Associated Press

Officials say exhaust emissions from a Norwegian Cruise Line vessel docking in Juneau prompted at least 10 complaints to an Alaska regulatory agency.

The Juneau Empire reports the state Department of Environmental Conservation received at least nine calls and one electronic complaint about the exhaust flowing from the Norwegian Pearl’s stack as it docked Tuesday.

Ed White, manager of the department’s Commercial Passenger Vessel Environmental Compliance program, says the number of complaints is “probably as high as any day that we’ve seen.” He says the department is processing the complaints and cannot comment on ongoing compliance issues.

White says emissions monitors were watching Tuesday, but a report of any violation from the ship has not been received yet.

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Information from: Juneau (Alaska) Empire, http://www.juneauempire.com

A village in northwest Alaska is in line to receive a $450,000 federal grant to restore water service lost in a December freeze.

Officials say the “imminent threat” funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will go toward repairs and to ensure the water system will be viable for the more than 800 residents of Selawik. The village is 480 miles northwest of Anchorage.

HUD officials say the December freeze left 25 percent of Selawik’s residents without water and sewer services, which the community was unable to restore.

Officials say Selawik will receive the money after completion of a grant agreement with the agency.

State officials heard from residents and groups on St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea in a first of its kind meeting to address housing overcrowding and affordability in rural Alaska.

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski chaired the hearing in Savoonga, saying about 27 percent of households in Alaska’s Bering Strait region are classified as overcrowded or severely overcrowded, KTVA-TV reported Monday.

The area’s overcrowding is more than 4.3 times higher than the statewide average and more than 8.3 times the national average, Murkowski said. Overcrowding is also higher among American Indian and Alaska Native households.

“I think it is important to point out that overcrowding in Indian Country is often the expression of what is actually homelessness, with families taking in relatives or community members who otherwise could not find affordable housing options,” Murkowski said. “It is not uncommon for a household in rural Alaska to have multiple generations or multiple families living in them.”

Homelessness in Savoonga can be deadly because of the severe winters, so many families live in overcrowded conditions rather than risk lives, said Christopher Kolerok, president and CEO of the Bering Straits Regional Housing Authority.

“Overcrowded housing and the lack of housing are interchangeable conditions in rural Alaska,” Kolerok said. “The lack of safe, sanitary and affordable housing threatens the survival of Native cultures and the villages and towns many Alaska Natives call home. For American Indians and Alaska Natives, overcrowded housing is a manifestation of what would be unsheltered homelessness in other parts of the country.”

From 2006 to 2010, American Indian and Alaska Native people had a poverty rate and an unemployment rate about twice as high as the national averages, said Greg Stucky, administrator of the Alaska Office of Native American Programs.

During the same time span, people living in tribal areas were more than seven times as likely to live in housing that was overcrowded and more than four times as likely to live in housing that did not have adequate living standards, he said.

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Information from: KTVA-TV, http://www.ktva.com

ANCHORAGE — Alaska regulators are investigating after crude oil was discovered along a buried section of the trans-Alaska pipeline north of Fairbanks.

Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. has recovered 10 gallons of crude oil discovered Sunday following an excavation at the site south of Atigun Pass, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

The oil was discovered in the soil as crews inspected a mainline valve, said Michelle Egan, an Alyeska Pipeline spokeswoman. An excavation at the site is continuing, she said Tuesday.

“Engineering and field personnel are assessing the situation and developing plans to safely excavate the valve and to determine the cause of crude oil in the excavated area,” Egan said.

The oil could have been overlooked from the 2013 oil release, which occurred at the same site, said Ashley Adamczak, an environmental program specialist with the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

That release of 21 gallons was linked to soil movement that occurs as tundra freezes and thaws, she said.

Inspection crews had expected to find some trace of oil left from that release, but the amount found was more than expected, Adamczak said.

“We’re working through Alyeska to develop a cleanup plan, and to figure out if this is contamination left from the 2013 release or whether it is indicative of a new issue at the valve,” Adamczak said.

JUNEAU — An Alaska fisherman found the body of a man floating off Yakobi Island.

Alaska State Troopers say the state medical examiner will conduct an autopsy and attempt to identify the remains.

The Coast Guard on Saturday night took a call from a fishing vessel saying the body was floating about 1 mile offshore near Cape Cross on the west side of Yakobi Island.

Yakobi Island is off the northwest corner of Chichagof Island.

Alaska Wildlife Troopers on fisheries patrol recovered the body.

Troopers say the victim was an older white man. They could not make an initial identification.

JUNEAU, Alaska — An Alaska legislative candidate and her husband have been accused of misleading the state in applying for food stamps.

Candidate Rebecca Halat says the last year has been hard on her family, with her husband being laid off. She says she’s not scared by “false allegations from those trying to steal this election.”

Halat, who goes by Bekah, is a Republican running against state Rep. Chris Birch in next week’s GOP primary for an Anchorage Senate seat.

A charging document filed by the state alleges that Halat and her husband, Jarek Halat, did not disclose several bank accounts. The document says they were above the resource limit for food stamps during the time they received benefits this year.

Arraignment for Rebecca Halat is scheduled for Aug. 24.