Some Alaskans are helping with the California wildfire response. Alaska Division of Forestry spokesman Tim Mowry says the state is one of several being tapped for assistance through the National Interagency Coordination Center.
”With the activity they’ve got going down there, those fires and the severity of them, there is a shortage of resources,” Mowry said. “So they have had to reach out to other areas.”
Mowry says Alaska firefighting crews disband for the winter, but some fire management professionals are available to fill a variety of response jobs in California.
”So mostly, it’s management and overhead, safety officers, field observers, division supervisors,” Mowry said. “There was an order for a public information officer the other day. But mainly it’s management and supervisory positions.”
Mowry says the assignments are for two weeks, but can be extended an additional week.
”Given the situation in California and the volatility of these fires in the fields down there, who knows how long these events are gonna go on,” Mowry said.
Mowry says the extreme situation in California is hard to comprehend in a sparsely populated state like Alaska.
”They can be evacuating half the state of Alaska essentially,” Mowry said. “So anything we can do to help them, we’re gonna do.”
Thirty-one are known dead in wind driven wildfires in Northern and Southern California. Hundreds more people are missing, and thousands of homes and businesses haven been destroyed.
The village, about 40 miles from Kotzebue, is where his wife Rose Dunleavy is from.
Judicial council begins process of replacing ousted judge
Associated Press
A state Superior Court judge ousted in the general election will be replaced by an appointee of Gov.-elect Mike Dunleavy.
Fairweather gets reprieve in draft ferry schedule
Jacob Resneck, CoastAlaska – Juneau
The MV Fairweather would make three runs a week up Lynn Canal, plus a weekly run to Sitka. Its sister ship has been tied up since 2015 due to cost-cutting.
Alaska firefighters sent to battle California wildfires
Dan Bross, KUAC – Fairbanks
Some Alaskans are helping with the California wildfire response.
In a warming Arctic, October in Utqiaġvik presents an especially striking picture
Ravenna Koenig, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Fairbanks
Billy Adams, a hunter in his 50s, says that when he was growing up in Utqiagvik, there was almost always ice attached to the shore by now.
What’s so special about the Mustang Field?
Rashah McChesney, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Juneau
How one oil field got more than $95 million in unique state or state-backed loans from Alaska.
Haines Police once again authorized to respond to calls outside the townsite
Abbey Collins, KHNS – Haines
Two weeks ago, Haines ordered borough police not to provide service outside the Haines townsite. On Tuesday, the assembly decided police can respond to calls outside the townsite if there is an articulable crime in progress or an imminent threat to life or property.
‘Integrated’ research merges human experience and fisheries science
Robert Woolsey, KCAW – Sitka
Everyone who fishes likely has had personal experience that doesn’t exactly square with the projections of Fish & Game. In fact, fisheries management in Alaska is almost entirely a numbers game in which ordinary peoples’ observations, expectations, and knowledge play no role at all.
Pence makes brief stop in Alaska en route to Asia
Associated Press
Vice President Mike Pence paid a Veterans Day visit to service members in Alaska’s largest city during a refueling stop en route to an Asia trip.
Gold exploration near Herbert Glacier excites investors
Jacob Resneck, CoastAlaska – Juneau
Enthusiasm over drilling test results caused Grande Portage Resources stock to rally temporarily. Financial filings infer as much as $400 million worth of gold on claims near Herbert Glacier.
(Graphic courtesy Alaska Department of Natural Resources)
The Mustang Field is pretty unremarkable — in that it looks like the rest of the North Slope. Flat tundra stretches as far as the eye can see — and on top, all the signs of the oil industry. There’s a long gravel road, a big pad and some equipment.
What isremarkable about this field is the type of investment it has gotten in the past decade. Specifically, about $95 million in state or state-backed loans.
But, this is not a story about a field that doesn’t have any oil. This field is nestled between two very productive ConocoPhillips units. One — Kuparuk — is the second largest oilfield in North America. Mustang is estimated to hold more than 25 million barrels of oil.
Instead of being operated by one of the major players on the North Slope, it is run by a small, 13-year-old, independent oil company — Brooks Range Petroleum Corporation.
The company plans to hire a few hundred people this winter to put in a small, quick production facility and start producing in early 2019. Its president and CEO Bart Armfield said oil is coming soon.
But it has taken the better part of a decade to get to this point. There is a long paper trail at the Department of Natural Resources showing years of work delays.
Ask Armfield about the company’s plans and those delays and he has a quick answer.
“What happened to the whole industry? Oil prices fell from $120 plus to $30 a barrel,” Armfield said.
It’s a refrain Alaskans have been hearing for three years. In 2014, oil prices started to fall and it wrecked the state’s budget. Financing projects in the oil patch got trickier too.
Armfield’s not blaming all of the project’s delays on low oil prices — there were some technical problems too. But he said that crash put Brooks Range Petroleum in a holding pattern.
But now, oil prices have rebounded somewhat and the Mustang Field could be well on its way to paying off some of its bills next year. There are a lot of outstanding bills and untangling who exactly is responsible for paying what back, is not easy.
For starters, Brooks Range Petroleum operates the Mustang Field project — but it does not fully own it.
Just who owns which part is a web of companies and subsidiaries and right in the middle is AIDEA, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority. It’s the state corporation that finances in-state projects.
But, by 2015 there was still no oil coming out of it — that means no money coming in to recoup AIDEA’s investment. Oil prices were in a free-fall. That’s when the Department of Revenue stepped in, specifically the state treasury, and floated one of those state-owned corporations a $22.5 million line of credit. Think of it as a bridge loan, something to keep the Mustang Field afloat until things got better.
Because that company was 96% owned by AIDEA, what happened was basically one part of the state loaned money to another part of the state. Also, the collateral for that loan was oil tax credits that the state’s tax division owes to the corporation.
That’s convoluted, but basically it means that the state and a state-owned corporation carry almost $95 million worth of debt and nearly all of the risk of default on that debt for the Mustang Field.
This was — and still is — unusual. The Mustang field is the only one to get a loan like that from the treasury. In fact, the treasury made the loan out of a portion of the state’s general fund, then changed its rules several months later to say that it was OK to invest state money in that type of loan.
Right now, there isn’t a lot of documentation that explains why that loan was made. Over at the Department of Revenue, Deputy Commissioner’s Mike Barnhill has been trying to sort it out.
Barnhill wasn’t in that position when his department made the loan. When he started in January, he says staff flagged it for him. because it was due to be paid in July.
He pulled the file and there isn’t a lot of information in it about the origins of the loan.
“I have, I believe, reviewed all of the files within the Department of Revenue. There’s a pending public records request for emails, that I don’t have access to. So it may be that those emails reveal the genesis of the idea,” Barnhill said.
“So, I started digging into it and trying to figure out what happened,” Landfield said. “The more I dug into it the more I realized it was like… I think ‘fishy’ is a good term, you know?”
Landfield works in the oilfield support industry and said he considers it blatant favoritism. He wants to know why that loan wasn’t offered to any other companies when oil prices were down and the industry was suffering.
“If you’re involved with AIDEA and you’re in a project, you’ll get a bailout,” Landfield said. “Where all the other companies who have a lot more money who stand to lose more — who don’t have the ‘in’ with somebody in the government or the state, you know one of the company’s I talked to said where’s our f– bailout?”
Landfield’s request for those emails is making its way through the state’s Department of Law.
Senator Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, also wants to know why that loan was made. He’s launched a legislative audit.
That audit might take a while, but Stedman said that’s OK.
“I don’t think it’s as time-sensitive to get it out because the program is no longer in existence,” Stedman said. “Don’t misinterpret that as slow-rolling going out of the auditing department, that’s not the case. But it’s not… the house isn’t on fire.”
Stedman says it can’t be changed now, but he thinks Alaskans should know how their money was spent.
“I don’t think we need to make excuses, you know, why this project was done. It was done,” Stedman said. “Now we just need to, you know, clarify. You know what was done and and what kind of policy direction we’re going in and clean up the mess. You know all of the players are changed. So, it’s not a hanging party you know it’s just… sort it out and go on.”
That loan still hasn’t been paid back, and it’s not clear when that’s going to happen.
The Department of Revenue asked AIDEA to take over the loan — but that hasn’t happened. For now, Barnhill said there’s a deal in the works to extend the payment deadline. But, that’s complicated too.
The current deal goes something like this: the tax division of the Department of Revenue owes the AIDEA-owned company about $20 million in tax credits. But, that money is currently tied up in court. When that court case gets resolved and those funds get released, the Department of Revenue will hang onto the money and pay itself back. Or, the loan could be extended until December of 2020 — whichever happens first.
It’s not just the treasury that wants out from under its loan to the Mustang Field. The AIDEA board voted to sell its ownership interest too.
That leaves ownership and operation to a handful of companies and Brooks Range.
Brooks Range CEO Bart Armfield is okay with that. He said that Brooks Range has a clear path to getting its oil out of the ground and is well on its way to making some money so it can pay its bills.
The City of Fairbanks has retained two Lower 48 law firms to advise on how to sue the manufacturers of chemical compounds that have contaminated groundwater in several areas around the city. The officials hope to recover nearly $4 million the city has spent over the past three years to deal with the contamination caused by perflourinated compounds contained in a type of firefighting foam.
Mayor Jim Matherly says city officials hired the two law firms to help them develop a strategy on how the city can build a case that the companies found liable for the contamination should compensate the city for the cost of dealing with it.
“They’re going to take a look at our case, take a look at the foam issue, and the contamination issue,” he said. “They’ll talk to us, talk to our legal department.”
Matherly says City Attorney Paul Ewers recommended hiring San Francisco-based SL Environmental Law Group and New York-based Kennedy & Madonna because they’re experienced in litigating contamination cases. A city spokesperson says the two firms took the case on a contingency-fee basis, so they’d only get paid if they win the case and recover damages.
The mayor says the lawsuit would target the 3M Company, the Minnesota-based firm that manufactures the compounds known by the acronym PFAS. It’s used in among other things the fire-suppressing foam that firefighters have for years used in training.
“The city was using that foam for about 20 years, between 1985 and around 2005,” he said. “Now what we use is we use a combination of some water, of course, for training and then we have another foam that we use that has been approved by the DEC.”
The move toward suing the manufacturer is good news, says Dave Berrey. He lives in one of the neighborhoods where the city has found PFAS groundwater contamination. But he and others say they wonder what took the city so long to act?
“This is something we asked that they join in a year and a half ago, I believe,” he said. “And they turned a cold should toward us.”
Berrey says he and other affected residents think the city hasn’t focused enough attention on the problem and hasn’t adequately helped them, especially those suffering from health problems they believe are caused by the contamination. And he says they’d like to be more involved with the city’s efforts to recover damages from the manufacturer.
“They really need to look at who they’ve damaged in this negligence, and work with us to go after the chemical companies,” Berrey said.
The nearly $4 million the city’s paid so far was used to clean up sites and to cover the costs of connecting 44 properties in areas that rely on wells to the local water utility system. It’s also paid $2,500 stipends to those property owners to help offset their water payments.
Matherly says he’s not sure but he thinks Fairbanks is the first city in Alaska to pursue litigation in response to PFAS groundwater contamination. It’s turned up here more than any other city in the state, at least so far. And the mayor says the city’s asking the state for more help.
“I talked to the attorney general about this,” he said. “I told Governor Walker about this. It’s in our legislative priorities to give to the Interior delegation, that we want the state to take a good hard look at this statewide. Because, we’re not the only city using this – it’s all across the nation.”
A recent study by the Environmental Working Group and the Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute at Northeastern University says PFAS pollution has been reported at 94 sites in 22 states. The study says PFAS has shown up in the tap water of some 16 million people in 33 states and Puerto Rico. Other estimates say up to 110 million Americans may have it in their drinking water.
The chemicals have been linked to kidney and testicular cancers, low birth weight, thyroid disease and pregnancy-induced hypertension.
Editor’s note: The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation has extended the public-comment period on a proposed more-stringent cleanup level for groundwater contaminated with PFAS. Comments may now be submitted to DEC through 5 p.m. Tuesday Nov. 12. More information on the proposed regs is available on this page of the DEC’s website.
For more than 14 years, Rex Spofford served as the only probation and parole officer for Dillingham and much of southwestern Alaska. He retired in April. Since then, Dillingham has not had an on-site probation officer. Instead, the district supervisor in Kodiak has overseen Dillingham’s cases. Amy Abbott is the Chief Probation Officer for Region One. She says that so far, this arrangement has worked.
“They do have a very competent criminal justice technician on site available to them,” she said. “So if the probationers need to come in and ask for a travel pass or get direction on something they have someone they can physically check in with. And then Probation Officer Bunting follows up with any of the probation duties.”
A probation officer is responsible for supervising people on probation or parole and ensuring that they follow through with their conditions of supervision.
The Department of Corrections maintains minimum contact standards for people on probation in rural areas. They must report in writing every month and at least once over the telephone, depending on their risk level.
Dillingham’s probation officer oversees an area that encompasses more than 50 villages and more than 45,000 square miles. The region begins at Lake Clark, covers Bristol Bay and extends down the Aleutian Chain. Before Spofford started his job in Dillingham, he worked as an officer in Anchorage for six months. There were major differences.
“Just the size alone of the district suggests that there were a lot of things that would present as opportunities,” he said. “Lots of coordination required when you’re supervising people in 30 plus different communities with different treatment providers. Substance abuse treatment providers, specifically. Behavioral health treatment providers. With numerous courts, numerous districts. The physical challenge of supervising people in that many different locations was formidable.”
Spofford explained that a probation officer acts as a point person for those on probation and the agencies that work with them.
“As you develop those relationships, I believe you can provide a lot more direct service,” he said. “The relationship building is huge. The advantages out here is that I know exactly who I needed to talk to. I know the councilors out at Jake’s Place. I know who I need to talk to at HUD. I know that if I’ve got an individual in Koliganek or somebody in Bristol Bay, I know the FSW [Family Service Worker] that’s doing those assessments, I know the VPSOs [Village Public Safety Officers] that I need to talk to. I knew the troopers and the police officers. Once you develop those relationships it’s just like any family – you can get things done much easier.”
Another difference, according to Spofford, is that officers supervising people in outlying villages rely on a broad support network. That network is made up not only of local law enforcement and organizations, but also of residents.
“You know, we used community contact persons, if you will,” Spofford explained. “Folks that we could talk to, and that a person on probation or parole would identify. I would ask them during the intake, ‘Now, listen. Not your partying buddies, but who are three people that really care about you that I can call and find out how you’re doing on supervision. And invariably, most folks would find three people. It might be a teacher, it might be a former teacher, it might be a priest. Those are the people that you would reach out to and say, ‘How’s so-and-so doing on supervision?’ And so, even where there were no law enforcement officers of VPSOs, which has become quite frankly a significant percentage of those communities now, you’d always have somebody.”
Since Spofford retired, Abbott says that Dillingham’s criminal justice technician has been the local contact for people on probation, acting as the liaison between the Kodiak district supervisor, local treatment agencies and law enforcement. According to Abbot, they still rely on those local contacts.
“In communities where there are no law enforcement resources, we definitely rely on community contact people. Folks that work in the treatment arena or family members. So we have a pretty solid plan of supervision in the rural area,” she said.
Currently, the caseload for Dillingham hovers around 30. That isn’t high; caseloads are in the fifties in regions like Bethel and Palmer. Still, Spofford said that it is imperative that Region One has a permanent officer.
“I’m really looking forward to them getting an officer assigned, because having someone in the community that can actually see, that knows what’s going on is important. Because you’re there. You’ve got presence, people know you’re in town. It’s invaluable,” he said.
Dillingham is about to get a new probation officer. Abbott said that the department is in the final stages of a lengthy hiring process to bring someone on board.
Picking aboard the F/V Aventura in the Nushagak District. (Photo credit Sarah Grace Durrance)
The Alaska Board of Fisheries Bristol Bay Finfish meeting is two weeks away, and public comment is due by Wednesday. The state board that regulates commercial, subsistence and sport fishing in the region will convene in Dillingham at the end of November. It will take up the 47 proposed regulation changes. In October, the Naknek-Kvichak and Nushagak advisory committees met to decide which proposals they will support.
Permit stacking, subsistence and gear restrictions are hot topics on the table. Both committees made it clear that they prioritize subsistence and that they want to protect the interests of local commercial fishermen.
In that vein, they voted against extending vessel length from 32 to 42 feet.
The Naknek-Kvichak committee supports all subsistence proposals.
“Dip netting, more time to fish, having a subsistence fishery in a different location in Egegik, using hook and line. All priority fisheries in the bay. We were in support of all of them,” said committee Chair Everett Thompson.
Five proposals related to permit stacking generated some controversy at the Naknek-Kvichak AC meeting. Permit stacking refers to one fishermen owning and operating two permits.
“Even though we have voted in the prior cycle to support permit stacking, with the price and trying to keep local vested interest in the fishery, we didn’t support the permit stacking proposals,” Thompson said. “But there were some on the committee that felt it was still a pretty good way to do business in the fishery. With that said, we also felt that we should shoot down the new language in proposal 23 that would prohibit this from being a discussion in the future.”
A dual permit configuration currently allows a Bristol Bay drift gillnet vessel with two permit holders on board to operate 200 fathoms of gear. That’s 50 more fathoms than a boat with one permit holder is allowed. Proposal 23 would make it explicit in the regulations that a person couldn’t own two drift permits and operate them on the same boat. In other words, an individual couldn’t use extra gear by stacking permits.
The Naknek-Kvichak AC also submitted several proposals to protect sport fishing for trout and Chinook in the Naknek river. They voted against ending postseason aerial counting of king salmon in the Alagnak River special harvest area. Thompson says they want to continue counting to promote conservation. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has recommended that the aerial surveys be discontinued because they say the surveys don’t provide reliable escapement estimates.
Like the Naknek-Kvichak AC, the Nushagak Advisory Committee spent much of their meeting considering subsistence proposals. The committee supported allowing subsistence fishing with drift gillnet, hook and line, and dipnet gear. It also supported extending subsistence fishing periods.
“We voted all for them,” said Nushagak AC Chair Frank Woods. “We do want to carry a message that subsistence is a priority, whether the board or sports fisheries or commercial fisheries participants agree or not. Access to resource for the local residents is a concern, but there’s a conservation concern too. That’s what the majority of the meeting time took up – where do we draw that balance and where do we draw the line?”
They also discussed permit stacking.
“We voted to keep status quo, because it’s working the way it’s supposed to work. You add the layer of dual ownership – it’s legal to own two permits, it’s illegal to operate both of them,” Woods explained.
Unlike the Naknek-Kvichak committee, the Nushagak AC voted to support Proposal 23. Seven of the eight sponsors for this proposal are fishermen who live in Dillingham. One, Susie Jenkins-Brito, serves on the Nushagak Advisory Committee. Woods says that it was important to maintain the original purpose of the dual permit.
“It allows a disenfranchised permit holder who has lost a boat or can’t operate a boat to jump aboard. The original intent of the proposal is not to own and operate one permit.”
To that end, the committee opposed several proposals that would allow a holder of two limited entry drift gillnet permits to operate more gear. They also opposed allowing a holder of two set or drift gillnet permits to stack the permits and fish them on one vessel. The committee expressed concern that that would concentrate gear in the hands of fewer fishermen and that locals would have a harder time competing.
The Bristol Bay Finfish meeting will begin November 28 in Dillingham. Public comment is due by November 14. You can find more information online atwww.adfg.alaska.gov. KDLG will be airing portions of the meeting live on KDLG.
Dems Kawasaki and Dodge take leads from questioned ballots, absentees still to be counted
Andrew Kitchenman, KTOO – Juneau
Fairbanks Democrat Scott Kawasaki took a 152-vote lead over Republican Senator Pete Kelly, while Democratic House candidate Kathryn Dodge took a 10-vote lead over Republican Barton LeBon.
Jury delivers verdict in ex-cop’s lawsuit
Casey Grove, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage
A former Anchorage police lieutenant has won more than $2 million from the Municipality of Anchorage in his lawsuit over unfair labor practices.
Justices wrestle how to set hovercraft case apart from subsistence
Liz Ruskin, Alaska Public Media – Washington
Last week, the U.S Supreme Court again heard arguments in a case that pits the mission of the National Park Service against the sovereignty of the state of Alaska.
As the climate changes, Alaska’s DOT works to keep up
Elizabeth Jenkins, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Juneau
Unpredictable weather events can make a daily commute a real headache. They’re also becoming more common in Alaska as the climate warms.
UA regents approve budget proposal
Dan Bross, KUAC – Fairbanks
The University of Alaska board of regents has approved an operating budget proposal for the next fiscal year
With no probation officer in Dillingham, how does supervision work in Bristol Bay?
Isabelle Ross, KDLG – Dillingham
Dillingham’s only probation officer retired in April. While the Division of Probation and Parole has worked to hire a replacement, the region has operated without an on-site officer for six months.
Alaska contractors flock to new military construction projects
Associated Press
A presentation planned for Wednesday in Fairbanks to inform contractors on how to bid on military projects filled up a few days after it was announced last week.
Fairbanks hires law firms to advise on suing over groundwater-contaminating chemicals
Tim Ellis, KUAC – Fairbanks
The City of Fairbanks has retained two Lower 48 law firms to advise on how to sue the manufacturers of chemical compounds that have contaminated groundwater in several areas around the city.
Alaska Mental Health Trust considers Canadian partnership to develop metals mine
Henry Leasia, KHNS – Haines
A deal would eliminate a lot of red tape for the Palmer Project.
Last week, the U.S Supreme Court again heard arguments in a case that pits the mission of the National Park Service against the sovereignty of the state of Alaska. It’s the second time the Supreme Court has heard the case of John Sturgeon, an Alaska moose hunter who was traveling by hovercraft inside Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve when the Park Service stopped him.
The Park Service has a hovercraft ban for all national parks. But Sturgeon, backed by the state of Alaska, says it’s up to the state to decide what kind of transportation is OK on Alaska rivers, even when they flow through national parks, because that’s what Congress intended when it passed ANILCA, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, in 1980.
“Congress had good reasons for treating Alaska differently than other states,” Alaska Assistant Attorney General Ruth Botstein argued.
In rural Alaska, she said, rivers serve as roads.
“This is not a situation where we’re talking about tourists who might be disturbing a wilderness area,” she said. “This is a situation where people are living and working along these rivers and using them for transportation, for commerce, for fishing.”
On the other hand, the Park Service has a duty to protect rivers within park units, argued Deputy Solicitor General Edwin Kneedler, representing the Park Service.
“And when you look at the purposes for which these units were established, it’s clear that water was a central purpose of them,” he said. “In fact, the one we have here is the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, and it specifically defines as one of the purposes to preserve the entire Charley River basin, including streams and lakes.”
Kneedler said hovercraft are loud and unsightly. Chief Justice John Roberts suggested more than appearances are at stake.
“While you may think a hovercraft is unsightly, I mean, if you’re trying to get from point A to point B, it’s pretty beautiful,” Roberts said.
Justice Neil Gorsuch started by accepting the state’s premise, that the river is not really part of the park unit. He wondered if a hovercraft had any impact beyond the river.
“Do we know from the record that the hovercraft could be heard within the system unit itself?” he asked. “Let alone seen?”
“Well, there were federal lands on both sides of the the water,” Kneedler said. “So when operating, I think it could surely be heard on the lands.”
Some of the justices seemed to struggle with how the case might affect the Katie John decisions. That case, named for an Athabaskan elder, established that the federal government can have authority over Alaska rivers to protect subsistence fishing, because the government implicitly reserves water rights when it sets land aside for a particular purpose.
No one at the hearing said a word against Katie John.
“You agree with the Katie John decisions, correct?” the newest justice, Brett Kavanaugh, asked Botstein.
Alaskan John Sturgeon on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016. Photo: Liz Ruskin
“Your Honor, the reasoning of those decisions may be appropriate for the limited purpose of effectuating Title 8,” Botstein said, referring to Title 8 of ANILCA, the section that protects subsistence. “But (it) should not be expanded to change the federal reserved water rights doctrine throughout the (Ninth) Circuit for all purposes.”
Justice Sonia Sotomayor seemed skeptical of the state’s argument.
“I’m having a hard time accepting your position in this case with your position that the Katie John decisions should be retained,” she told Botstein.
According to Sotomayor’s reasoning, if ANILCA gives the feds authority to enforce subsistence rights on rivers that run through national parks, it also grants them the power to enforce a hovercraft ban on those rivers.
A decision in the case is expected in May or June.
Brad Davis and Tom Grman at an Alaska Department Of Transportation garage in Anchorage. (Photo by Elizabeth Jenkins/Alaska’s Energy Desk)
Unpredictable weather events can make a daily commute a real headache. Unfortunately, that’s becoming more common in Alaska as the climate warms.
It’s something the state’s Department of Transportation is trying to adapt to.
Brad Davis often starts his days at the Anchorage Department of Transportation garage at the crack of dawn. He’s living every four year-olds’ fantasy, getting to sit behind the steering wheel of a big truck.
“It is fun to drive. There’s a lot going on,” Davis said.
Inside, there’s an intimidating array of buttons, switches and knobs. One deploys a watery solution on the road called salt brine; it a cure for slippery pavement.
It’s is a relatively new tool in the toolkit for DOT in Anchorage. The Department has been using it for about three years. Before, they relied on a mixture of sand.
To assume this is a simple operation wound be wrong. The trucks and some roads are outfitted with a sophisticated network of sensors that can detect the temperature of the asphalt. This tells drivers the ideal time to dispense the salt brine.
“These guys can be always be busy depending on a storm event,”said Tom Grman, the superintendent of the Department of Transportation in Anchorage.
He started at DOT more than a decade ago and says this refined strategy to combat ice wasn’t around then.
“I can recall a time where we would have maybe one good freezing rain event a winter,” Grman said. “And then several winters ago, those were really prevalent.”
Now, Grman begins his day with a cup of coffee and an email notification of those temperature readings.
Meadow Bailey is a DOT spokesperson, and she said the Department has been forced to change the way it maintains its roads. Climate change has made it harder and more expensive to keep up.
There’s the freezing rain, of course. But there have been other issues, like damage to roads built on thawing permafrost and events that the department couldn’t have anticipated. In 2015, the Dalton Highway flooded, due to an extreme weather event. That limited access to the North Slope for weeks.
‘Totally unique scenario no one ever heard of or thought of or could plan for,” Bailey said.
Keep in mind, this is all happening at a time when the state’s Department of Transportation has seen drastic budget cuts. For the past two years, the funding has remained flat.
Dan Schacher, the superintendent in Fairbanks, recalls a time when his department spent $750,000 more than normal.
“We had five consecutive months during the winter that we had measurable rain in Fairbanks, which is unheard of,” Schacher said. “So it’s continuing to become more and more of regular occurrence for us, and it’s something that we’re changing our methods to respond to.”
The Fairbanks DOT was the pilot project for the salt brine trucks, which Anchorage has now adopted. It’s part of a list of efficiencies the department has incorporated, including the high-tech temperature gauges.
Schacher admits the brine solution wasn’t popular initially with some drivers who were worried about it corroding their cars. But it’s a common treatment in the Lower 48. Alaska commuters can’t count on the winters of the past anymore.
“I think looking back it’s been good for us to go through some of the difficulties we’ve had because it made us reexamine some of our processes for the past 20 or 30 years,” Schacher said.
As for this winter, climatologists expect warm, wet conditions which can refreeze into ice.
The Department of Transportation will likely stay busy.
Rep. Scott Kawasaki, D-Fairbanks, and Kathryn Dodge gained the leads in the ongoing ballot-counting in their races. Kawasaki is leading Sen. Pete Kelly, R-Fairbanks for Kelly’s seat. Dodge, a Democrat, is leading Republican Barton LeBon to succeed Kawasaki in the House. (Kawasaki photo by Skip Gray/360 North, Dodge photo courtesy Kathryn Dodge)
The leads changed Tuesday in two still-undecided Fairbanks elections.
Fairbanks Democratic Rep. Scott Kawasaki took a 152-vote lead over Republican Sen. Pete Kelly for Kelly’s seat. That’s after state elections workers counted questioned ballots.
In addition, Democratic House candidate Kathryn Dodge took a 10-vote lead over Republican Barton LeBon to fill the seat Kawasaki vacated to challenge Kelly.
Going into the questioned-vote count, Kelly was leading by 11 votes and LeBon led by 79.
However, there are still some absentee ballots that need to be counted before the results will be finalized. Further counting is scheduled for Friday.
Kelly was the Senate president over the past two years. If Kawasaki maintains his lead, there will be 13 Republican senators and seven Democratic senators.
If Dodge maintains her lead, the House will be evenly split, with 20 members who had indicated that they would caucus with the current, mostly Democratic majority, and 20 members who indicated that they would caucus with the current Republican minority.
Juneau’s cold weather emergency shelter is in the old Alaska Department of Public Safety Building on Whittier Avenue, pictured here on Dec. 2, 2017, the day after the shelter first opened. (Photo by David Purdy/KTOO)
Beginning Thursday, Juneau’s cold weather emergency shelter will open on nights when the temperature is below freezing.
This is the second winter the City and Borough of Juneau will operate the shelter. The facility in the old state public safety building on Whittier Street sleeps up to 28 people and operates from 11 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. through April 15.
Chief Housing Officer Scott Ciambor said overnight staffing was the hardest part about running the shelter last winter.
“This year we’re in a better place because we have the experience and had the funding allocated ahead of time so we kind of knew and could do some planning,” Ciambor said.
Last year, local shelters AWARE and the Glory Hall helped with staffing and spreading the word. Those partnerships will continue this year with the addition of St. Vincent de Paul.
According to the city, the shelter opened on 70 different nights and served 158 individuals last winter.
These cots, pictured on Dec. 2, 2017, in Juneau’s cold weather emergency shelter were already owned by the City and Borough of Juneau according to City and Borough of Juneau Chief Housing Officer Scott Ciambor. The shelter opened for the first time the night before. (Photo by David Purdy/KTOO)
Ciambor said it helps meet a critical need in the community. An annual homeless count last January found 235 homeless individuals living in Juneau, 44 of whom were unsheltered. Juneau’s existing shelters regularly operate at capacity in winter.
In a report last spring, Ciambor wrote that the additional shelter likely saved lives and relieved pressure on emergency services.
Notifications about when the shelter will open will go out on the city Housing Program website, social media accounts and by word of mouth. Ciambor said they will also post a sign outside the shelter.
“Basically, we’ll give notice at 4 p.m. the day before and then get the word out whether it’s open the following night,” Ciambor said.
The Juneau Assembly approved $75,000 to fund the shelter this winter. Ciambor said the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority also approved a grant request for an additional $30,000.
The city recently purchased the old public safety building from the mental health trust and plans to tear it down in the spring after the shelter closes for the season.
Ciambor said the city is working on identifying a future location for the emergency shelter.
When Bristol Bay rivers run red this summer, it will be with 40.2 million sockeye salmon, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s forecast.
“If there was a theme song or a bullet point for this year, it would be kind of a return to normal,” said Greg Buck, the Bristol Bay area research biologist. “You know, we’ve been on something of a sugar high the last couple of years.”
If the forecast is correct, the total run would be 10 percent below the most recent 10-year average of 44.4 million reds, but it would still come in well above the long-term average of 34 million fish.
The rivers that are likely to see the most striking drop this year from the past two years are the Nushagak and the Wood. The Nushagak District as a whole is forecasted to see 10.3 million reds return with 4.2 million to the Nushagak River and 4.6 million to the Wood River. Compare that to last year’s total run of 33.5 million sockeye to the district.
Credit Alaska Department of Fish and Game
ADF&G is predicting that the Naknek-Kvichak run at 16.1 million reds will be similar to last year’s. It is forecasting larger runs to Egegik and Ugashik at 9.1 million and 3.5 million respectively.
Togiak is also forecasted to have a strong summer with 1.2 million sockeye returning.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a forecast for Togiak that was above a million, so I’m pretty excited about that as well,” said Sands.
Forecasting salmon returns in Bristol Bay is notoriously difficult. Biologists said that some unexpected variability in the age classes of fish that returned in 2018 made it especially tough to pin down the Nushagak District forecast for 2019.
According to the forecast, “Evidence regarding the strength of the 2015 brood year in the Nushgak District is mixed with a very high level of jacks (age-1.1 fish) in the Nushagak River and a very low level of jacks in the Wood River 2018 return.”
Sands also said that in 2018 the Wood River saw an unusual number of 2.1’s, fish that spent two years in freshwater and one years in saltwater. That, in combination with last year’s incredibly large return of 1.2’s to the river, suggest to Sands that it is possible 2.2’s could make a showing in the Wood River this year.
“And we don’t normally see 2.2’s, but there’s a possibility of that being a much bigger number than we’ve seen historically,” said Sands, illustrating the difficulty of using data from recent returns to model the 2019 forecast.
According to Sands, the forecast is conservative in its estimated return to the Nushagak District.
Buck is more confident in the forecasts for Bristol Bay’s east side districts.
“You don’t see any brood tables over there that really make you scratch your head. If you look at all the models, there seems to be an answer that makes sense,” said Buck.
He notes that, on average, forecasts since 2001 have been under forecast by an 11 percent.
Contact the author at avery@kdlg.org or 907-842-2200.
Abigail Echo-Hawk co-authored a report highlighting the lack of data on missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. She’s holding a skirt inscribed with victims’ names. Photo: Liz Ruskin
Indigenous women and girls are murdered or disappear from American cities in alarming numbers. But no one knows the true scope of the problem, because no one regularly reports the data. A new effort aims to spotlight both problems — the homicides of Native women, and the lack of data about their deaths and disappearances.
At the U.S. Capitol, Sen. Lisa Murkowski wore purple Wednesday, because she said that was the favorite color of Ashley Johnson-Barr.
“Ashley was 10 years old when she was brutally, brutally murdered in Kotzebue, after being kidnapped,” Murkowski said at a press conference about missing and murdered indigenous women.
Murkowski also spoke about Sophie Sergei, a student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks who was raped and murdered in a dormitory bathroom.
“That has been a cold case now for some 25 years,” Murkowski said.
Such stories never leave her, she said. But they do often drop out of the public record, or never make it into the record in the first place.
Murkowski and Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., have sponsored a bill to improve federal data on Native American homicide victims and missing people. Heitkamp said information is the first step.
“You will never solve a problem you won’t admit you have, that you don’t have data on, that you don’t have the ability to actually analyze,” said Heitkamp, who is in her final weeks in the Senate, having lost her re-election bid last week.
The Urban Indian Health Institute highlights the lack of data in a new report. The institute, part of the Seattle Indian Health Board, contacted police departments in 71 cities, Orlando to Utqiaġvik, and asked for case information on all missing and murdered indigenous women going back to 1900. The report says 31 police departments, including the Alaska State Troopers, provided no data at all, or didn’t respond by the report deadline. (An AST spokeswoman said the agency provided data from recent years on Oct. 29.) The researchers also combed social and traditional media, and reached out to community members. Ultimately, they found 506 cases in the 71 cities. They say it’s a data snapshot.
“First, I want to tell you, I had no federal funding for this. I financed most of it myself, through speaking fees I charge,” said Abigail Echo-Hawk, one of the report authors. She lives in Seattle now, but she’s originally from Fairbanks.
“I did this report for less than $20,000, when the Department of Justice, the FBI, states, cities told us they couldn’t do it. There wasn’t budget line-items. They didn’t have the resources.”
The report singles out Anchorage police for excellence. The authors say the Anchorage Police Department saw the request for data as important, and got on it promptly. The department found 31 cases of missing or murdered Native women. And the hero of that statistical mission is Sgt. Slav Markiewicz of APD’s homicide unit.
“I try to maintain good databases,” he said.
Markiewicz has been devoted to those databases since he started in homicide in 2005, and he got help from detectives in culling back through the old files.
“All the way to the 70s and it was difficult and we were afraid that it might not be completed but we tried to gather, to get all those cases listed,” he said.
Markiewicz said when APD started the database there was resistance to collecting information on victim race. The police should be colorblind, the argument went, because all homicide victims are important.
“I still wanted to have that information included,” Markiewicz said, ” because I knew that when you have that information you can adjust your strategies … not only in order to solve these crimes but hopefully prevent them.”
Markiewicz is retiring at the end of the year but said he’s confident his successor will keep up the devotion to good data collection.
Supporters of Mike Dunleavy’s campaign for governor wave campaign signs on the Aug. 21 primary in Juneau. The group Dunleavy for Alaska, the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska and Eric Seibles sued over state enforcement of a ban on outdoor advertising in July. A judge issued a temporary restraining order on Monday allowing some political signs. (Photo by Andrew Kitchenman/KTOO)
A judge’s ruling yesterday resolves a lawsuit about political signs along Alaska highways.
Some temporary political signs will still be allowed. But the state will be able to enforce its ban on signs within the state right of way along highways.
Anchorage Superior Court Judge Herman Walker issued a final order on the lawsuit, which was filed in August by the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska, the group Dunleavy for Alaska and Palmer resident Eric Siebels.
Alaska Assistant Attorney General Mike Schechter said both sides agreed to the order.
“The people of the state can absolutely express a preference that their scenic byways not be cluttered with huge billboards,” Schechter said. “And we can accommodate both that preference of the people of Alaska and the constitutional right to allow for the display of small political campaign signs on people’s property.”
Walker’s order allows for small political signs on private property displayed by owners or residents of the property, as long as they’re not being paid for the display. The state will be able to continue to enforce its ban on highway billboards, but it can’t single out political signs for enforcement.
ACLU spokesman Casey Reynolds said the order is a victory for the plaintiffs.
“They can’t do a specific crackdown on political signs,” Reynolds said. “They’ll have to do it in the normal course of cleaning out the right of ways.”
Alaska has banned advertising along highways since it was a territory.
The Kuskokwim 300 sled dog race was born in Myron Angstman’s living room in 1979, almost 40 years ago. If there’s one word that can describe the sled dog race, it’s scrappy.
“We don’t take no for answer when putting on the race,” Angstman said. “There’s many, many reasons where it would have been really easy to not have the race for weather reasons, logistics reasons.”
Angstman is the chairman of the K300 Race Committee, which offers its three signature races in January: The Kuskokwim 300 (or K300), the Bogus Creek 150, and the Akiak Dash. The K300 Committee announced that it raised its purse by $10,000 per race for the fifth time in seven years.
The K300 is the biggest race, running from Bethel to Aniak and back. Angstman says that he heard of the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame about a decade ago, but he didn’t think the K300 had a chance at getting in at first.
“So we never did or said much about the hall of fame because we figured our chances were too limited being where we are [in Rural Alaska],” Angstman said. “But then as we watched over the years, there were other events that were nominated or selected that, you know, was certainly no more deserving than the Kuskokwim 300.”
Madelene Reichard is the race manager and one of the race’s two employees. She says that the effort to get the K300 into the hall of fame began three years ago. They were turned down last year, so they contacted their fan base.
“The Alaska Sports Hall of Fame board decides on nominees, and so last year when we were not selected, we started a write-in campaign for ourselves,” Reichard said. “And we had mushers from all over the state, including the Iditarod champions and K300 champions and just people who enjoy watching our race, write in emails. And the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame was so overwhelmed and impressed with the interest and support of the Kuskokwim 300 that they put us on the ballot.”
The K300 is on the ballot, but still needs to be voted into the hall of fame. Reichard says that they started a campaign for people to vote on Facebook, and people can visit the organization’s website to cast a vote as well. The Alaska Sports Hall of Fame website did not list a deadline, but Angstman says that a final decision on nominees should come before the winter is out.
The dates have been set for the three largest races: The K300 and Bogus Creek 150 will start on January 18, and the Akiak Dash will begin on January 19.
Elizabeth Harball, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Anchorage
Governor-elect Mike Dunleavy today announced the name of the woman who will be Alaska’s next Natural Resources Commissioner.
Fairbanks vote counting flips tight races
Robyne, KUAC – Fairbanks
Ten votes now separate the candidates for Alaska House District 1. Yesterday, the Division of Elections counted all the early and questioned ballots. Kathryn Dodge now leads Bart LeBon by two tenths of a percent. For that race, as well as the race for Senate Seat A, yesterday’s count flipped the race.
Report: Data lacking on murdered Native women
Liz Ruskin, Alaska Public Media – Washington
Indigenous women and girls are murdered or disappear from American cities in alarming numbers. But no one knows the true size of the tragedy, because no one regularly reports the data.
Anchorage mayor proposes alcohol tax to fund health, safety
Associated Press
Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz has proposed asking voters to approve a 5-percent sales tax on alcohol that could support services to address homelessness and substance abuse.
Judge allows some political signs, but maintains state ban on highway billboards
Andrew Kitchenman, Alaska Public Media & KTOO – Juneau
A judge’s ruling Tuesday resolves a lawsuit about political signs along Alaska highways. While some temporary political signs will still be allowed. The state will be able to enforce its ban on signs within the state right of way along highways.
A changing military brings fewer Alaska Natives into the ranks
Zachariah Hughes, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage
It’s common to hear public officials say that Alaska Natives join the Armed Forces at the highest rates in the country. During World War Two and for decades after, American Indians and Alaska Natives did indeed volunteer for the Armed Forces at exceptionally high rates. But those numbers have changed over time, and a big part of that change has to do with transformations in the structure of the military.
DNR proposes auctioning planned Interior Veterans Cemetery site
Dan Bross, KUAC – Fairbanks
Land originally targeted for development of an Interior Veterans Cemetery may go up for sale. The Alaska Department of Natural Resources has proposed auctioning 320 acres located in the Goldstream Valley, north of Fairbanks.
British Columbia moves to clean defunct Juneau-area metals mine
Jacob Resneck, CoastAlaska – Juneau
British Columbia has taken the first step towards cleaning up the Tulsequah Chief Mine, a long-defunct metals mine about 40 miles northeast of Juneau that’s been polluting the transboundary watershed for decades.
Kuskokwim 300 race nominated to Alaska Sports Hall of Fame
Krysti Shallenberger, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Bethel
The Kuskowkim 300 sled dog race is considered a qualifying race for the Iditarod, and multiple Hall of Fame mushers have competed in the race. Now the K300 event itself has been nominated for the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame.
Acid drainage from the Tulsequah Chief Mine, discolors a leaking containment pond next to the Tulsequah River in British Columbia in 2013. (Photo courtesy Chris Miller/Trout Unlimited)
British Columbia is exploring ways to clean up a long-defunct metals mine about 40 miles northeast of Juneau. The Tulsequah Chief Mine has been polluting the transboundary watershed for decades.
Toronto-based Chieftain Metals took over the mine in 2010. It was the latest in a string of efforts to restart gold, silver, lead and zinc mining near the confluence of the Tulsequah and Taku rivers.
The Canadian mine was developed in the early 20th century. But it was abandoned in 1957.
John Morris Sr. recalls commercial salmon fishing on the Taku River from the 1940s when people in Southeast Alaska began to speculate about the mine upstream impacting the fish.
“It was later on like in 1956 or 1957, I think, that somebody finally said, ‘If you go up to the Tulsequah Chief Mine you’re going to see that holding pond that’s real orange, and there’s a pipe leading out and it’s leaching right into the river,’” Morris said.
Morris is the vice president of the Douglas Indian Association, a federally-recognized tribe in Juneau that’s been working to get the mine site cleaned up for decades.
Tlingit elders on the other side of the border have been doing the same.
“Nothing has really been done,” said John Ward, the elected spokesperson for the Taku River Tlingit First Nation in Atlin, British Columbia. “There was attempts to put in a treatment plant which sorta went sideways. It didn’t work.”
He’s referring to a water treatment plant installed by Chieftain Metals. It operated for nine months but didn’t work and was shut down in 2012.
“Just because it didn’t work doesn’t mean that the pollution stopped. It still continues,” Ward said.
Chieftain Metals then ran into serious financial trouble. Losses were reported in the hundreds of millions for creditors and investors and the company went bankrupt in 2016.
It then missed several key deadlines set by British Columbia regulators to address pollution concerns. Its main creditor, West Face Capital, has since taken charge of the site.
Earlier this month, British Columbia’s ministry responsible for mining put a 15-page request for proposals for a private contractor to clean up the site for good.
“They are making some moves now, so that’s good news,” Ward said.
Environmental groups have also welcomed British Columbia’s apparent step toward reclamation.
“I think B.C. is now thinking, ‘To do the right thing, to get this monkey off our back, I think to show that we’re a good neighbor, we’ve got to clean it up,’” said Chris Zimmer of Rivers Without Borders in Juneau. His group will be watching closely to ensure the remediation is comprehensive.
The mine’s legacy left mineral sulfides exposed to air and water that’s been generating acidic runoff for decades.
“We don’t want to quit, we want to keep pushing to get this done,” said Morris. “I’m 78 years old. That was 61 years ago (when) that mine had been shut down and contaminating the Taku. And that is one of the things that’s been on my list to hopefully get done before I’m gone.”
Gov. Bill Walker wrote to his counterpart in British Columbia on Oct. 31 urging the premier to order the mine’s full reclamation.
“This is a priority for Alaskans,” the governor’s fisheries adviser Ephraim Froehlich said in a statement. “The governor hopes to see B.C. follow-through on this effort to its full resolution, as Alaskans will not be satisfied until that is the case.”
British Columbia’s Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources released a statement Wednesday confirming that Chieftain Metals is in compliance with mining laws and regulations.
“The province remains committed to resolving the ongoing contamination and remediation concerns at the site, and holding all owners, both past and present accountable for remediation and reclamation,” the statement said.
The deadline for proposals is Nov. 29. A remediation plan wouldn’t be submitted until late 2019, meaning work wouldn’t actually start until 2020 at the earliest.
Corri Feige (left) in her previous role as head of the state Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Oil and Gas, reading out bids during the state’s annual North Slope lease sale. Feige will lead the Department of Natural Resources under Gov.-elect Mike Dunleavy. (Photo by Rachel Waldholz/Alaska’s Energy Desk)
Gov.-elect Mike Dunleavy today announced a key member of his cabinet: Corri Feige will be Alaska’s next natural resources commissioner.
Dunleavy made the announcement at an industry conference in Anchorage.
“We’ve had great conversations with her; very intelligent, very knowledgeable, pretty much in line with where we want to go as a state, and that’s creating jobs, creating opportunities,” Dunleavy told reporters after the announcement.
Feige is not new to the agency she will now lead. She was previously the head of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Oil and Gas under Gov. Bill Walker. But she resigned in 2016 during a dispute between the Walker administration and oil companies over marketing North Slope gas.
Feige is a geophysicist and engineer by training and has previously worked for smaller independent oil and mining companies in Alaska. She is married to Eric Feige, a former Republican state representative.
In her new role, Feige will help steer the Dunleavy administration’s policies on issues including the natural gas pipeline project and the proposed Pebble Mine. Feige will also be a central voice in Alaska’s relationship with the Trump administration as it pushes for more oil development on the state’s federal lands and waters, including in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The governor-elect also made a policy announcement: Dunleavy said he wants to freeze all new regulations across all state departments and will attempt to retroactively freeze any regulations put forth by the Walker administration after Election Day.
Dunleavy said he is doing this to “assess whether they are needed or will hurt the economy.”
In response, Austin Baird, a spokesman for Gov. Walker, said he didn’t believe this would result in any significant changes, as “there is no plan to implement new regulations that would restrict resource development in any way,” Baird said in an email.
“The Governor-elect is effectively asking the Walker Administration to continue the work we’ve been doing for the past four years,” Baird said.
Crooked Creek, on the Upper Kuskokwim River, is the closest village to the proposed Donlin Mine. In town, the signs of Donlin Gold are everywhere, but the local community is conflicted about the mine. Some residents see the potential for much needed economic development while others see the possible disruption of their subsistence lifestyle.
Two men who grew up in Crooked Creek worked for Donlin Gold in the past. Both see its development as inevitable, but disagree on whether the mine should happen at all.
Crooked Creek is one of the smallest villages in the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta. John Thomas, who grew up in the town says there used to be 150 residents at one point, but now he’s guessing that number is less than 100.
Thomas runs the only lodge in town. It’s been in his family for decades. He says he sees the most traffic in the summer, when people come to fish for silver salmon. But even that is not enough.
“[It’s] a little hard to keep it open because it there’s no business…need more people,” Thomas said. ” We need more.”
If the Donlin Gold Mine begins operating, that could be a financial boost for Thomas. He and his family are some of Donlin’s biggest cheerleaders in Crooked Creek. Thomas helped Donlin haul supplies during the company’s early exploration days. He still does some water monitoring for the company.
The mine would be one of the biggest in the world, if completed. And it would be built about 10 miles from Crooked Creek.
Donlin has promised to offer about 1,000 annual jobs if the mine is developed. That’s a huge deal for the poorest region of the state.
Donlin’s financial support in the region goes beyond jobs. You can see Donlin Gold’s logo everywhere in Crooked Creek. It’s on clothes. It’s emblazoned onto the scoreboard at Crooked Creek’s school. The company also helped rebuild a church; it helped residents recover after a bad flood in 2011. Donlin Gold spokesman Kurt Parkan says the company spends $1,000,000 in the villages throughout the region, including Crooked Creek.
“I think it’s important for any business that is working in an area to be engaged with the communities and the people of the region,” Parkan said.
The village tribal council in Crooked Creek passed a resolution 10 years ago supporting the mine. But the tribal administrator, Ally Zaukar, says the current council is neutral on the mine. She didn’t give any more details on why the status changed.
But one man wearing a blue sweatshirt with “Donlin Gold” in bright big yellow letters across his chest differed from Thomas over the mine.
“I mean the money is good,” said Steven Peter. “You know it’s not forever….What really worries me is contamination.”
Peter doesn’t want the mine, but he does see the economic benefits. Like Thomas, Peter used to work for Donlin
“Yeah, the first early days when I started, I mean, I had numerous jobs but I started core cutting too,” Peter said. “Being a driller helper and geotechnical work with the geologist.”
But Peter relies on subsistence, like fishing and hunting. He’s the main caretaker for his 91-year-old mother, Sophia, who is the oldest elder in the village He says his work trapping helps pay the bills. And he sets his traps near the mine site. Peter says if the mine starts operating, it would hurt his ability to make a living the way he wants to.
“[I have to] provide something for the house and pay bills and whatnot,” Peter said.
The divide between Peter and Thomas over the mine is common in the Y-K Delta. But the stakes are higher in Crooked Creek. Donlin says the company will build the mine as safely as possible — but if there is a mine accident, Crooked Creek is the first community that will feel the consequences.
And Peter doesn’t want to risk that chance.
But on the other hand, supporters say jobs could keep people in nearby communities a little longer. And residents in Crooked Creek tell me that that the Donlin gold mine is inevitable. So all they can do is wait for it to come.
Coast Guard Fast Response Cutter John McCormick in Ketchikan. (2017 KRBD photo)
For years, Alaska’s commercial fishing fleet has dreaded a rule that would require an EPA permit for even basic boat discharges, like draining a fish hold or rinsing the deck. Congress has had to pass a series of short-term measures to prevent enforcement of the requirement.
“Nobody thought it was a good idea,” U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan said. “Democrats, Republicans -nobody thought hosing down your deck you need an EPA discharge permit.”
Now, Congress is on the verge of ditching the requirement forever. Wednesday, the U.S. Senate passed a Coast Guard authorization bill co-sponsored by Sullivan that includes a permanent exemption for fishing boats of less than 79 feet.
United Fishermen of Alaska President Matt Alward says he’s been assured the House will pass the bill after Thanksgiving and send it to the president for his signature.
“After over a decade of working on it, it’s a huge deal to finally have it done,” Alward said, praising Sullivan for his work on the matter.
The Coast Guard bill also includes a land exchange on Kodiak Island with Lynden Transport. Lynden CEO Jim Jansen is among the owners of Ayakulik Island, off the southwest side of Kodiak Island. Ayakulik would become federal property and Lynden would obtain a tract of federal land on Womens Bay, home to Kodiak’s Coast Guard station and an existing dock.
If the bill is signed into law, it could also help the federal research vessel Fairweather return to its Ketchikan homeport. The bill would allow the U.S. government to accept non-federal funds to build a dock for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ship.
