Environment

Landslides, storm-driven floods, infrastructure-damaging permafrost thaw and intensifying wildfires are among the expensive disasters that scientists link to Alaska’s rapidly changing climate.

Now a state legislator is proposing to levy a 20-cent surcharge on every barrel of Alaska-produced oil to fund programs that respond to and prepare for disasters related to climate change.

Rep. Andy Josephson, D-Anchorage, introduced the measure, House Bill 247, in advance of the legislative session scheduled to start on Jan. 20.

To explain why the state needs such a fund, Josephson ticked off a list of recent disasters in Alaska that imposed heavy costs — and, in some cases, killed people. Those events, which include deadly landslides in Southeast Alaska, landslides that have blocked roads, severe flooding in Western Alaska last October from the remnants of Typhoon Halong and similar damage in 2022 from the remnants of Typhoon Merbok, all had some links to climate change that is caused by greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning, he said.

“It’s a true statement that a lot of the disaster dollars we need right now are related to climate change. That, in my opinion, is sort of inarguable,” he said.

Disasters like those that have occurred in recent years are expected to continue in the future, he said: “We’re in a new normal.”

The bill is logical from a fiscal standpoint, Josephson said.

As of now, the state’s disaster relief fund is “basically a sub-fund of the general fund,” and it gets whatever lawmakers are able to appropriate, he said. But if there is a new stream of money as proposed by his bill, “we would free up those dollars we’re otherwise spending in the disaster relief fund.”

At 20 cents per barrel, the proposed surcharge would raise about $30 million a year, he said.

In comparison, Gov. Mike Dunleavy in December proposed that lawmakers approve a $40 million appropriation for the state’s existing disaster relief fund. The need could increase from that total if the Trump administration fails to reimburse 100% of the costs for Typhoon Halong relief rather than the normal 75%. The Biden administration in 2022 approved 100% reimbursement for Merbok-related costs.

As introduced by Josephson, the bill would give the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation oversight over the money generated by the surcharge. It would distribute fund money in the form of grants to local governments and other entities for purposes like disaster response, disaster preparation and upgrades that make infrastructure better protected against climate change.

The surcharge idea has precedent in Alaska. The Department of Environmental Conservation already administers another fund with money coming from a per-barrel fee on oil produced in the state.

After the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, the state began levying a 5-cent-per-barrel surcharge on oil that goes into the state’s Oil and Hazardous Substance Release Prevention and Response Fund. The fund itself was created by the legislature in 1986, with the surcharge established after the disastrous Prince William Sound spill.

That surcharge and rules concerning the fund’s operations have been modified over the years, broadening the purposes for which the fund can be used and boosting DEC’s reporting requirements, according to the department.

In its current configuration, each 5-cent-per-barrel surcharge sends 1 cent into a spill response account, to be used for spills that have been officially declared disasters. The other 4 cents goes into a spill prevention account, which can be used to address spills that have not been declared disasters, among other functions.

In 2015, refined petroleum products were added to the program. The state added a small surcharge, 0.95 cents per gallon, on refined fuel projects sold, transferred or used at the wholesale level, according to the DEC.

The idea of a similar levy to raise money for climate change preparedness and response is not new.

Rick Steiner, a retired University of Alaska marine conservation professor who founded and leads an environmental organization called Oasis Earth, has been advocating for the approach for several years.

“The legislature has so far seemed unable or unwilling to connect the dots between the many climate-related disasters we are experiencing — typhoon Merbok, wildfires, landslides, floods, coastal erosion, permafrost thaw, storm damage, infrastructure damage, subsistence impacts, commercial fishing impacts, etc..– to see the larger picture of the threat and costs these interrelated climate disasters pose,” he said in a letter to lawmakers sent last September. “The money to address these issues will have to come from government.”

In advocating for what he called an Alaska Climate Resilience Fund, Steiner said funding issues have become more pressing because of federal cutbacks.

The climate-response surcharge idea is not unique to Alaska, either.

Hawaii has put its version of a climate surcharge into law, a measure that seeks to raise money for responses to future disasters like the deadly 2023 Lahaina wildfire on the island of Maui.

In May, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, a Democrat, signed a bill that increases the state’s hotel and lodging tax by less than a percentage point. The increase is applied to the state’s Transient Accommodations Tax, known at TAT. The governor said the increase would amount to an additional charge of about $3 on a $400-a-night hotel room fee. It is expected to generate about $100 million a year, according to state officials.

Residents living in avalanche-prone downtown neighborhoods got the all-clear to return home Wednesday after the city lifted its last remaining evacuation advisory this morning. 

Mary Amor was finally preparing to leave Juneau’s emergency shelter at Centennial Hall. She’s been staying there with her brother since last Friday, when the city issued an evacuation advisory for residents in all known slide paths downtown and along Thane Road.

“I know that a snow avalanche is nothing to play with,” she said. 

Amor lives on Gastineau Avenue, which borders the city’s avalanche hazard zone and has seen multiple landslides in recent years. She evacuated with her brother because they were scared for their safety. Amor is in her 60s and is disabled. 

She said living away from her home has been stressful, but she was grateful to have a safe place to hunker down.  

“It’s much a blessing, because there ain’t nowhere else to go out except outside,” Amor said. “This is a real blessing, them helping out the people that need it, in a time of need.”

Amor was one of 13 people to stay at the shelter Tuesday night, according to Britt Tonnessen, the community disaster program manager for the American Red Cross of Alaska in Southeast. She says more than 50 people used the shelter over the six days that the risk of large avalanches loomed over downtown neighborhoods and Thane. 

“The partners that came together, I think, did a really incredible job and utilized the limited resources we have in Juneau, brought in what was needed and cared for people to the extent that we could,” she said. 

The Red Cross plans to close the shelter on Thursday morning. 

Some evacuees stayed with family or friends instead, like Carlos Cadiente and his wife. Cadiente said he returned to his home in the Behrends slide path Sunday night after looking at the remaining snow on Mount Juneau and deciding he felt safe enough.

And he said he’s glad to be back.

“Oh it’s a relief,” Cadiente said. “I’m happy that the big one didn’t come down. I mean, nobody got hurt.”

But now, he said his basement is flooding, and he thinks it’s because some of the shingles on his roof are too short to shed water away from the house.

The Behrends neighborhood evacuation advisory ended Wednesday morning, after the advisory for all other neighborhoods, including Amor’s, ended Sunday evening. 

John Bressette is an avalanche advisor at the City and Borough of Juneau. He said that the city didn’t decide to lift the evacuation advisory lightly. 

“I think people can feel good about going back to their homes,” he said. 

Concern grew again on Tuesday due to winds forecasted to reach as high as 60 miles per hour overnight. 

But Bressette said the city’s new radar system did not detect any new avalanches on Mount Juneau overnight. On Wednesday morning, drone flights showed him that previously undetected avalanches at high elevations had happened earlier on the Behrends slide path, then the rain and warm air melted a lot of the snow that would have made a large avalanche possible. 

“Overall snow levels being reduced quite a bit by all the rain, especially in the lower elevations, where avalanches have a tendency to entrain more snow. There’s just not a whole lot of snow left for that to happen,” he said. 

But Bressette said people in avalanche zones should keep ‘go’ bags packed in case conditions change. 

An avalanche evacuation advisory remains in effect for one neighborhood that sits beneath Mount Juneau in Alaska’s capital city. And now, for the first time, the city is using a radar detection system to track avalanches that rumble down the mountain, thanks to state money freed up by the city and tribe’s disaster declaration last week. 

Severin Staehly works for an avalanche technology start-up called Gravimon in Zurich, Switzerland. On Sunday, he installed the Doppler radar system at the Alaska Electric Light & Power substation on Douglas Island. It’s called an Avymonster, and it points at Mount Juneau continuously to scan for avalanches. 

“We can really see where it happens and where it starts, where it ends, measure the speed and give all this information to the forecasters,” he said in an interview at City Hall. 

Staehly said the Avymonster is popular in other places with high avalanche risk like Norway, Canada and the European Alps. He said he installed one in Alaska last week near Portage Lake, south of Anchorage.

John Bressette, the city’s avalanche advisor, said it works just like boat radar, so it can scan through the night and in poor weather. Now, the team won’t have to wait for clear weather to see whether avalanches occurred. The radar system notifies staff instantaneously.

“It allows us to detect avalanches when we can’t visually see them, which in Juneau is often with the darkness and with the weather,” he said. 

Using drone flights and binoculars when the clouds rose a bit on Sunday, Bressette said he was able to see where avalanches released some snow down the Behrends path to the end of Judy Lane. But he said the avalanche didn’t start from high up the mountain. 

“There’s a lot of undisturbed snow at the top of the Behrends pass still that hasn’t been affected yet,” he said. “We feel that there’s still potential for — if that were to go — to potentially reach homes.”

That’s where the city is still advising residents to keep clear. An evacuation advisory was issued Friday for residents living in avalanche hazard zones for all slide paths in downtown Juneau, and for part of Thane Road south of downtown. The advisory was lifted Sunday for everywhere but Behrends. 

North of downtown, Bressette said he confirmed a loud avalanche reported on Thunder Mountain this morning around 9:00 a.m., but that it didn’t threaten homes. 

Bressette said his next step is to work with the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities to fly a helicopter-mounted LIDAR sensor over the mountain to measure the snow. He also wants to dig snow pits to look at layers in the snowpack. He said that will help forecasters better estimate the risk to those who live in the Behrends path. 

 

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Ryan O’Shaughnessy, the city’s emergency programs manager, estimates the radar system and installation costs about $200,000 or less. Since Gov. Mike Dunleavy approved the city and tribe’s disaster declaration, he said the state is likely to pay for it. 

“We’re very confident that this will be part of our public assistance reimbursement,” he said. 

At the top of the White avalanche path on Mount Juneau, weather sensors track air temperature and snow depth. But avalanche experts say adding other sensors that measure wind, solar radiation and snowpack temperatures could also help refine avalanche risk assessments for downtown Juneau neighborhoods. 

Two small avalanches released on a slide path of Mount Juneau, above the Behrends neighborhood, as Ezra Strong was on a walk this morning in the pouring rain. 

The city issued an evacuation advisory about an hour earlier for Juneau residents in all known slide paths downtown and along Thane Road. Strong and his wife live on Gruening Avenue with their dog. He said he’s not heeding the advisory.

“I think in part because we’re a little bit protected by a rock wall and some other things behind us, in part because we have seen slides come down before on the main slide path that didn’t even get close to us,” he said.

During an online press conference Friday morning, the City & Borough of Juneau’s new Avalanche Advisor John Bressette said that many small slides reduce the hazard by decreasing the amount of snow that could be released in a larger slide. 

“So it’s actually a good thing that we’re seeing smaller slides reducing the total snow load that is capable of producing an avalanche,” Bressette said. 

Some avalanches released above the Flume Trail today. The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities confirmed numerous small avalanches along Thane Road Friday morning. The agency expects more avalanches this evening since the forecast shows continued heavy rainfall, strong winds and warming temperatures. The closure of Thane Road could be extended multiple days. 

Some residents of the Behrends neighborhood have evacuated to friends’ houses or Centennial Hall, the official shelter set up by the city and the American Red Cross.

Carlos Cadiente lives kitty-corner from Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé in the Behrends slide path. He evacuated at around 11:30 a.m. in one vehicle while his wife drove behind in another. At a stop sign, he told KTOO they were headed to a friend’s house just down the street. 

“We already had a go-bag going and we already had the cars loaded up and ready to roll, and so we’re rolling,” Cadiente said. 

He said this is the first time they’ve heeded an avalanche evacuation advisory in the decades they’ve lived here. 

“It’s kind of an extreme measure, you know, extreme weather that we’ve had,” he said. “So we’re just kind of trying to be proactive and not be a problem,” he said. 

Britt Tonnessen is the community disaster program manager for the Red Cross of Alaska in Southeast. In coordination with the city, the Red Cross set up an emergency shelter at Centennial Hall downtown for residents on Friday. 

At the shelter on Friday morning, she said the Red Cross has been preparing for the last week in case of an evacuation. 

“We’ve seen multiple fatal landslides and avalanches in the past decade,” she said. “Evacuating to a congregate shelter is not people’s dream idea. It’s a safe place to go. We do the best to meet the needs and we have incredible, loving, warm volunteers to meet people.”

Tonnessen said that anyone from avalanche zones, as well as those who feel the load on their roof is becoming too heavy, are welcome at the shelter. 

She said they are prepared to take 150 people, and around 30 people signed in by the early afternoon. 

Avalanche, weather and road conditions are expected to worsen Friday evening.

KTOO reporter Clarise Larson contributed to this report. 

The general manager of Juneau’s Eaglecrest Ski Area has resigned and the chair of its board of directors has stepped down. Both departures were announced Thursday night during the ski area’s board of directors meeting.

Hannah Shively served as the board chair for less than six months. At the meeting, she said she was leaving the role due to health reasons. The board elected Brandon Cullum as its new chair. 

Craig Cimmons, Eaglecrest’s general manager, was absent from the meeting Thursday night and did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his resignation. He has not publicly offered a reason as of Friday morning. 

“We’re not sure why the manager is not here tonight, totally honestly, we’re still trying to figure that out,” Cullum said during the meeting. “I’m sure it’s not out of disrespect to anyone, but we’re going to do the best we can to present the information that he’s provided and answer questions.”

Cimmons’ resignation comes after serving in the role for less than two years. He was hired as general manager in the fall of 2024 after the former manager, Dave Scanlan, was abruptly asked to resign by the board.

Both departures also come as the city-owned ski area faces a tough start to its 50th season, including a broken water line and a delayed opening of the Ptarmigan lift. And, that’s all while Juneau has been facing back-to-back snowstorms, prompting city officials and tribal leaders to issue a joint disaster declaration. The capital city is currently bracing for heavy rain and potential flooding from an atmospheric river on Friday.

“This month has been terrible,” Shively said at the meeting. “Pretty much anything that could have gone wrong went wrong.”

Eaglecrest staff originally announced in mid-December that there was a large break in its main water line that supplies its lodges. And, while that has since been repaired, staff say there are still other repairs that need to be done before the water is restored. In the meantime, skiers and staff have been using portable toilets outside of the lodge. 

Another issue is the delayed opening of its Ptarmigan lift due to unexpected repairs. The chairlift serves the middle of the mountain. According to Shively, the ski area hopes to open it soon. 

“All our required state certifications have been received, and we’re currently waiting for that final inspection from our insurance provider,” she said at the meeting.

Cimmons agreed to stay in his role for another month to help facilitate finding his replacement. Meanwhile, the ski area’s Director of Snowsports School, Rental, Retail & Repair Erin Lupro will take over the role of acting general manager.

The ski area is slated to celebrate its 50th year as a ski area next weekend.

A portion of a residential roof collapsed Thursday in Juneau under the weight of several feet of snow that fell over the past few weeks. 

Tracey Muir was born and raised in Juneau and bought the house in Mendenhall Valley a little over a year ago. He was inside when the roof gave way.

“This morning, I heard crackling, came and took a peek, and it was down and, well, all the snow we’ve been getting is what took it,” he said. 

An overhanging section of the roof collapsed on the front of the house, which was built in the 1970s. 

The National Weather Service estimated the weight of snow on a flat roof could be around 41.6 pounds per square foot as of Wednesday, based on ground measurements made at their forecast office in Mendenhall Valley. 

Emergency officials and engineers say most homes built in Juneau before 1991 were designed with a snow load capacity of 40 pounds per square foot. 

Muir said that, thankfully, there’s been no damage to the inside of the house, and that he was already planning to have the roof replaced this spring. He plans to patch it until then. 

“I’m definitely done with winter,” he said. 

Muir hadn’t cleared snow from the roof, and said he was hoping warmer weather would melt it for him. Now, he suggests others don’t follow in his footsteps. 

“Get your roofs cleaned,” he said. 

Nate Geary is a civil engineer who specializes in structural design. During the record-breaking storm that dumped four feet of snow on Juneau just after Christmas, he measured the weight that accumulated on his roof using roughly the same method as NWS. 

“Once I got close to 40 pounds a square foot, which is the snow load rating for my roof, I decided it was close enough to switch over from a science experiment to going ahead and cleaning it off,” Geary said. 

That was on Dec. 30. His home in Mendenhall Valley was built in 1973. 

He said a roof will show some warning signs before it gives out. 

“It’ll start to deform, which can create some cracks in the sheetrock or make some popping sounds,” he said. 

Geary said there are some steps homeowners can take to reduce the risk of roof collapse, even if they can’t clear the whole thing. 

“I think the first layer of risk management would be like using a snow rake and clearing eaves and overhangs, since they’re the weakest part of the structure,” he said. 

Then, he suggests clearing around vents to prevent moisture accumulation in the attic, and shoveling drainage paths on flat roofs. 

Geary is from Juneau and said that when heavy snow has fallen on his roof in the past, it melted relatively quickly. That’s not the case this time.

“This snowstorm is just not like anything that I’ve seen since I’ve lived here,” he said.

More heavy snow and rain are on the way. Meteorologists said that could make the snowpack heavier, wetter and harder to move. 

KTOO’s Jamie Diep contributed to this story.