Some of Alaska’s clear, icy blue waterways are turning a startling rust orange – so intense it’s visible from Earth’s orbit.
“The stained rivers are so big we can see them from space,” says University of California (UC) Davis environmental toxicologist Brett Poulin. “These have to be stained a lot to pick them up from space.”
After first noticing the problem in 2018 from river banks and fly-overs, National Park Service ecologist Jon O’Donnell, Poulin and their colleagues used satellite imagery and public reports to identify over 75 remote streams recently tainted this unusual orange color, across almost 1,000 kilometers (1,610 miles) of Alaska’s Brooks Range.
“There are certain sites that look almost like a milky orange juice,” describes O’Donnell. “Those orange streams can be problematic both in terms of being toxic but might also prevent migration of fish to spawning areas.”
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Samples from some of these waterways collected between June and September 2022 contained high concentrations of iron and other toxic metals, including zinc, copper, nickel, and lead, when compared to nearby healthy streams. In some cases, these pollutants ramped up the water’s acidity from the usual pH of 8 to 2.3.
An aerial view of the rust-colored Kutuk River in Gates of the Arctic National Park in Alaska. (Ken Hill/National Park Service)
The results look similar to acidic mining runoff, Poulin says, yet there are no mines anywhere near these locations.
Instead, by examining satellite imagery from 1985 to 2022, O’Donnell, Poulin and their colleagues determined this strange phenomenon has only been occurring during the last decade, and it coincides with warmer weather and increased snowfall.
“Our working hypothesis is that the thawing of permafrost soil is allowing water to infiltrate deeper and interact with minerals that have been locked away for thousands of years,” explains Poulin.
The Arctic is warming about four times faster than the rest of our planet. That extra heat melts frozen ground, increases microbial activity, and causes ‘shrubification’ – with those new roots further disturbing the soil. Together these processes are exposing the previously protected minerals to weathering and displacing them into watersheds.
“Climate change and associated permafrost thaw appear to be the primary drivers of stream impairment,” the researchers conclude. “Stream discoloration was associated with dramatic declines in macroinvertebrate diversity and fish abundance.”
This change in water chemistry due to acid rock drainage threatens not only wildlife but local people who rely on these streams for drinking water and subsistence fishing.
O’Donnell and the team are continuing their investigation in the hopes of understanding the broader ecological impacts for the region and working out when and where the toxic orange taint will strike again.
“There’s a lot of implications,” explains O’Donnell. “As the climate continues to warm, we would expect permafrost to continue to thaw and so wherever there are these types of minerals, there’s potential for streams to be turning orange and becoming degraded in terms of water quality.”
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Their research was published in Communications Earth & Environment.
JUNEAU, Alaska (KTUU) – The Supreme Court of Alaska will be taking up the case of the State of Alaska, Division of Elections v. Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr.
The oral arguments will be held Monday at 10 a.m. via Zoom, according to an order and opening notice.
The document also specifies that a decision is expected to be made before noon on Tuesday.
According to documents from the Division of Elections, the state must start printing ballots at noon on the same day.
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This comes after an Anchorage Superior Court Judge ordered Dan J. Sullivan on to the ballot Friday.
See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com
A new home under construction in Potter Valley in Anchorage. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
This June, two very different offers reach Alaska families, and both amount to the same thing: $10,000. The difference is everything.
Bill Walker, running for governor, would hand every eligible Alaskan a one-time $10,000 check and then end the Permanent Fund dividend for good. Ask one question: Where does his $10,000 come from?
It comes from the Permanent Fund, the people’s own money and the savings Alaskans built for their children. Walker would spend that endowment once to pay Alaskans to give up the yearly dividend forever.
Think about what that does. It cancels the annual check that gives a family a reason to keep an Alaska address and replaces it with a single payout. You hand people their own savings, call it a gift and cut the tie that held them here in the same motion. It is the oldest mistake in governing money: raid what you have saved to buy a moment’s applause and call the spending generosity.
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A plan that spends the people’s savings to send the people away is not bold. It is foolish.
Now consider the other $10,000. Through Alaska Housing Finance Corp., the state offers families up to $10,000 to build a new, energy-efficient home. AHFC raids nothing. It earns its own way. Over the years, it has returned more than $2 billion to the state treasury, and it spends some of that income the way any good business does: to win a customer.
Here, the customer is an Alaskan who wants to own a home, put down roots and stay.
That is the oldest sound move in business: Invest a little of what you earn to bring in someone who stays. The homeowner remains, the community gains a family and the corporation keeps earning. The money spent comes back. A plan that puts earnings to work to bring people home is not charity. It is clever.
Same amount. Opposite source. Opposite wisdom. One spends savings; the other spends earnings. One pays Alaskans to leave; the other pays them to stay. One empties the state; the other fills it.
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This Homeownership Month, the choice is the size of a single check, and the whole question is where the check comes from and what it asks of you. Ten thousand dollars of your own fund, to wave you goodbye. Or $10,000, earned and reinvested, to help you stay and build.
Evan Swensen is the publisher of Publication Consultants in Anchorage and the author of “What’s the Money For: A Permanent Fund Mortgage Proposal.”
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