Alaska news

• Flooding at Baird Glacier spreads green water

  29-09-2015 23:09
  View of the out wash at Baird Glacier. (Photo/Karen Dillman)
  An explosive outburst of flooding from the Baird Glacier near Petersburg last week caused turquoise green water to spread into nearby Frederick Sound and the Wrangell Narrows. It’s something that residents hadn’t seen before.
  When 83-year-old Paul Bowen was out hand trolling near Petersburg and noticed green water he knew something was happening.
  “This is amazing, this turquoise color as far as we can see on Frederick
  
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• Salvation Army buys building to house Bethel headquarters

  29-09-2015 23:06
  
  The Salvation Army purchased this building from Bethel resident Tim Myers. (Photo by Charles Enoch/KYUK)
  The Salvation Army finalized the purchased of a building in the Tundra Ridge area of Bethel Friday. Once operational, the building will offer a variety of services to the community.
  Major Loni Upshaw is handling the purchase and says she is happy with the building.
  “Wonderful building! And it fits the needs that the Salvation Army has in this community, lack of any place else to purchas
  
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• Nushagak survey monitors Snag Point erosion

  29-09-2015 23:01
  
  Hydrographic surveyor Per Steenstrup (right) and his colleague, both of eTrac, Inc., calibrate their instruments during a break between surveys at the Dillingham boat harbor. (Photo by Hannah Colton, KDLG – Dillingham)
  A drift boat outfitted with surveying equipment spent just over a week in September crisscrossing Nushagak Bay, taking depth measurements.
  The Army Corps of Engineers funded the survey to plot changes to the river’s channel. They’re doing so to keep an eye on coa
  
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• Competition drives down PFD airfare deals

  29-09-2015 22:57
  
  The first round of Permanent Fund Dividend deposits are set to hit bank accounts Thursday, and travel deals are heating up as airlines compete for Alaska’s customers.
  Scott McMurren is the publisher of Alaska Travelgram. And even though Alaska Airlines has been offering PFD discounts for years, he says this year’s deals are different.
  “Delta was first out of the gate with their own version of the Permanent Fund Dividend airfares, and they’re great,” McMurren sa
  
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• Why Shell's Arctic drilling pullout hurts cash-strapped Alaska - Fortune

  29-09-2015 22:43
  Fortune
  Why Shell's Arctic drilling pullout hurts cash-strapped Alaska
  Fortune
  Environmentalists are happy, but the state loses out by not filling its 800-mile oil pipeline. Energy giant Royal Dutch Shell RDS.A 1.48% said earlier this week it has decided to abandon its Arctic drilling project off Alaska's northern coast after ...
  Life after Shell: What's next for oil & gas in AlaskaKTUU.com
  Shell Arctic decision has ripple effect on Trans-Alaska PipelineHouston Chronicle (subscription)
  Shel
  

• Reactions to Shell’s decision range from remorse to relief

  29-09-2015 19:13
  Shell’s Noble Discoverer in Unalaska in 2012. (KUCB-Unalaska file photo)
  Governor Bill Walker is calling Shell’s announcement a “huge disappointment.” He says the end of Shell’s offshore dreams means the state must push harder for the federal government to allow drilling in another controversial region — the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
  “We need to get some oil in the pipeline, and we need to do it as quickly as possible…if
  
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• Shell Exits Arctic as Slump in Oil Prices Forces Industry to Retrench

  29-09-2015 06:00 via nytimes.com
  In one sign of the industrywide trend, Royal Dutch Shell has ended its expensive nine-year effort to explore for oil in the Alaskan Arctic.
  
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• New Dinosaur Species That Lived Above Arctic Circle Is Discovered

  29-09-2015 06:00 via nytimes.com
  A duck-billed plant eater that lived 69 million years ago provides further evidence that a much warmer Alaska had its own community of dinosaurs.
  
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• Exuberance and Disappointment at Shell’s About-Face in the Arctic

  29-09-2015 04:02 via nytimes.com
  In Alaska, Shell’s announcement that it would suspend drilling in the Chukchi Sea after a test showed less promise than hoped for was one more blow to a state where energy-tax revenues are drying up.
  
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• Shell pulls out of the Arctic, citing lack of resource

  29-09-2015 03:37
  
  
  The Polar Pioneer drill rig arrives in Dutch Harbor. (Photo by Emily Schwing, KUCB – Unalaska)
  After sinking eight years and more than $8 billion into the effort, Shell Oil is pulling out of the Arctic Ocean. The company dropped the surprising news in a Sunday-night press release.
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  Shell officials said the company safely drilled a well more than mile beneath the floor of the Chukchi Sea this summer. They found indications of oil and gas there, but not enou
  
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• Murkowski calls Shell pull-out a ‘kick in the gut’

  29-09-2015 03:36
  
  
  Shell’s Fennica vessel. Photo: John Ryan/KUCB.
  Sen. Lisa Murkowski says news that Shell is pulling out of the Alaska Arctic hit her hard.
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  “Heartsick. Kick in the gut. Just really devastated,” she said, speaking as she walked through the Capitol on her way to a Senate vote Monday.
  Murkowski says dry holes are a fact of oil exploration, but she blames the federal government for curtailing Shell, and for frustrating Alaskan efforts to portray itself a
  
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• Sen. McGuire won’t seek re-election in 2016

  29-09-2015 03:35
  
  
  Sen. Lesil McGuire addresses the Alaska Senate, April 19, 2014. (Photo by Skip Gray/Gavel Alaska)
  Senator Lesil McGuire, a Republican from Anchorage, likely surprised attendees at the Arctic Energy Summit in Fairbanks today when she announced she would not seek re-election next year.
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  McGuire said she chose the summit as the place to make her announcement because the arctic and energy issues are two of the great passions of her life. She said although being a senator for the past 1
  
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• Anchorage convenes task force to combat sex trafficking

  29-09-2015 03:35
  
  
  A new working group in Anchorage is bringing city, state, and federal resources to combat human trafficking across Alaska.
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  The Berkowitz administration is taking the lead on the issue, working with the state’s Department of Labor to hold regular meetings among law enforcement, advocacy organizations, and state agencies. At Monday’s meeting, officials attended from the FBI, several non-profits, and government bodies, including Representative Gabrielle LeDoux, chair
  
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• Alaska News Nightly: Monday, Sept. 28, 2015

  29-09-2015 03:35
  
  
  Stories are posted on the APRN news page. You can subscribe to APRN’s newsfeeds via email, podcast and RSS. Follow us on Facebook at alaskapublic.org and on Twitter @aprn.Download Audio
   
  Shell pulls out of the Arctic, citing lack of resource
  John Ryan, KUCB – Unalaska
  After sinking eight years and more than $8 billion into the effort, Shell Oil is pulling out of the Arctic Ocean.
  Murkowski calls Shell pull-out a ‘kic
  
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• As ice melts, Arctic opens for cruise ships

  29-09-2015 03:33
  
  
  The Crystal Serenity will dock in Nome next summer during its voyage over the Inside Passage. Photo by L. Colombo (Olonia), accessed via Wikimedia Commons.
  As sea ice melts and temperatures rise, the Arctic is seeing an increase in vessel traffic, but it’s not just icebreakers and research vessels making the journey up north. Cruise ships, mainly European ones, are also taking advantage of the region’s more navigable waters.
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  They’re hard to miss. Most of them wea
  
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• With reservoir low, Kodiak asks citizens to conserve water

  29-09-2015 03:31
  
  
  It’s been a dry summer for Kodiak, which has lowered bodies of water throughout Kodiak Island, including the Monashka reservoir.
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  According to Rick Thoman, the climate science and services manager for the Alaska region of the National Weather Service, it’s one of the driest seasons in Kodiak history.
  “Kodiak since June 1 has received just over ten inches of rain. That’s just about half of normal for that time and is the second lowest of record… the on
  
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• EIS forthcoming for proposed Donlin gold mine

  29-09-2015 03:30
  
  
  Permitting for the proposed Donlin Gold mine, which will affect communities along the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta is underway. An official draft of the statement examining the mine’s affects on the environment will be available at the end of November.
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  Donlin runway and camp site in summer 2014. Photo by Dean Swope / KYUK.
  Before the mine can be built more than 150 permits and certifications must be approved by federal, state and local agencies. Approval from state agencies is
  
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• DEC to spend $4 million on Wrangell junkyard cleanup

  29-09-2015 03:30
  
  
  The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation announced on Sept. 21 that it will spend about $4 million to clean up a former Wrangell junkyard site with high levels of lead contamination.
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  An aerial view of the junkyard site four miles south of downtown Wrangell. (Photo courtesy of dec.alaska.gov)
  Wrangell Economic Development Director Carol Rushmore says Wrangell initially got a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to test for contamination at the former site
  
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