State Government

Need a bridge?

It’s not the usual thing to see in the classifieds, but the state of Alaska wants to unload the 47-year-old Brotherhood Bridge, which spans Juneau’s Mendenhall River.

Federal law requires the state Department of Transportation preserve historic bridges if possible, says Jane Gendron, Environmental Manager for the Southeast Region.

“If you can’t re-engineer or keep that bridge in place, you reach out and find other interested parties who would be able to remove the bridge and reassemble to preserve its historic nature in another location,” Gendron says. “That is a requirement as part of our federal funding for a bridge replacement project.”

Brotherhood Bridge was designed by Alaska Native leader Roy Peratrovich, Jr. for the 50th anniversary of the Alaska Native Brotherhood. The bridge was dedicated on Alaska Day in 1965.

The new bridge will be built next year to accommodate four lanes of traffic, a multi-use path on one side and sidewalk on the other.

Beyond that, there are few details, says DOT Chief Bridge Engineer Rich Pratt. He says bridge designers are waiting for highway engineers to finalize roadway specifications.

“Start with the road. You know, how wide do the road guys want the road? And what does the alignment look like? And then we’ll make the bridge match the road,” Pratt says. “It’s very rare for the bridge to control anything.”

The 319 foot-long, 30-foot-wide reinforced concrete and steel Brotherhood Bridge is unremarkable, except for special bronze medallions representing the crest of the Alaska Native Brotherhood. Pratt says they will be removed and preserved.

Like most old bridges, Brotherhood Bridge has been painted with lead-based paint. DOT is responsible for removing all the paint before it’s sold, if it ever is.

“It is not uncommon that no one wants these old bridges and then what happens is we document what’s out there, all of that is filed away through the historic people (Office of History & Archaeology), and then it’s sent out to be recycled,” Pratt says.

Brotherhood Bridge is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

If someone decides to preserve it, they will have to remove it.

DOT has set no price for the bridge.

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A report that could change the way cruise ships handle wastewater is nearly done. A state science advisory panel met Sept. 19-21 in Juneau and shared some of its work with the public.

Alaska’s Cruise Ship Science Advisory Panel has spent about two years looking at options for cleaning up wastewater. That includes discharges of harmful bacteria, dissolved metals and other pollutants.

Some ships already use systems that can meet elevated standards. Some do not, while  others only discharge outside state enforcement boundaries.

The 11-member group finished its work on a preliminary report during its Juneau meeting. But the document still must undergo review. Division of Water Deputy Director Andrew Sayers-Fay says he hopes it’s available to the public by November 1st.

State Cruise Ship Program Manager Rob Edwardson says it’s an important step in a process started by the Legislature in 2009.

“The science advisory panel is using the preliminary report as a tool to assist and advise the commissioner on his report to the Legislature that’s due Jan. 1st, 2013,” Edwardson says.

A technology open house that was part of the science panel meeting presented the history of cruise ships in Alaska and current water-quality issues.

Edwardson says one is exploration of current cruise-ship systems.

“The second is the availability of additional methods that are economically feasible and technologically effective. And the third is the environmental cost and benefit of implementing any additional methods that they may find,” he says.

The feasibility issue is part of the Legislature’s charge to the panel. That led to examination of water-cleaning systems not yet used on the ships.

Sitka’s Steve Reifenstuhl represents the United Fishermen of Alaska on the science panel.

“We have looked at technology that is used in land-based facilities. There isn’t technology that has been used on cruise ships that can do that at this point. That’s not to say that it’s not feasible in the future – at a very high cost,” Reifenstuhl  says.

Higher standards were called for in a 2006 Cruise Ship Initiative approved by voters, which also created a passenger head tax. (Hear a report on that initiative.) The panel was established as part of a compromise that delayed full enforcement.

Cruise lines argued the standards could be met by allowing discharges to be diluted through mixing zones. Basically, that means sampling water a distance from the ship, rather than from the discharge pipe itself.

Seattle environmental compliance analyst Lincoln Loehr represented the industry on the panel. He says water-cleaning systems in use now are about as good as it gets.

“I don’t see that there is convincing information on the effectiveness of these additional add-ons to consistently meet the water-quality criteria at the end of the pipe,” Loehr says.

Mixing zones, or other forms of dilution, are methods opposed by clean-water activists. (Hear a report on the mixing zone controversy.)

Loehr’s specialty is permitting municipal and industrial wastewater systems. He says cruise ships can make better use of mixing zones than land-based treatment plants.

“The criteria may be met for a municipality within 20 minutes or so. For cruise ships, when underway, they’re going to be met within less than 10 seconds,” Loehr says.

Critics say that would only spread out, not reduce damage to the marine environment.

Representatives of several companies selling water-treatment systems were at the open house.

Erik Neuman of California-based Rochem Membrane Systems says dilution is a key issue that could set an international precedent.

“And that is really the big question that the panel has and that Alaska has is to set that dilution level at a proper level that will really be the basis for other states and other countries to utilize in the future,” Neuman says.

The science panel also includes a marine ecologist, a government inspector, a ship-builder and an environmental engineering professor. Some members declined to comment after state officials instructed them to avoid lengthy interviews with reporters.

Reifenstuhl, who holds the panel’s fishing industry seat, says he’s optimistic about the final results.

“The goal is to protect Alaska’s waters and I think the science panel is going to come out with a report that will do that,” Reifenstuhl says.

The panel’s report to the Legislature is formally a preliminary document. But it’s unclear what might change between its release and the deadline for a final report two years later.

Few people know the ins and outs of the Alaska State Legislature as well as Alaska Public Radio Network’s State Capital Correspondent Dave Donaldson.

He came to Alaska in 1991 to cover state politics for APRN and has logged an impressive 22 legislative sessions. He arrived in Juneau from North Carolina, thinking he would only stay one year. But like many Alaskans, he fell in love with the state and its capital city almost instantly.

Donaldson turned off his tape deck Thursday for retirement. In this interview with APRN’s Lori Townsend, he says he had a great first impression of the legislature and state lawmakers:

Three weeks before leaving for Germany to take pre-trial depositions in the fast ferry lawsuit, state lawyers are extremely anxious about whether potential witnesses will voluntarily answer questions.

The State of Alaska and the Alaska Marine Highway System are suing the company that made the allegedly defective engines for the Fairweather and Chenega.

Ten potential witnesses, employees of the firm MTU Friedrichshafen, are located in Germany. State attorneys would prefer that the company compel them to appear. Senior Assistant Attorney General Dana Burke predicted a scenario in which the witnesses “don’t show up at deposition and then don’t show up at trial.”

Lawyers for MTU Friedrichshafen and MTU Detroit Diesel — now renamed as Tognum America — say German law forbids them from ordering their employees to participate in oral depositions. General Counsel Christopher Koch said during a teleconferenced status hearing in Juneau Superior Court on Monday that the employees have agreed to appear. But they can only participate voluntarily and they can simply walk out at any time. In addition, potential witnesses cannot be videotaped and cannot take an oath.

That would render their comments less as testimony, and more as a product of a question and answer session. Alaska attorneys are also concerned that MTU/Tognum America will try to use the commentary from those depositions as expert witness testimony during trial.

Tognum America attorneys say there is a formal process to order potential witnesses to appear and answer questions at discovery depositions. But it’s up to the attorneys representing Alaska to learn about German law and follow that procedure. Koch said – in directing his comments to State attorneys — that “we’re not obliged to do your work.”

In addition to the initial ten employees, Burke submitted a request last month to depose three others. But Tognum America officials says those three will likely be unavailable as they have left the company or will be traveling in the last half of October when the depositions are scheduled.

A three-week trial is scheduled to start early next April.

The Connecticut company that built the ferries, Derecktor Shipyard, filed for bankruptcy protection in January and is not currently part of the lawsuit.

Alaskans’ annual reward is here: $878 simply for living in the state.

State officials on Tuesday announced this year’s payout from Alaska’s oil savings account.

The dividends are handed out annually to all men, women and children who have lived in Alaska for at least one calendar year.

This year’s amount is significantly less than last year’s dividend of $1,174, which was the smallest since 2006. The payout will be distributed Oct. 4.

Alaska has no state income tax, but residents must pay federal taxes on the bounty. What they do with the rest is up to them.

What’s the most effective and economically feasible method of curbing water pollution from large tour ships?

Alaska’s Cruise Ship Science Advisory Panel meets in Juneau this week to try to answer that question. Members will also review a preliminary report to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Rob Edwardson manages DEC’s Cruise Ship Program.

“The report will cover their analysis of the information that they’ve collected for existing and additional systems and methods,” he says.

Lawmakers delayed strict new wastewater discharge limits in 2009 while appointing the panel to consider developing and available technology. Its 11 members represent industry, government, fishing, coastal communities and other interests.

The panel will meet Wednesday and Friday at Juneau’s Goldbelt Hotel. Edwardson says a Thursday session at nearby Centennial Hall will present choices and issues.

“The technology workshop is for members of the public to be able to walk through and look at a number of different displays that detail the history of cruise ships in Alaska, the cruise ship wastewater issues and the panel’s work from the past two years,” Edwardson says.

The panel’s final report is due in 2015. Meanwhile, the Department of Environmental Conservation is developing a new permit for cruise ships that discharge wastewater within state maritime boundaries.

Click here to read the meeting agenda.