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Alaska: State and Inlandboatmen’s Union Reach Tentative Agreement on Contract; Three-year deal ends strike, ferry service will resume in the days ahead - Just before mid-night Thursday, rumors began spreading on social media that a tentative agreement had been reached by the Inlandboatmen’s Union and the State giving hope that the AMHS strike initiated on July 24th will come to an end.

Alaska Department of Administration Commissioner Kelly Tshibaka announced just before noon today, that she and her negotiating team in fact had reached a tentative agreement late Thursday night with the Inlandboatmen’s Union of the Pacific (IBU) on a new three-year contract. The agreement ends the 9-day strike, and striking employees will return to work so the Alaska Marine Highway System can prepare for the resumption of ferry service to coastal communities as quickly as possible.  

“I want to thank IBU leadership, Commissioner Tshibaka and her team for their tremendous effort to reach an equitable compromise that treats our hard-working employees fairly while recognizing the State’s current fiscal situation,” said Governor Michael J. Dunleavy. “Strikes are tough on all sides, so it is especially gratifying to see this one come to an end so we can get the ferries back out on the water serving Alaskans.”            

“This new agreement addresses many of our members’ concerns,” said IBU President and chief negotiator Marina Secchitano. “We are very pleased with our new tentative agreement and we appreciate the efforts of the State’s bargaining team in helping to bridge our differences to reach a fair resolution.” 

The new contract is the result of more than two years of negotiations between the State and the IBU. Terms of the tentative agreement will be released once the contract is ratified by IBU members.  - More...
Friday PM - August 02, 2019  

Alaska: EPA Withdraws Key Mining Restrictions for Bristol Bay Area By MARY KAUFFMAN - Yesterday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that it is withdrawing Obama-era proposed restrictions on mining activity near southwest Alaska?s salmon- and bird-rich Bristol Bay region. 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 10 Administrator Chris Hladick announced the withdrawal of the 2014 Proposed Determination issued under section 404(c) of the Clean Water Act (CWA) for the use of the Pebble Deposit Area in Southwest Alaska as a disposal site associated with mining of the deposit.

“After today’s [Tuesday's] action EPA will focus on the permit review process for the Pebble Mine project” said Hladick. “The agency has worked closely with the Army Corps to engage with stakeholders and the public on this issue, which has resulted in an expansive public record, including specific information about the proposed mining project that did not exist in 2014."

According to the National Audubon Society, the move clears the path for the Army Corps of Engineers to renew consideration of the massive Pebble Mine, which would be one of the world's largest open-pit mines for gold, copper and other metals.

The National Audubon Society is concerned because the project and its associated waste pits would carve a one-mile wide, one-mile long, and 600-foot deep mining pit in the watershed of habitat for spawning salmon and breeding birds. They say the proposed mine would destroy 3,500 acres of wetlands, lakes, and ponds, and over 80 miles of salmon streams.

Bristol Bay is home to the world'?s largest salmon fishery, valued at $1.5 billion and 14,000 jobs, as well as one of the world?s greatest concentration of seabirds and a robust tourism economy, all of which would be threatened if construction of the Pebble Mine were to proceed, says the Audubon Society.

"Thanks to Bristol Bay, Alaska feeds the world salmon, not gold,"? said Natalie Dawson, executive director of Audubon Alaska. "?Political pressure from the Trump Administration is prevailing over Alaskans' voices, public opinion, scientific studies produced by the EPA itself, one of the world?s most critical bird areas and the world's most valuable salmon fishery -- all for the sake of a permitting process that is being rushed through agency approvals."

Dawson said, "We call on Alaska's congressional delegation and on everyone who cares about Bristol Bay to hold the federal agencies involved accountable for these politically motivated actions that will bring irreparable harm to Alaska's most valuable, sustainable economic resources. They have the power to end this process and protect irreplaceable fisheries and bird habitat.?"

According to the EPA, by withdrawing the 2014 Proposed Determination which the EPA says was issued preemptively and is now outdated, the agency can continue its focus on fulfilling its responsibilities under the Clean Water Act to work with the Army Corps to review the permit.

However, Tuesday’s action does not approve Pebble’s permit application or determine a particular outcome in the Corps’ permitting process. Instead, it allows EPA to continue working with the Corps to review the current permit application and engage in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process.

“Region 10’s decision restores the proper process for 404(c) determinations, eliminating a preemptive veto of a hypothetical mine and focusing EPA’s environmental review on an actual project before the Agency,” EPA General Counsel Matthew Z. Leopold.  

“Today’s [Tuesday's] announcement means the Environmental Impact Statement and permitting process for the Pebble Project currently being led by the US Army Corps of Engineers may advance to a final Record of Decision in 2020 without the cloud of uncertainty created by EPA’s unprecedented, pre-emptive regulatory action,” said Northern Dynasty President & CEO Ron Thiessen. “The Corps expects to finalize the Pebble EIS in early 2020 and issue a final Record of Decision by the middle of next year.” Northern Dynasty is 100% owner of the Pebble Partnership.

Pebble Partnership CEO Tom Collier yesterday hailed the decision by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to advance the removal of the proposed determination against the Pebble Project that has long been viewed as a preemptive veto of the project.

“Finally, this Administration has reversed the outrageous federal government overreach inflicted on the State of Alaska by the Obama Administration,” said Collier. “The preemptive veto was an action by an Administration that sought to vastly expand EPA’s authority to regulate land use on state, private and Native-owned lands throughout the United States, and in doing so kill one of America’s most important mineral projects before a development plan was proposed or a comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) permitting review was undertaken."

Collier said, "The Proposed Determination ordered to be lifted today [Tuesday] was a preemptive veto that had never before been attempted in the 45-year history of the Clean Water Act – a fact acknowledged by the former Administrator’s senior staff.”

The formal withdrawal of EPA’s Proposed Determination is one of a series of important milestones that Pebble believes demonstrate it is progressing steadily toward a positive Record of Decision.

“The withdrawal of the Proposed Determination... the proposal for a smaller, environmentally optimized mine... the Draft EIS conclusions regarding the Bristol Bay salmon fishery... the published schedule for the Final EIS and Record of Decision... and the favorable political climate in Alaska – together, these factors give us a high level of confidence that we will get a permit,” Collier said. - More...
Wednesday PM - July 31, 2019

Alaska: Lawsuit calls out DOI, BLM, and USFWS for violating FOIA; Public documents concerning Arctic Refuge oil and gas leasing unlawfully withheld- Trustees for Alaska and Bahr Law Offices filed a lawsuit today against three federal agencies for violating the statutory deadlines in the Freedom of Information Act and failing to disclose public information relating to implementation of oil and gas leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The FOIA requests concern management of the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge, including documents used to produce the draft environmental impact statement for oil and gas leasing, communications and other records relating to the Porcupine Caribou Treaty between the United States and Canada, and agency lease sale activities during the 2018–2019 government shutdown. 

“The lack of response across multiple agencies underscores the anti-democratic tactics being used to promote drilling in the Arctic Refuge,” said Trustees for Alaska attorney Maresa Jenson. “FOIA is integral to our democracy. Delaying, ignoring, or withholding information sows distrust, prevents accountability and transparency, and breaks the law.”

Trustees submitted multiple FOIA requests in 2018 and 2019 on behalf of the four plaintiffs in the suit--the Gwich’in Steering Committee, The Wilderness Society, Alaska Wilderness League, and Defenders of Wildlife.

“We need to know what agencies are doing and reviewing when deciding what happens to sacred lands and our way of life,” said Bernadette Demientieff, executive director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee. “We have a right to know what influences are at play when these agencies make decisions about our future.”

The suit filed in the U.S. District Court of Alaska calls out the U.S. Department of the Interior, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for withholding public information vital to holding agencies accountable to the law. 

“The Trump Administration’s rush to drill the Arctic Refuge has been tainted by its energy-dominance-at-all-costs and anti-science agenda,” said Alison Flint, director of litigation and agency policy with The Wilderness Society. “The public is entitled to know what is playing out behind closed doors and to have access to the records the agencies are relying on. Yet instead of devoting the necessary resources to satisfy their FOIA obligations, the agencies ignore our requests and continue to focus only on rolling back protections for the Arctic Refuge.” - More...
Wednesday PM - July 31, 2019

Ketchikan: Bryan Cothren MD joins PHMG Psychiatry - PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Group recently announced the addition of a second psychiatrist to their staff allowing for expanded services for the Southeast Alaska area.

Dr. Bryan Cothren was in the Louisiana Air National Guard when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. His time helping people who sought refuge at the New Orleans Superdome set him on the path to medical school.

“I had an overwhelming feeling that I wanted to do something more to help people,” he said of his experience at the Superdome. Now his path has led to Ketchikan. He joined Victor Chen MD at PeaceHealth Medical Group Psychiatry in early July.

“I decided on psychiatry when I was doing rotations to explore options in medical school,” he said, “that individual one-on-one connection with a person sitting across from you is very appealing.”

Having two psychiatrists on staff increases the ability of PeaceHealth to provide services across Southern Southeast. Dr. Chen will travel to the Prince of Wales Clinic in Craig while Dr. Cothren will go to Metlakatla once or twice a month.

“It was one of the more intriguing and exciting things we talked about when I came up for an interview,” said Dr. Cothren, “I will go to Petersburg, probably quarterly, and do telepsychiatry between the in-person appointments” - More...
Wednesday PM - July 31, 2019

Extreme melting where glacier meets ocean
By NED ROZELL
The terminus of LeConte Glacier lies in an ocean bay about 25 miles east of Petersburg in Southeast Alaska.
Photo By Roman Motyka

Scientists like working at LeConte because it’s just 25 miles from the fishing town and the ice has carved a few clifftops upon which glacier watchers can perch. They can also compare the 20-mile-long glacier to larger ones in Greenland and Antarctica that are dumping huge amounts of fresh water into the ocean.

A few generations of Petersburg High School students have taken helicopter and boat rides to LeConte Glacier as part of their science classes. Teacher Victor Trautman, who retired in June 2019, visited the glacier this May with six students.

Trautman was continuing the work of Paul Bowen, a teacher at Petersburg High School who began aiming surveying equipment at LeConte Glacier’s blue-white face in 1983.

In the mid 1990s, Bowen noticed the glacier’s sudden retreat of a mile after it had pretty much remained in the same place for more than 30 years.

That’s when glaciologists became interested in Bowen’s detailed reports and started their own monitoring of LeConte. Roman Motyka of UAF’s Geophysical Institute has been around for all of those professional studies. He was one of nine authors of a 2019 study in the journal Science. He and others documented their direct measurements of glacier ice turning to water beneath LeConte’s thunderous face.

David Sutherland of the University of Oregon is lead author of the new LeConte Glacier study. In August 2016 and May 2017, scientists bounced sound waves off the glacier front to create images of the underwater part of the glacier. They sampled the ocean water for temperature and salinity. They also recorded air temperature and precipitation and videoed the glacier’s behavior.

Sutherland is now on his way to Greenland to study glaciers flowing from the ice sheet into the ocean. The complicated logistics of that trip half a world away make him appreciate LeConte Glacier, which got its name in 1887 when U.S. Navy Adm. Charles Thomas surveyed the Alaska coast and honored his friend Joseph LeConte, a California biologist. - More...
Wednesday PM - July 31, 2019

DAVE KIFFER: And it Was Uphill, Both Ways - As we stumble into the latter part of the Visitor Season (bag limit 2 per person, no collateral taking of women or children) , it seems as though we are seeing more and more unhappy tourists.

This is somewhat puzzling.

Whenever I watch some movie about an ocean cruise, it always seems to be a grand, relaxing adventure. Shuffleboard. Deckchairs. Spiffy jodhpurs. Well, actually not jodhpurs, unless you are have some horses in your stateroom. I just wanted to once use "jodhpurs" in a sentence and this seemed like as good a time as anyway.

Anyway, there seems nothing as leisurely and pleasant as a movie about an ocean cruise, right?

Well, perhaps not "A Night to Remember" or "Titanic" or "Poseidon Adventure" or "Speed 2: Cruise Control."    Any movie in which you are forced to continue your voyage in a lifeboat is probably neither grand nor relaxing.

Speaking of which, what the heck was up with "Beyond the Poseidon Adventure?" How do you get "beyond" a story where a ship sinks and nearly every body dies. Of course, I watched "Beyond the Poseidon Adventure" because it had Veronica Hamel in it and I would watch Veronica Hamel in anything, including "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" or "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" or  even "Elmo: The Musical."

At very least, they should have called the Poseidon sequel "Inside the Poseidon Adventure" because it was all about an attempt to extract a valuable cargo of plutonium off the ill-fated luxury liner. Which makes me wonder just how many of the half dozen ships that come into Ketchikan each day have a secret cargo of plutonium on them. One hundred percent if Hollywood is to be believed. - More...
Wednesday PM - July 31, 2019

Political Cartoon: Democrat Directions
By Christopher Weyant ©2019, The Boston Globe, MA
Distributed to paid subscribers for publication by Cagle Cartoons, Inc.