Unalaska, AK – Following a visit to Washington, D.C. last week, city officials are optimistic about their chances of securing federal funding for geothermal exploration near Makushin Volcano.

Mayor Shirley Marquardt, City Manager Chris Hladick and members of the Unalaska City Council met last week with Alaska's congressional delegation and staff from the Department of Energy to discuss the prospect of getting federal grants for the geothermal project. Marquardt said they seemed receptive to the idea.

"It's such a strong resource--it's phenomenal in the world of geothermal technology, and they're interested in it," she said.

Since plans to work with a private developer to tap the resource fell through last year, the city has been trying to figure out a way to develop geothermal power in Unalaska on its own. But discussions with a couple of geothermal engineering firms this summer convinced city officials that the costs of developing the site where test wells were drilled on the slope of Makushin were simply too high, and that the city had to look for other options.

Marquardt said they're now looking at drilling test wells in a lower-altitude area in Makushin Valley east of the volcano.

"That resource is draining somewhere, and it's probably a really good guess that it's down in the floor of the valley," she said. "If we can find the resource there that's usable, and shave $50 or $60 million off the cost of the project, our chances of getting grants and revenue bonds are really good."

Marquardt said that two of the processing plants in Unalaska, which supply their own power, have recently approached the city about getting on the grid once the city's new, more efficient diesel generators are up and running. If that happens, she said, the expansion in the city's customer base would put a geothermal project on more stable financial footing, and make it easier to recoup the development cost.