KHNS - Haines

The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation is done watching from the sidelines as Skagway struggles with how to go about cleaning up decades-old contamination in the ore basin.

The lead contamination poses risks to the environment and human health, but cleanup plans are stalled because of a complicated web of landowners, users, and responsibilities.

One complicating factor is all the different parties involved.

The Municipality of Skagway owns the ore terminal land. The private company White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad leases it. The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority owns the ore terminal facility, but another company – Mineral Services operates it with business from the Yukon’s Capstone Mining.

On Monday, representatives from all of those parties met with DEC’s Kara Kusche and her colleague, John Halverson.

“On the realm of complicated, it’s definitely towards the top,” Kusche said.

Skagway Mayor Mark Schaefer. He and five other municipal representatives took part in the three-hour discussion.

Because the municipality was working out a lease extension with White Pass that would allow for the Gateway Project, DEC has been fairly hands-off before this. The Gateway Project would give White Pass more years on its lease, and in exchange, the municipality would get access to make major renovations to the port.

At the top of the list was cleaning up the contamination.

“You know, the Gateway Project was moving forward … one of the components of it was the sediment cleanup,” Kusche said. “So it sort of appeared that those pieces and plans were coming together.”

But then things fell apart.

The lease extension went to a public vote and was overwhelmingly rejected, which left the municipality with lots of plans and no clear way to execute them.

For the past nine months, progress has stalled.

That’s why DEC decided to step in now, Kusche said.

“You know in our mind we kind of viewed it as a kickoff meeting to open up the lines of communication among everybody,” she said. “So I think those goals were definitely achieved.”

People had different understandings of the situation at the ore terminal, Kusche and Halverson said. For example, Halverson said some assumed that the area was slowly being capped with sedimentation over the years.

“But some of the studies done a couple of years ago indicated there’s some more erosion forces and dispersion of contaminants from that harbor area into deeper water,” Halverson said. “And we don’t want continued spread of that contamination. And it’s an issue that needs to be cleaned up.”

One of the next steps is to distribute the most up-to-date studies and information about the site to the different representatives, he said.

There’s also the question of who is responsible.

By the State’s definition, it’s not just whoever is guilty of contaminating the area in the first place. All of the parties involved in the meeting could be held liable for the cleanup, Halverson said.That’s one reason why DEC is trying to encourage a ‘collaborative’ approach.

Mayor Schaefer says it seemed like meeting was productive in getting everyone ‘on the same page.’

“I am very hopeful,” he said. “I’m certain something’s gonna happen.”

The department has the power to order the ore terminal stakeholders clean up the property by a certain date.

“We did discuss the option of if things don’t work, we have enforcement authorities, we’re willing to go down that path,” Halverson said.

DEC would prefer to move the cleanup forward in a cooperative way, he said.

DEC plans to hold meetings now on a regular basis with the Municipality, AIDEA, White Pass, Mineral Services, and Capstone.

The next sit-down is scheduled for September.

The goal is to end the stalemate and for the parties to submit a cleanup plan to DEC as soon as possible.

Skagway borough officials wondered aloud what was happening with the planned Skagway ferry dock refurbishment, at a meeting last week.

The project could cut off local ferry service for months.

Whether Skagway retains any service during the dock project depends on a Coast Guard waiver the Alaska Marine Highway hopes to acquire.

Earlier this year, the Department of Transportation said if the ferry dock project were to happen this winter, then it would probably mean a two- to three-month disruption in service for Skagway.

But, they said if the project were delayed until next winter, the Kennicott ferry might be able to offer some limited service using one of Skagway’s other docks.

The Matanuska usually provides winter ferry service to Skagway, but that vessel is due for engine replacement next year, taking the boat out of service for most of the fall and winter of 2017.

That’s where the Kennicott might come in.

It has to do with a certification that only some ferries hold, called the Safety of Life at Sea, or SOLAS, certification. SOLAS is required for vessels that run in international waters.

The Matanuska has it, because its route includes Prince Rupert, British Columbia. The Kennicott is also SOLAS-approved.

Swapping in the Kennicott would be good for Skagway.

Sailings would be less frequent, but they would accommodate both passengers and vehicles.

DOT spokesman Jeremy Woodrow says that’s because the ship is adaptable to different kinds of dock.

“Because it has the ability to service docks that don’t have floating ramps,” Woodrow said. “It can go to fixed docks where it uses this vehicle elevator lift to allow cars to go on and off the ferry.”

Woodrow’s department doesn’t want to use the Kennicott as the Matanuska’s replacement, he said. It’s an expensive ship to run on a low-volume route.

“It’s a larger ship than we need in Southeast especially on the Price Rupert run in the winter time.”

The DOT would prefer to run the smaller, cheaper Malaspina while the Matanuska is out of commission, but there’s just one problem: The Malaspina doesn’t have a SOLAS certification because it usually sails the Bellingham, Washington, to Southeast route.

DOT applied for a waiver with the Coast Guard to allow the Malaspina to operate without the certification on a short-term basis.

Woodrow isn’t sure when they’ll get an answer from the Coast Guard.

“We think that we will be able to receive that waiver especially since it’s just for a specific window,” he said. “But it’s really something that’s in the air and we’re waiting to hear back from the Coast Guard.”

The service that might be available to Skagway hinges on the waiver.

The interestes of DOT and Skagway are conflicted: It would be better for DOT to get the waiver and not have to use the Kennicott; It would better for Skagway if the waiver were denied, the project was put off until 2017, and the Kennicott sailed the Lynn Canal.

If the Malaspina replaced the Matanuska instead, Skagway could lose ferry service for a few months. DOT is looking into other possibilities, Woodrow said.

“To see if there is a way, at the very minimum, to provide passenger-only service. A determination on that has not been made.”

Without ferries, Skagway residents would lose their most reliable form of transportation out of town.

Flights from small airlines are often grounded because of inclement winter weather. Driving out of Skagway is contingent on the US-Canada border being open and road conditions, which are also at the mercy of winter weather.

Skagway Assemblyman Dan Henry was sentenced this week to just over a year in federal prison.

Henry was convicted of failing to file his income tax returns over a four-year period. How Henry’s prison sentence will impact his service on the borough assembly remains to be seen.

Henry has served in Skagway government for about 20 years.

His current three-year term doesn’t end until 2017. However, he’s been ordered to report to a federal prison facility by Nov. 1 of this year.

That’s about a month after municipal elections, in which two other assembly seats are up for grabs.

Mayor Mark Schaefer briefly mentioned the predicament at an assembly meeting Thursday.

“I think we’re all aware of Assemblyman Henry’s personal situation,” he said. “I’m discussing with the attorney on how we’re going to proceed in the matter.”

Requests for comment from Schaefer and Henry were not returned.

The question of whether Henry’s prison sentence disqualifies him from service on the assembly is up in the air.

Skagway Borough Code states an assembly seat shall be declared vacant if a member is physically absent from the municipality for 90 consecutive days, with a caveat: the other assembly members have the power to excuse that member, allowing them to continue service.

If Henry were to resign his seat or be excused, another question remains.

Would the sitting assembly members appoint someone to the empty seat, or would voters get to decide in the October election?

Orion Hanson was one of a few residents who spoke at the Thursday meeting asking for Henry’s assembly seat to join the other two on the ballot.

“If there is to be a third vacancy on the assembly, I think it would be democratic to have that opportunity for the voters to vote on that in this upcoming election,” Hanson said.

The two seats up for election this term are occupied by Spencer Morgan and Tim Cochran. As of Friday afternoon, no one had declared candidacy.

After years in the making, the plan to expand Haines’ small boat harbor is coming to fruition.

The Haines Borough Port and Harbor Advisory Committee reviewed and approved the Portage Cove Harbor expansion draft bid documents at a meeting this week.

The $20-million first phase of the harbor project will go out to bid later this month.

The committee had a few questions about the harbor expansion draft bid documents drawn up by PND Engineering, but chair Norm Hughes said overall, he’s pleased with the preliminary paperwork.

“At first look, it looked pretty good to me,” Hughes said. “It looks pretty thorough and it looks like we’re within budget, considerably.”

The committee approved the draft, with one amendment. The replacement of nine pilings, or supports, on the F Dock were in the draft as an add alternate, but at the behest of harbormaster Shawn Bell, the committee voted to move that job into the base bid, which is just over $18.5 million. There was about $19.5 million to spend from the state on Phase 1 of the expansion project, though a little of that has been chipped away over the years. But, harbormaster Bell told the committee that most of those engineering costs are included in the estimate distributed to the group.

With any leftover money – depending on how the bid process shakes out this fall – there’s the opportunity to include add alternates in the initial phase. Phase 1 includes the wave barrier, dredging and development of the parking lot.

Public Facilities director Brad Ryan said there’s a list of extra features if funds allow, but it’s likely only one, maybe two, will make it into the initial phase.

“So, additional dredging in the inner harbor, anodes on the wave barrier and then the third one is an additional 33 feet of wave barrier, but we really don’t have any hope of thinking that will actually come up,” Ryan said.

Ryan and Bell will meet with PND and give some feedback on the draft documents in the coming days. The engineers will make any changes and then the project will go out to bid.

Aside from the F-Dock pilings getting moved into the base bid, and gravel to cap the parking lot, there aren’t any significant changes coming from the borough, Ryan said.

“We’d like to be fully done with the bid documents no later than the 25 of August,” he said. “It’d be great if we could go out for advertisement a little bit earlier and have a bid opening on the 21 of September which then lines up with the assembly meeting for the 27 of September. It may not happen. It may move to the October meeting for the assembly to OK the contract.”

The best case scenario for completion of Phase 1 is sometime in 2018, Ryan said.

As for future phases, which are years off, Ryan said things are looking up. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game still is on board with a matching grant for the sport ramp.

Fish and Game also recently agreed to throw in an extra $300,000 to move Lookout Park. Ryan said even though they don’t have anything in writing yet, Fish and Game is excited about the project. The agency has committed upwards of $3 million to the development.

“They say they’re going to have it for us and they keep upping the dollar amount, I hope it’s real,” he said. “When we get something in writing then it’ll be something to hang our hat on.”

Future phases also include a drive-down float and the floats themselves, but Ryan said the priority order depends on where they can dig up funding. The project is hoping to utilize Cruise Passenger Vessel head tax money for a water-front trail and more aesthetic improvements, but Ryan said the Cruise Line International Association of Alaska is balking a little at the borough’s pitch.

“They just need a little more explanation, and I hope that goes well.”

Haines police chief Heath Scott wants to expand the four-officer department.

Initially, Scott thought potential expansion could include a school resource officer for the Haines School District. But after more consideration, he’s stepped back from that idea.

Scott said placing a school resource officer at Haines School was a priority for him, at first.

“Fundamentally that comes out of me being a parent, a taxpayer,” Scott said. “I see the benefit of school resources officers in communities I’ve worked in in the past.”

Hesitation from community members, including new school superintendent Tony Habra, made him re-think that approach.

Habra said from what he heard from the administration and school board, a resource officer is not needed in the school, he said in an interview a few weeks ago.

“There was some movement on (the school resource officer idea) prior to having that discussion with the administration here, with the board here,” Habra said. “So that’s a premature decision.”

“I think the new school administrator, having a new borough manager and having me coming in, the general consensus among us is that we need to take some time so that we understand our roles, understand what the community needs,” Scott said.

Scott came into the Haines job with a “preconceived notion” of a police department that has a good relationship with the community, he said. He’s realized that it’ll take time to build trust.

Even if he did want to put an officer in the school right now, Scott said, it would be irresponsible given the department’s limited manpower.

“Here’s the major concern. There’s 24 hours in a day, and you have four officers.”

The level of staffing isn’t acceptable to him, he said. That’s why Scott encouraged former acting chief Josh Dryden to apply for a Community-Oriented Policing Services, or COPS, grant through the U.S. Department of Justice. It’s a three-year grant that funds 75 percent of a new officer’s salary, up to $125,000.

“Prior to me coming, you’ve had a department of at times two (officers), at times three, and those guys are tired,” Scott said. “They have to go on leave, they have to go to training. And I have to be cognizant of this stuff.”

Scott expects to hear back about the grant this fall.

Directing limited manpower to the school probably wouldn’t be in the community’s best interest, because the Haines force is small and stretched, Scott said. He still thinks it might be a good idea in the future.

“If the community wants it, and the school system wants it, the police chief wants it, the mayor, and borough and assembly wants it, it’s a good idea,” he said. “And I just don’t know if all of that’s there. It may be too early to say that. Now, it would irresponsible to say we’re not doing it. Because we don’t know what may come in two years, and it may be the right time then.”

For now, Scott says he’s resolved to pay attention to what the community wants and take changes – like putting an officer in the school – slowly. But he does plan to apply for grants and talk to the borough about how to expand the department.

Two hikers from Whitehorse who got turned around on the Arctic Brotherhood Trail outside of Skagway on Tuesday evening, were located mid-morning Wednesday uninjured.

Members of the Skagway Volunteer Fire Department and the U.S. Coast Guard searched through the night.

The search and rescue call went out just before 9 p.m. Tuesday announcing that the two hikers were overdue. Volunteers from Skagway’s fire department and, later, members of the Coast Guard looked for Wei Yang, 30, and Yun Zhu, 22, overnight.

A Coast Guard Jayhawk was deployed from Sitka at about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday. Petty officer Lauren Steenson says they coordinated with the Alaska State Troopers and the Skagway searchers, and looked for several hours in the early morning hours with a spot light.

They were on standby as of 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, but the weather had gone downhill. With the clouds rolling in and visibility waning, the search was relegated to the ground. Temsco Helicopter pilots also were on standby to assist if needed.

According to the Alaska State Troopers, the hikers were located, cold and wet but otherwise uninjured, at about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Megan Peters, a public information officer with the troopers, said the call came in to the Alaska Wildlife Troopers, and while there is no trooper post in Skagway, they often serve as a command center to help with incidents like this one.

“A lot of times we used local search and rescue volunteer assets, or we pool assets from other areas and we manage the search and rescue operation,” she said. “Just because there’s not one physically there doesn’t mean that we don’t have the case and we’re not organizing and making sure people are accounted for. The last thing we want is for somebody to go searching and then become missing themselves.”

The 10-mile roundtrip trek to the top of AB Mountain is a strenuous affair with an elevation gain of about 5,000 feet. And while it’s a popular hike, the trail is not as well-maintained as some of the easier ones in the area.

“All of our search and rescue responders are all volunteers,” said Emily Rauscher, the emergency services administrator for the Municipality of Skagway. “So, the time that they commit is invaluable and it’s really appreciated. Nobody is getting paid, it’s their time that they’re donating, they’re losing out on sleep and then they’re going right into work the next day. It’s pretty amazing.”

She says more than 20 volunteers show up to help with the search efforts.