests.
The University has about 150,000 total acres in land grants, which fall into different categories.
“It’s frankly, again, not much land,” Johnsen said. “And certainly not much of large commercial value. What little of that we have we seek to monetize.”
Johnsen said UA wants to diversify its revenues, by increasing those coming in from timber. The Haines project is estimated to bring in $10 million.
Johnsen said revenue from land development funds things like the Alaska Scholars Program, University of Alaska Press, and Cooperative Extension.
After hearing from Johnsen, Regent Andy Teuber was the only one to vote against the approval.
“I’m generally very supportive of all the recommendations that come from management and from President Johnson as well,” Teuber said. “I’m just not particularly fond of the approach that we’re taking on this for the return that’s deemed to be forthcoming over the course of time. I think it’s somewhat dismissive to the substantial number of comments and concerns that were delivered respectfully to the board of regents.”
Others, like Regent Dale Anderson, spoke in favor of moving forward, particularly because of the economic opportunities for the university and local residents.
“Our fiduciary responsibility as board members is to the University of Alaska and the wellbeing of that school,” Anderson said. “Of that university. So I encourage all of us to take a very very close look at our intent in our votes, to know that, that’s where our loyalty lies.”
The University estimates the sale would create 55 to 60 new local jobs in its 10-year span.
Regent Karen Perdue, who lived in Southeast for many years, voted in favor of the approval, but said success will come in finding a balance.
“My interest is sort of balanced between understanding that these communities need jobs, we as regents have a fiduciary responsibility,” Perdue said. “But we also are butting up against a pretty significant treasure, which is that [preserve]. And also that Haines has extensively worked to promote a tourism economy.”
A portion of the land included in the timber sale falls within the bounds of the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve. However, this harvest would be permitted because University lands are excluded from restrictions imposed on the preserve.
Johnsen said the University is working to address concerns about eagle habitat, to minimize or eliminate impact. According to his presentation, the timber harvest area could end up being much smaller, depending on environmental requirements.
Regent Lisa Parker said she feels confident in the University’s work on the project.
“We are a university and I think in this case and in anything that we do it’s important for us to lead by example and to set a high standard,” Parker said. “And based on what I’ve seen both previously and in conversations today, I believe that the president and the land department are doing that.”
In the Chilkat Valley, the proposed sale has drawn excitement from residents who see a big economic opportunity for locals. Many others fear it could alter the land in a way that has real consequences for the environment, including fisheries and other wildlife.
The Haines Assembly continues to have disagreements on the sale. At a meeting Tuesday, some assembly members and the borough manager expressed concerns that the interactions with and positions of the local government were misrepresented to the regents.
Tom Morphet suggested asking the University to press pause until an advisory vote can be held to gauge local support. Still, others expressed concerns about the assembly being too adversarial.
Based on feedback from the public and regents, the university has developed a set of guiding principles for moving forward. It also plans to work with a local advisory group.
Once negotiations are completed, the contract will go back to the Board of Regents for approval. That is expected to happen later this summer.
The University is working with the Division of Forestry and Mental Health Land Trust on the project. A multi-agency review will be conducted through the permitting process, and there will be future opportunities for public comment.
An Environmental Protection Agency employee entering the mine to observe the removal of muck in the Gold King Mine in Silverton, Colorado. Alaska has weighed-in on a legal fight over how much oversight the EPA should have over hard rock mining cleanup. (Photo courtesy U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)
The Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to roll back a regulation to make hard rock mining companies pay for clean up is sparking a new legal battle between Alaska and environmental groups.
The state is intervening in a lawsuit over the EPA’s decision to rescind an Obama-era rule that would make sure hard rock mining companies pay for cleaning up their messes, even if they go bankrupt.
Hard rock mining refers to any type of mining that deals with metals like gold and copper. The proposed Donlin gold mine in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and the proposed Pebble mine in Bristol Bay would fall into that category.
Then-President Obama issued the rule under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, also known as CERCLA. That law usually targets superfund sites; many massive superfund sites have to deal with dangerous waste left over from legacy hard rock mining.
Cori Mills, a spokesperson for the Attorney General’s office, says the state already has a program in place to make sure mining companies are held financially responsible, so, it doesn’t need the EPA’s help.
“You know engaging in this CERCLA just on the release of hazardous substances — that would potentially preempt the state’s program which is really more comprehensive than just that CERCLA requirement,” Mills said.
Obama’s decision had come after environmental groups filed a lawsuit a few years ago, arguing that the EPA never created a rule that would make mining companies pay for reclaiming hazardous waste. Earthjustice attorney Jan Hasselman says the Obama’s rule would not have usurped the state’s program.
“The proposed rule explicitly stated that it doesn’t preempt or usurp any state authorities. In fact, it was designed to work alongside existing requirements,” Hasselman said. “I think the key finding that the EPA previously made was that there were gaps in the state system and that there was need for the federal government to set a uniform floor for these kinds of activities going forward.”
The Trump administration’s EPA head, Scott Pruitt, rolled back the rule in December of 2017. Pruitt said that there are already regulations in place from states and federal agencies that require financial assurances for cleanup, even if the companies are bankrupt.
So environmental groups, including Earthjustice, petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to review the agency’s decision. This lead to Alaska joining seven other states to back up the EPA’s position in this latest legal fight.
Students at an Arctic field school in Utqiaġvik learn how to use an ice corer, June 2nd, 2018. The program is a collaboration between the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the University of Calgary and the University of Tromsø in Norway. (Ravenna Koenig/ Alaska’s Energy Desk)
Earlier this month, the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) participated in an international field school in Utqiaġvik.
The school gave early-career researchers a broad view of the Arctic coastal system and how it’s changing, along with some different methods for studying it.
It’s the second year of a collaboration between UAF, the University of Calgary in Canada and the University of Tromsø in Norway.
Brian Moorman from the University of Calgary is one of the instructors. He studies permafrost and glacier hydrology. But the professors teaching the field school come from a range of backgrounds.
“We have people that are atmospheric scientists, and we have people that are remote sensors that use satellites to view the world,” Moorman said. “And there’s people that get right down and dirty in the mud and sea ice.”
Those instructors taught students how to collect physical data in the Arctic, as well as how to use satellite and drone tools.
Cornelius Quigley is a student from the University of Tromsø and works primarily with satellites. He said that being out in the field with a diverse group of scientists was a departure from his usual work.
“In my area of research, you really do only speak to people who do what you do,” Quigley said. “But now at field school I’m working with people who are geologists, or people who have never seen satellite data, but still, they would have a different perspective on the entire thing.”
The first year of the field school was held on an icebreaker off the coast of Norway. Next year, it will be held in the Yukon Territory in Canada.
Gov. Bill Walker was in Fairbanks Wednesday to sign a piece of legislation that would close out the remaining debt the state incurred under the old oil tax-credit program.
In an event at the Laborers Local 9-4-2 hall, Walker signed House Bill 331, which allows the state to issue a billion dollars in bonds to pay the final debts owed to oil and gas companies that was carried over from the old system.
“We expect to see new jobs and increased exploration activity as a result of this legislation,” Walker said.
The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports Walker also signed House Bill 176. The measure allows emergency medical-services providers to recover more of the cost of transporting Medicaid patients than was previously allowed. Medicaid was reimbursing the providers only about 30 percent of their costs for transporting its patients.
HB 176 was introduced by Fairbanks Representative Adam Wool.
Pink salmon in Valdez. (Photo by Kimberly Holzer / Flickr)
On Wednesday, the state learned how much of $200 million in federal funds will go to recovery from the 2016 pink salmon season disaster in the Gulf of Alaska.
Barbara Blake, senior adviser with Governor Bill Walker’s office, says Alaska received a little over $56 million.
“We’re really happy. We’re really glad that we’re gonna see some form of funding go back out to our communities and out to our fishermen as a result of this. It’s definitely a big positive,” Blake said. “It’s obviously not the amount that we asked for, but we’re happy that we got a quarter of these funds coming to Alaska.”
According to Blake, the state originally requested almost $150 million for disaster relief.
The pink salmon season was among the fisheries disasters to win money along with fisheries affected by natural disasters, and according to a NOAA press release, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross allocated those funds yesterday.
They still have to decide on a spending plan.
Blake says the governor’s office met with NOAA this afternoon. She says NOAA and state representatives may work together with the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission to distribute the funds, as has happened in the past.
Sealaska Heritage Institute president Rosita Worl is concerned about the fate of thousands of children separated from their parents due to the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” border policy. (Photo by Jacob Resneck/KTOO)
“When I first saw them I was just absolutely appalled,” Rosita Worl said. Worl was forcibly taken from her parents at the age of 6.
It was the 1940s and like many Tlingit children, she was sent to live in a federal boarding school run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Seventy-five years later, media images of children detained and separated from their loved ones along the southwestern border recall those dark times from her childhood in Petersburg.
“When I heard the cries of those children it just brought me back to the days when I was kidnapped and put in a home and crying at nighttime and wondering where my family was,” Worl said in an interview Thursday.
The context between then and now is markedly different.
The federal BIA school in Haines where she was sent was part of a broader federal policy of assimilation.
“Our Native cultures were viewed as paganistic, heathenistic and we were to be civilized,” Worl said.
The current crisis along the border stems from stark disagreements — even among Alaska’s political allies — over how to handle economic migrants and asylum seekers.
“I don’t think a lot of people think about how Native Americans think about immigration,” Worl said. “Because if anybody should have problems with immigration, you would think it would be Native Americans. But I think we were realistic in knowing that this is the way of the world. We actually embraced newcomers when they first arrived.”
Worl is a retired anthropology professor and now heads Sealaska Heritage Institute, a Juneau-based nonprofit that advances Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian culture.
Worl said there’s a moral imperative for policymakers to act.
“In the immediate term, we have to do something about those 2,000-plus children who are separated from their families,” Worl said. “I’m pleased the president made some attempt with his executive order. I don’t think that’s going to solve the problem, but we need to solve this problem as a civilized society.”
Even with the passing of decades Worl says the trauma of being removed from her family still stings.
What they mean when they say ‘immigration problem’
Liz Ruskin, Alaska Public Media – Washington D.C.
Lawmakers paint different pictures of what the immigration problem actually is and who the victims are. That’s true even within Alaska’s all-Republican delegation to Congress.
In Alaska, family separations evoke past trauma
Jacob Resneck, KTOO – Juneau
A survivor of a BIA boarding school for Alaska Natives says the separation of children at the border is reminiscent of her own experiences. The context is different: but the traumatic effects are arguably similar.
Fansler sentenced to year of probation, alcohol treatment and community service
Andrew Kitchenman, KTOO – Juneau
Former Alaska state Rep. Zach Fansler pleaded guilty Thursday to second-degree harassment in connection with a January incident in which he struck a woman in his hotel room.
State receives $56 million in federal relief for 2016 pink salmon season disaster
Kayla Desroches, KMXT – Kodiak
On Wednesday, the state learned how much of $200 million in federal funds will go to recovery from the 2016 pink salmon season disaster in the Gulf of Alaska.
Farm bill with large changes to food stamps narrowly passes the US House
Associated Press
The Republican-led House has narrowly passed a sweeping farm bill that would toughen work requirements for food stamp recipients. Democrats opposed the measure, saying it would toss too many people off government food assistance.
Crews tackle small wildfire in Ketchikan
Maria Dudzak, KRBD – Ketchikan
No one was injured and damage was minimal when a wildfire broke out along a hillside behind the Alaska State Troopers post in Ketchikan Wednesday morning.
Southcentral king salmon sport fishing closures continue
Casey Grove, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage
All sport fishing for kings on the Kenai River, including catch and release, closed Wednesday. Farther to the north, king fishing will close starting Friday morning on the Susitna and Little Susitna rivers, as well as the Big Su’s tributaries. A subsistence fishery on the Upper Yentna is also set to close early Monday.
Climate change may have sparked human migration into Interior Alaska, UAF study finds
Erin McKinstry, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage
Climate change may have spurred the first humans to move into interior Alaska. A new University of Alaska-Fairbanks study, released on Tuesday, found that around 15,000 years ago, the Bering Land Bridge became much wetter and warmer. That coincides with when people began to leave it.
Spike in shipping costs has Southeast businesses up in arms
June Leffler, KSTK – Wrangell
Shipping costs dictate the price of everything in Alaska. Because of this, every island and coastal town feels the sting of shipping rates.
Kake to reuse historic cannery for tourism
Alanna Elder, KFSK – Petersburg
The Organized Village of Kake is working to turn its historic cannery into a tourist destination. The tribal government has already worked to save the buildings in the complex, so the next step is to bring the buildings up to code so the community can use them.
At the top of the world, an international field school for research students
Ravenna Koenig, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Fairbanks
Earlier this month, the University of Alaska Fairbanks participated in an international field school in Utqiaġvik, giving early-career researchers a broad view of the Arctic coastal system and how it’s changing, along with some different methods for studying it.
