Unalaska, AK – The Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association is working to create what the organization calls an "Alaska management consortium" to help monitor the nuclear test site on Amchitka Island.

An APIA representative and a nuclear contamination expert from the University of Alaska Fairbanks were in Unalaska Tuesday to collect comments on monitoring plans for Amchitka, where the Atomic Energy Commission conducted nuclear tests in the '60s and '70s. The site is now monitored by the Department of Energy, which shifted responsibility for the test site to its Legacy Management Program in October. The move signals that the site is no longer considered an active hazard by the department, and APIA Environmental Projects Coordinator Bob Patrick said that part of the purpose of the consortium is to make sure that Amchitka stays on DOE's radar, even as it becomes a lower priority.

"We just thought it's a good idea to have local people involved as much as possible, so Amchitka doesn't fall through the cracks and so that people know what's going on there," he said.

Patrick said that in addition to APIA, the consortium would include the state Department of Environmental Conservation, UAF scientists and representatives of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the island itself. He says that APIA agrees with the DOE's assessment that there's no significant risk of surface contamination at Amchitka. But he does worry about the possibility of nucleotides leaking from the core of the island, where the underground tests took place, into the surrounding ocean, which is used for commercial and subsistence fishing.

David Barnes, the chair of UAF's department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, said that he agrees with the DOE's plans to conduct tests every five years at Amchitka, but that it's important to ask the right questions of the data that are collected.

"Every five years, we're going to have to sit down and look at the data," he said. "What does all this mean? When should we sample again? What does a great earthquake in the area mean? Do we need to go out there and take samples? That's pretty much what our role's going to be."

Patrick and Barnes held a public meeting at the Unalaska library on Tuesday. No one attended, but APIA is still taking comments on the monitoring plan.