Snake River
Bridge to move
By Sandra L. Medearis
Nome Joint Utility System staff and
board have a plan to replace the decrepit
Snake River Bridge with a new crossing
closer to town.
That's the bridge that has Band-Aids all
over it to keep roadbed material from sifting
into the water. New money came down
the hopper for the bridge replacement from
the state's voters approving a road package
last November.
Proposed plans call for laying the
bridge across the river at the beginning of
the broad curve of Seppala Drive east of
the Center Creek Road intersection. Placement
under study calls for the port area
end of the bridge to come out near the
south end of the new power plant. Such an
alternative would require road realignment
on Seppala between Center Creek and
Cemetery roads to provide an intersection
for the bridge approach.
The state Department of Transportation,
declaring support for the project, has
agreed to lease land adjacent to the north
end of the new power plant to NJUS and continued on page 4  |
Skinny crabs
close fish plant
By Laurie McNicholas
The Norton Sound Seafood Products
plant in Nome reportedly stopped issuing
bait and ice to commercial red king crab
fishermen June 22 after receiving complaints
from customers about insufficient
meat fill in the legs of crab purchased from
the plant. Crab fishermen told The Nome
Nugget the plant would suspend operations
for two weeks.
Meanwhile, the Norton Sound commercial
red king crab fishery remains open
because Lamar Ballard of AquaTech, an
Anchorage firm that buys crab from Unalakleet
fisherman Clarence Towarak,
sampled crab in Towarak's first delivery
and found the legs filled with crab meat.
Ballard attached photos of the samples
showing cross-sections of meat-filled crab
legs to a July 24 e-mail to Joyce Soong,
fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department
of Fish and Game in Nome.
Rich Ferry, NSSP's northern region operations
manager, provided the following continued on page 6
Council calls for internationally binding Arctic Sea laws
By Diana Haecker
A busy future lies in store for the Arctic
Ocean as thinning sea ice potentially opens the
window for commercial marine traffic to traverse
the ocean on top of the world in the summer,
concludes a multi-national shipping report
commissioned by the Arctic Council.
To keep the environment protected while developing
the Arctic sustainably, the 200-page
Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment report recommends
creating uniform shipping regulations
across the Arctic for safety and
environmental protection, to take measures
protecting Arctic people and the environment,
and to build marine infrastructure, communication
systems, ports, ice information services
and to provide ice navigation training.
Scientists predict that multi-year sea ice
is seriously declining and may be gone by
the summer of 2015. "It is highly plausible
there will be greater marine access and
longer seasons of navigation, except perhaps
during winter, but not necessarily less difficult
ice conditions for marine operations,"
says the report.
Although the International Maritime Organization
has developed guidelines for ships operating
in Arctic ice-covered waters, those
recommendations are voluntary and not binding. "There are no uniform, international standards
for ice navigators and for Arctic safety
and survival for seafarers in polar conditions,"
the report states. Also, there are no mandatory
environmental standards developed by the
IMO for ships in Arctic waters.
With more traffic and resource development,
the report identifies the No. 1 threat as an oil
spill. But a response to such a disaster would
be nearly impossible. "The lack of marine infrastructure
in all but a limited number of areas,
coupled with the vastness and harshness of the
environment, makes conduct of emergency response
significantly more difficult in the Arctic,"
the report concludes.
The lack of an international marine regulatory
framework combined with natural re- continued on page 5
Push for detox center still has strong backing
By Tyler Rhodes
Leaders of a wide cross-section of
Nome's agencies and organizations
gathered June 18 to continue working
on a roadmap toward providing
services and treatment for those suffering
from substance abuse and
chronic homelessness in the region.
The roundtable-style meeting
served as a follow-up to an April 9
community meeting centered on developing
some sort of residential
treatment facility in Nome. Like
that April meeting, the most recent
gathering was organized by Norton
Sound Health Corp. and was open
to the public.
The June 18 meeting drew more
than two dozen people to Old St.
Joe's Hall to hear of the progress
made by various groups and agencies
seeking to address the problem in
both the long and short term.
Norton Sound Health Corp. is
working with a $50,000 grant from
the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority
to evaluate the need and feasibility
of providing a detoxification
and treatment facility. The hospital
was awarded another $100,000 from
the authority for further planning and
feasibility studies in fiscal year 2010.
The large group meetings pulling together
the people and organizations that
fit into the larger picture of serving
those in need are part of that evaluation.
Much of the early discussion at
the meeting centered on the work of
the Nome Emergency Shelter Team,
an ad-hoc group that has worked to
tackle the issues of homelessness
and substance abuse treatment since continued on page 4
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