Associated Press

Alaska’s Supreme Court says recent owners of a North Pole oil refinery share costs of cleaning up a contamination that has reached about 7 square miles of groundwater.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports the Friday ruling keeps onsite cleanup costs attached to Flint Hills while former refinery owner Williams Alaska Petroleum is responsible for the plume that spread offsite.

A nearby resident had sued Flint Hills over the contamination.

Flint Hills then filed a claim against former refinery owner Williams Alaska Petroleum.

Payments will be decided by the Superior Court.

A spill of the chemical sulfolane caused the contamination.

An attorney says Flint Hills has spent “tens of millions of dollars” so far on filtered water for residents and refinery cleanup.

Offsite cleanup has not started.

Authorities in Alaska say a Canadian man is the latest person to be rescued near an abandoned bus made famous by the book and film “Into the Wild.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports 22-year-old Matthew Sharp of Manitoba was rescued after he was unable to hike back because of minor injuries and high river levels.

Alaska State Troopers say a personal locator beacon registered to Sharp was activated early Thursday morning. Troopers responded by helicopter and found Sharp, who was flown to Fairbanks.

“Into the Wild” chronicled the life and death of 24-year-old Chris McCandless, who hiked into the Alaska wilderness in April 1992 with little food and equipment. He was found starved to death in the bus almost four months later.

The bus has long been a destination for those seeking to retrace his steps.

A statewide uptick in Hepatitis C cases is most severe in Southeast Alaska, where heroin use has been on the rise.

The Juneau Empire reports that Alaska epidemiology experts found the rate of infection among those between the ages of 18 and 29 rose 490 percent in Southeast Alaska in a five-year period through 2015.

Untreated cases of the infection could cause cancer and cirrhosis in the liver.

Hepatitis C can spread when drug users share needles.

Alaska’s largest city is nearing completion of a public art installation aimed at raising awareness of the grizzly and black bears that live nearby.

Thirteen colorful, life-size fiberglass bears have been installed around Anchorage as part of “Bears on Parade.” More are being completed.

Brenda Carlson is one of the organizers and a member of the Anchorage Bear Committee, dedicated to bear conservation in the city.

She says the point of the statues is to spark conversation about bears, what they eat and where they live. Organizers also had hoped the statues would be in place for a conference of bear scientists earlier this summer.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game says the municipality is home to as many as 65 brown bears and 350 black bears.

FAIRBANKS — Vegetable donations from a prison farm in Wasilla are helping the Fairbanks Community Food Bank handle a 25 percent increase in food requests this summer.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports the organizations’ CEO, Anne Weaver, says shipments from the Point Mackenzie Correctional Farm have helped provide tens of thousands of pounds of food in recent months. The food bank has been raising money to transport the food more than 300 miles to Fairbanks.

The farm began donating earlier this year after the prison discovered it had leftovers from last summer’s garden season.

Weaver says Fairbanks and North Pole residents have also pitched in by bringing in vegetables from their home gardens.

The food bank is hoping for more produce as Interior Alaska’s harvest season goes into full force.

ANCHORAGE — An Anchorage man opening a retail marijuana business has been appointed to the state Marijuana Control Board.

Gov. Bill Walker announced Wednesday that Nicholas Miller will serve on the board. He replaces Bruce Schulte, whom Walker removed from the board July 29.

Miller is chairman of the Anchorage Cannabis Business Association. The association is made up of people filing for state and local licensing of pot businesses.

Miller’s appointment runs through February 2018.

The Marijuana Control Board has the job of regulating Alaska’s marijuana industry.

Schulte was appointed to the board in July 2015 as one of two industry representatives and served as board chairman until June.