Newtok cries out for help with erosion problem (2/19/07)

Running out of fuel in Newtok would be disastrous, say leaders in the Yup'ik Eskimo community of 315. Without fuel, villagers can't run the snowmachines and boats they use to search for subsistence foods like seal and halibut that are crucial to their survival. "This is food we have to have to prepare for the whole wintertime," said acting administrator Stanley Tom.

Fuel to operate the power plant is being flown in to the village, which is far off the road system. But businesses and individuals can't afford such a costly alternative and only a couple thousand gallons of unleaded gasoline remain in the village, said Tom, whose variety store has run out of gas and heating oil to sell to customers. Residents, who have enough heating oil to last the winter, are looking for help to build a pipeline system to transport fuel delivered by barges from the next nearest river.

But state and federal funds for the increasingly battered site have dried up because Newtok has begun to relocate to higher ground nine miles to the south. The move is expected to take several years or more, casting the village in financial limbo. It's a unique predicament that could launch a precedent on how government deals with similar transitions in a region wracked by escalating climate change.

"The village is in a very tough spot. How to help is a puzzle," said Chris Mello with the Alaska Energy Authority who is investigating the problem with Gov. Sarah Palin's office. "No existing program that I know of is set up to cope with the situation they're in right now."

The narrow, meandering Newtok River loops around the village and once flowed freely, allowing barges to deliver fuel to the local tank farm. But the vast, rushing Ninglick River to the south has cut into the Newtok's circulation, turning it into a slough. Historical erosion maps show that in five decades the Ninglick has eaten almost three-fourths of a mile of land toward the village. Only a few hundred feet of swampy tundra remain.

Now sediments pushed in by the Ninglick have settled in the Newtok rather than being flushed out as in the past.

Every year the problem is more acute, said Mark Smith, an executive in the Anchorage office of Crowley Maritime Corp., which delivers bulk fuel by barge to scores of rural Alaska communities.

"Newtok, like several other villages, is subject to geological changes, and that's made it a much more difficult village to serve," Smith said. "I think it's gotten worse."

So much so that barges in recent years made regular deliveries each spring and fall with lighter loads. Then last spring, barge crews spent several days waiting for tides to raise the level of the Newtok River before they could make a delivery. That was the last time a barge delivery was attempted.

Conditions on the Newtok River have deteriorated so much that the company likely will no longer make fall deliveries when crews are hustling to fill final orders before winter closes in. That means just one yearly delivery.

"The delivery window has just been shrinking every year," Smith said.

For now, Crowley is flying the power company's ordered fuel in at barge prices.

Everyone else has to pay air freight. That's a cost Tom says he and others can't pay in the low-income community. His customers last paid $4.25 for a gallon of gas and he would have to charge $7.50 a gallon to absorb the added expense.

In a letter sent this month to state officials by Newtok's tribal government, Stanley Tom said there is no money available to dredge the Newtok. He said a fuel transfer pipeline system from the Ninglick would make delivery easier for barges. Hauling the fuel is impossible because of the soggy terrain.

Village leaders hope government agencies will provide some funding -- or at least technical assistance -- to develop a safe fuel transport system.