Ketchikan may seek investors in dock expansion plans
Ketchikan is looking at a plan to do a public-private partnership deal for private investment in expansion of city docks to accommodate larger cruise ships. Estimated capital investments needed range from $100 million to $150 million. With its current outstanding debt at 110.8 million city officials said Ketchikan lacks the debt capacity to take on a major dock expansion on its own. Requests for Proposals are being developed by the city manager and the architectural and engineering company Bermello, Ajamil and Partners, Inc.

After five years, army corps completes nome port expansion study:
After a four-year delay the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has published its draft study of an expansion of Nome’s port to serve larger and deep-draft vessels. The estimated cost is $418 million with $313 million in federal funds eligible under the federal Water Resources Development Act. The corps recommended extending the port’s present west causeway by 3,484 feet to a total of 3,900 feet; deepening the port’s outer basin to 28 feet below mean sea level and creating a new deep-water basin with a depth of 30 feet to 40 feet below mean sea level. An option included is replacing the existing east causeway with a new causeway farther east. The corps selected Nome as the most cost-effective Arctic port in 2014 after a study of alternatives but paused the feasibility study in 2015 after Shell terminated its Arctic oil exploration.

Ketchikan to boost taxes, utility rates to increase employees’ pay:
The City of Ketchikan is raising property taxes and utility rates to be able to increase compensation and retain city employees, among other needs. The city is looking at hiking the local tax mill rate from 6.6 mills to 7.4 mills, an annual increase of $240 on a $300,000 property. Local utility rates are going up to. This is an effort to solve a serious problem in recruiting and retaining skilled city workers – there are now 20 vacant positions. Raising salaries to competitive levels for the city and Ketchikan Public Utilities would cost $1.86 million yearly, officials said. Consultant Ralph Anderson & Associates has completed a compensation study for the city, updating a study done by the firm in 2014.

Nome hikes its property tax to increase local school contribution:
Nome is raising its property tax also, to allow the city to increase its contribution to the Nome/Belt high school budget for Fiscal 2020 by $3 million. The tax increase is 2 mills, increasing the overall local rate to 13 mills. That would result in a $600 increase per year on a property valued at $300,000.

Fairbanks utility rates rise to fund construction, maintenance:
Golden Heart Utilities of Fairbanks will raise water rates by 10 percent and local wastewater rates by 12 percent to meet maintenance and capital improvement needs. The private utility serves parts of Fairbanks.

Southcentral contractors hustling with earthquake repairs:
Southcentral Alaska contractors say they are still busy with building repairs to damage from the 7.1 magnitude earthquake on Nov. 30. Homes and businesses still have cracked drywall and, in some cases, foundation damage. The work compounds a labor shortage contractors said they were dealing with even before the quake. Earthquake damage is still being discovered. Municipal officials closed the Eagle River Town Center Building after inspectors found brick veneer in danger of falling and suspected other damage. The center houses the local library, the chamber of commerce and municipal departments.

Southeast Alaska in drought; hydro levels being watched:
It’s official: Southern southeast Alaska, traditionally Alaska’s wet region, is experiencing an extreme drought, climate scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks said. Storm systems that normally bring rain to the region have moved west in the North Pacific Ocean or south toward the U.S. Pacific Northwest. Ketchikan has averaged 100 inches of rain annually since 2017. Typically it is about 160 inches year. Dry conditions in the region have implications for hydroelectric power generation and, in the long run, water flows in streams that support salmon, an important industry in the region.

Southcentral utilities now intervenor on Chugach-ML&P proceeding:
Matanuska Electric Association, Homer Electric Association and Golden Valley Electric Association of Fairbanks have been granted intervenor status in the Regulatory Commission of Alaska’s review of the purchase of Anchorage’s Municipal Light & Power by Chugach Electric Association. RCA has granted intervenor status to two large purchasers of electricity in Anchorage, the Federal Executive Agencies representing the military at Joint Base Elemendorf Richardson and Providence Health Systems.

Four Russian bombers and two fighters were intercepted by U.S. aircraft off Alaska coasts, although the Russian planes did not enter U.S. airspace. The Russian flights demonstrated an ongoing probing of Alaskan air defenses. The Russian flights provide support for the Alaska congressional delegation’s ongoing push for a stronger U.S. military presence in Alaska and the Arctic.

Regulatory:

State has new air quality study underway in Juneau:
The state Department of Environmental Conservation has a new air quality study underway in Juneau to study local air emissions which are mostly generated by cruise ships in harbor. Twenty-one monitors have been installed around the capital city to monitor for particulates in the air from engine exhaust as well as sulfur dioxide. A similar study was done 10 years ago. Emissions that cause haze have been an issue in coastal communities in years past but cruise ships have taken steps to mitigate the problem with new control technologies.

State supplies drinking water to Yakutat after contamination found:
There is continuing concern over water well contamination near airports where chemicals used in firefighting foam have leaked into local groundwater. The state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities has begun shipping drinking water to Yakutat residents where higher levels of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl have been found in water wells. Laboratory tests are still underway by the state Dept. of Environmental Conservation to determine an acceptable safe limit for the chemical contamination.

Increased discharges in Cook Inlet a worry for fishermen:
Environmental groups and some fishermen are worried about a state plan to increase the allowed disposal of “produced water” from Cook Inlet oil and gas production platforms into the Inlet. Produced water comes up well bores with oil and gas and is separated in facilities at the surface. It is mostly water but it does contain minor amounts of pollutants. The state Dept. of Environmental Conservation says the plan will increase the allowed discharge of produced water by about 9 percent, or 1 million gallons above the current allowed discharge of 10 million gallons, with only about half of that actually discharged.

In other oil producing areas like the North Slope produced water must be injected back into underground formations in special injection wells but offshore discharges are allowed in Cook Inlet because of the Inlet’s heavy tides, which disperse contaminants, and because requiring underground injection would impose heavy cost burdens on economically-marginal offshore platforms.