We'd be home living some other life if there were no threats to the qualities of life that attract us and keep us here. These issues vary in intensity and significance, but they all share one thing in common, they may reduce the quality of our environment for us and those with whom we share this planet.
Pollution
Fugitive Dust Regulations
After many meetings with the DEC and the Palin/Parnell Administration and years of efforts educating all parties, the DEC has created language to tighten up the weak fugitive dust statute to better enable the state to oversee and enforce fugitive dust cases. The current “reasonable precautions” language is simply too vague and prevents any meaningful evaluation and enforcement. The draft regulation will be open for public comments shorty after the new year. This is great news. Its this weak language that has allowed the shipyard and RR to indiscriminantly pollute our air, land and water for decades.
Seeking Compliance from Seward Ships Drydock
The shipyard is still non-compliant and flaunting it openly. Its still a stand-off between their attorneys, and the DEC and Attorney General’s office. We've seen o visible progress on dust containment. However after five long years the shipyard has created a semi-effective storage method for their sandblast waste materials. It’s now kept on a cement slab with three low cement walls, but no cover from the elements and one open end where runoff goes through it. At least it’s a step in the right direction.
Coal Dust on the Loose
The Alaska Railroad ships coal from Usibelli the coal mine near Healy and stores it here in Seward. During transfer from the railcars to the storage pile and from the storage pile onto a conveyor belt and onto a ship, dust has a chance to migrate onto harbor vessels and downtown homes and businesses. The RR and Aurora Energy are still resistant to the major improvements necessary to abate the dust once and for all. The RR is in dire straights financially and is looking for ways to reduce costs instead of making the improvements needed. Coal-dust-related issues have made progress in several areas. The City of Seward is working with DEC to have 3 automated dust monitors installed at the coal-loading facility, and the Alaska Coal Working Group has obtained funding to install a web camera to monitor dust in the harbor area. RBCA also continues to urge the Alaska Railroad and Coal Facility to adapt the Best Management Practices already common in similar facilities in the lower 48.
Colorful kayaks docked in Seward.
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