KUAC - Fairbanks

A Fairbanks police officer will not be charged for fatally shooting a man last summer.

Fairbanks Police Chief Eric Jewkes said Friday that, while the shooting was regrettable, the findings of an Alaska Office of Special Prosecutions investigation of the downtown shooting of James Robert Richards Jr. found that police Sgt. Gregory Foster took reasonable actions.

Jewkes punctuated his briefing by playing a pair of videos of officers responding to reports of an armed man at a South Cushman Street motel on Aug. 30.

Jewkes underscored the number of times police officers called out to Richards to stop and put down his weapon.

Richards seemed unfazed by Tasers fired at him and continued to walk north on South Cushman.

When Richards took an elderly man by the arm and seemed to be using him as a shield, Foster shot Richards twice in the head, killing him.

“These officers go out to protect and preserve life every single day,” Jewkes said. “Unfortunately, on this day, it required them to take a life.”

Jewkes said the videos provide a window in the chaotic events dispatchers and police often find themselves.

He used the release of a report into the shooting by the state Office of Special Prosecutions to praise his team’s professionalism.

The investigation found Gregory’s actions were reasonable under the circumstances and no charges would follow.

Pretty much every community in Alaska struggles to get rid of junk like worn-out cars, appliances and electronics, most of which contain hazardous substances that can harm human health. But the problem is especially acute in remote communities located far off the road system, where the stuff accumulates because it’s prohibitively expensive to remove.

“That’s where the struggle is, because from there we really need to take out the material – stuff that’s legacy waste from years ago,” says Doug Huntman who directs the ‎Green Star Program, an effort supported by Anchorage-based Alaska Forum. “But the transportation costs are just so expensive. It’s very difficult to do that.”

A network of partnerships between nonprofit organizations, government agencies and private-sector recycling companies is planning to step up efforts to clean up junk and electronic waste that’s been accumulating for decades in remote communities around Alaska. The partnerships are racing to clean up as much of the stuff as possible by 2020 when federal funding for the projects is scheduled to run out.

Huntman said during a break in the Alaska forum’s environmental conference last week that members of his organization and its partners plan to find out exactly how expensive and difficult that is when they visit those communities this summer to plan cleanups next year.

“We’re going out to the communities on the middle Kuskokwim – which is a tough area in the state – to try and remove that stuff,” he said.

Those communities include Upper and Lower Kalskag, Aniak, Chuathbaluk, Napaimute, Sleetmute, Stony River, Crooked Creek, and possibly Red Devil, said Dave Cannon, the solid-waste coordinator with Aniak-based Kuskokwim River Watershed Council. The council has organized smaller cleanups along the river in recent years and is now working with Huntman to figure out how to remove junk that’s accumulated in those villages.

Cannon says that includes old junk cars, “and in some villages, we have white waste – things like refrigerators, freezers. But batteries, boat and automotive batteries, probably are the biggest concern that we have.”

Cannon says the so-called legacy waste must be loaded onto a barge and taken to Anchorage. But first, it must be drained of hazardous wastes and other such substances. It’s a logistically challenging and costly endeavor. Even more so, because Cannon says it’s not known how much of the stuff is out there. And in some landfills and junkyards, it’s mixed in with other unknown substances.

“There’s a myriad of drums with who knows what materials in them,” he said. “There’s even things like household hazardous waste.”

Cannon says hazardous substances won’t be removed during this initial cleanup. But he says organizers will list them on an inventory they’re putting together. And, where possible, they’ll store them in safe places for pickup later. But another cleanup effort that’s been underway for a couple of years now is mainly focused on removing hazardous materials from remote and rural communities, mainly along the Yukon River. It’s being done by the Solid Waste Alaska Task Force, or SWAT, a consortium of experts from three Alaska nonprofits, the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

“Their goal and mission is to create a sustainable way to manage waste in rural communities,” said Becca Brado, executive director of Green Star of Interior Alaska.

Brado says the Fairbanks-based recycling center, not related to the Anchorage-based program, is working with SWAT to help smaller communities backhaul electronic waste, such as old computers and televisions, to recycling companies in Anchorage or even Seattle.

“So Green Star is hoping to serve as a regional hub for Interior villages and communities that don’t have direct access,” she said.

Brado says Green Star is looking for funding to launch an outreach program to promote recycling in more than 60 communities in the Yukon River watershed. She says the program is critically needed because the region lacks adequate landfills or storage facilities. So, much of the e-waste generated in those communities is smashed or dumped outdoors. And that causes hazardous substances in the electronics to seep into the soil and groundwater. Studies show many of those substances, such as heavy metals, make their way up the food chain to the people in the region who depend on wildlife for subsistence.

“With exposure to heavy metals like mercury and lead and other toxic chemicals that children, especially in children, their IQ is actually lowered,” Brado said.

Another expert, Lynn Zender, says the chances of exposure to contaminants are even higher when materials are burned, a common practice in communities without landfills.

“Those contaminants can be inhaled, and that’s quite dangers – serious,” said Zender, a member of the SWAT executive committee and head of an Anchorage environmental-consulting firm. And she says there’s growing awareness on the need for better solid- and hazardous-waste disposal in villages. Brado says there’s growing urgency too because funding for an EPA program to promote recycling in remote villages will run out in 2020.

“It’s a race against the clock, really, to try to help these communities get their e-waste and other backhaul materials out by then,” she said.

Brado says she hopes the effort will lead to a sustainable statewide backhauling program that would help clean up villages and keep hazardous e-waste substances out of the ecosystem.

Recent heavy snow accumulation is pushing moose onto Alaska roads increasing collision danger.

When snow piles up, you’re more likely to encounter moose on roads.

Alaska Moose Federation Director Don Dyer said “along the Parks Highway from Big Lake to Talkeetna I counted 40 moose.”

He saw the animals while driving the 50-mile stretch of highway last week.

He said deep snow has moose moving to where the going is easier.

”It’s tough for them to walk in the forest and the other areas, so they resort to walking on the roads,” Dyer said.

Dyer said about 400 moose are killed by vehicles on Alaska roads every winter, most in the Kenai and Matanuska-Susitna areas but some in Fairbanks as well.

The nonprofit Moose Federation salvages road kill moose and provides the meat to charities.

Dyer said road kills have tracked a little under normal this winter, but numbers are increasing with the snowpack.

“There’s been more activity in Fairbanks,” Dyer said. “Not as much as Mat-Su, but it’s definitely been an uptick in moose collisions.”

Dyer said the situation could get worse if a crust forms on the snow, making it even more difficult for moose to get around.

The state of Alaska and the Anvik Tribe have signed an historic justice agreement.

The government to government pact provides a template for tribal courts to administer restorative sentences in certain lower level cases, as an alternative to the state criminal justice system.

The western Interior Anvik tribe is the first of several across the state expected to sign on to the justice agreement with the state.

It allows willing offenders, both tribal and non-tribal to divert from state to a tribal court for lower level, and first time crimes, including domestic violence, alcohol and drug offenses.

Alaska Attorney general Jana Lindemuth announced the agreement during a Tuesday news conference in Anchorage

“In recent years, our state courts have used more restorative justice and therapeutic court models to focus on treatment rather than incarceration,” Lindemuth said. “And I think there will be greater success when a community uses its culturally relevant restorative justice tools.”

Lindemuth said the state is in contact with federal officials about funding for tribal courts, noting that the justice alternative is expected to both save the state money and bring attention to offenses the state does not have the capacity to address.

Will Mayo with the Tanana Chief’s Conference called the agreement a step toward bringing justice to far reaches of the state, noting that it can stem issues before they become more serious.

“So if we have restorative justice systems that can begin to emerge through an agreement like this, then we can catch our citizens in the early stages of where they make a mistake,” Mayo said. “And they don’t have to go directly into a hardcore punitive corrections system.”

Tribe-administered penalties outlined under the agreement can include fines of up to $1,500 or replacement of stolen or damaged property, but also include apology to those impacted by a crime.

Offenders who refuse to comply with tribal court orders face prosecution in state court, and all cases will be initially investigated and evidence logged according to Alaska law in case that happens.

The driver of a diesel-fuel tanker truck lost control of his rig Monday and wrecked in a remote spot on the Richardson Highway south of Paxson, spilling some 4,000 gallons of diesel fuel.

Officials with Fairbanks-based trucking company Colville Transport and the state are trying to figure out a way to remove contaminated material from the area while allowing traffic to pass through the narrow, winding stretch of roadway.

The state Department of Transportation’s Commercial Vehicle Enforcement office are investigating the crashh, which occurred at about 3:15 p.m. Monday near milepost 164 of the Richardson Highway, near Meiers Lake about 20 miles south of Paxson.

A 57-year-old Fairbanks man driving the double-tanker rig is OK and that no other vehicles were involved, Alaska State Troopers said.

State Department of Environmental Conservation responders said the truck and tanks slid into the ditch, tearing a hole in the forward tank.

DEC spokeswoman Ashley Adamczak said the tank holds 10,000 gallons, but that only about 4,000 gallons leaked onto ground.

The 5,000-gallon secondary tank in tow did not leak.

Responders have had a hard time working around that narrow, bumpy stretch of highway, Adamczak said.

“What we’re trying to do is assess how much area has been impacted by the fuel,” she said, “and it’s particularly challenging in this area, due to the location of the spill and the impacted area in relationship to the roadway.”

The fuel leaked into an area about 5 feet wide by 170 feet long in the ditch off the northbound lane of the highway. Adamczak said that worries responders, because the roadbed sits lower than the surrounding terrain.

“One of our primary concerns for this response is the fuel that migrated under the roadway,” she said. “The spill occurred on the uphill side of the road. So, the likely migration pathway is both moving south along the roadway and moving west – under the road.”

Adamszak said that would make it difficult to remove contaminated material in the roadbed.

“We can’t just dig a hole in the middle of the road and look for fuel there and start digging it out,” she said.

DEC responders said Colville Transport and its cleanup contractor have removed fuel left standing on the surface.

The wrecked truck has been taken back to Fairbanks.

Responders are now trying to figure out how to bring in heavy equipment to excavate contaminated snow, soil, vegetation and gravel.

“There isn’t a pullout or another driveway or something relatively close to be used as a staging area,” she said. “So that is also going to create a challenge in just getting the equipment into the area.”

Responders plan to begin intermittently closing one or both lanes of the highway, perhaps as early as today to enable the equipment to operate.

Transportation Department spokeswoman Meadow Bailey said her agency is working with DEC on a traffic-control plan that would include intermittent lane closures.

Motorists should check the department’s online highway-traffic information site, 511.alaska.gov, if they’re headed south on the Richardson over the next few days.

A Copper Center woman was killed on the Glenn Highway.

Alaska State Troopers report that Susan Voyles, 54, was reportedly hit by a vehicle after 2 a.m. Friday morning.

The vehicle’s driver, Andrey Ionashku, 24, told troopers that he saw another vehicle stopped on the opposite side of the highway with headlight on near mile 178, when Voyles walked into his path of travel.

Ionashku said he could not stop in time and hit the woman.

Voyles died as result of the collision.

Troopers said they learned shortly before the incident that Voyles had called trooper dispatch to report that she’d lost a box from her vehicle, and was going to attempt to find it.

The state medical examiner will conduct an autopsy.

Drugs and alcohol do not appear to be factors in the incident.