The Selendang Ayu broke apart a decade ago just off Unalaska Island. (Courtesy: USCG)
For years, shipping safety advocates have called for better protections against oil spills in the Aleutian chain. Now, the plan for a new prevention and response system is finally finished.
The new draft report from the Aleutian Islands Risk Assessment recommends some familiar solutions in new places – all at a cost of almost $14 million a year.
Unalaska’s construction companies turned out in force Tuesday night to hear city council take up longstanding issues with contracting.
The council delved into their criteria for selecting contractors, and debated who to hire for one controversial job: the landfill expansion. Council had awarded the contract to Northern Alaska Contractors earlier this year, but they scrapped the agreement after a complication at the worksite.
Alaska’s congressional delegation is pressing for a quick resolution to the country's seafood standoff with Russia.
The politicians sent a letter to President Barack Obama today, asking him to pick up the pace of negotiations so Russia will drop their import ban on American fish. But if diplomats can’t make that happen, the Alaska delegation wants to see a ban on Russian seafood entering the United States.
A pallet of raw surimi at UniSea's plant in Unalaska. UniSea planned to export about 500 tons of raw surimi to Russia this season. (Lauren Rosenthal/KUCB)
It’s been just over two weeks since Russia banned imports of American food products into its country. Now, Alaska’s seafood industry is asking the U.S. government to strike back.
Terry Shaff is the president of UniSea -- one of 10 major processing companies that’s lobbying to get Russian seafood kicked out of the United States.
Golden king crab season is officially open in the Aleutian Islands.
About five vessels had signed up to participate as of the season’s start last Friday. More than six million pounds of golden king crab is available to catch.
That amount is set in federal state regulations and divided up among the fleet and community development quota groups.
Federal attorneys have filed more charges as they continue an investigation into Clean Air Act violations at the Westward Seafoods plant in Unalaska.
Between 2009 and 2011, James Hampton was the engineer in charge of Westward's powerhouse. That includes a water injection system for reducing potentially harmful emissions of nitrogen dioxide.
Prosecutors say that pollution equipment was mostly turned off on Hampton's watch. And now, Hampton is facing a felony charge for giving false data to his environmental compliance manager to make it look like the pollution system was up and running.
Knik Construction has posted similar "'No' on One" campaign signs at worksites around the Southwest. (Annie Ropeik/KUCB)
In just a few days, Alaskan voters will decide whether to repeal the state’s oil tax system. It’s question one on Tuesday’s primary ballot.
Unalaskans will see plenty of familiar names among the groups that want to keep the current policy, which tries to spur development by cutting taxes for oil producers.
The list includes Knik Construction, which has been paving Unalaska’s roads this summer. They’ve got “Vote ‘No’ on One” signs up on their asphalt plant in Unalaska and at project sites all over the Southwest. And their parent company, Anchorage-based Lynden Construction, has given almost $84,000 to the well-funded “Vote ‘No’” campaign, according to state records.
Alaska's seafood industry is getting caught in the middle of a power struggle between Russia and western nations.
Ever since Russia seized part of Ukraine this winter, sanctions against it have been stacking up. Now, Russia's fighting back by banning food imports from the United States and a handful of other countries.
Alaska shipped almost $9 million worth of pollock to Russia last year.
