The independent federal agency that provides Alaska with utilities, infrastructure and economic support is considering a number of new environmental hazards as it updates its statewide threat assessment.
In 2019, the Denali Commission published a detailed listing of climate change-related threats to communities around the state. The document, written for the commission by experts from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the University of Alaska Fairbanks, scored 187 communities according to the threats they faced from flooding, erosion, permafrost thaw or a combination of those impacts.
Now an updated report is in the works, with five more hazards added to the analysis: landslides, tsunamis, wildfires, earthquakes and volcanoes.
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Experts working on the updated Denali Commission report outlined the project at a panel discussion held Wednesday at the Alaska Forum on the Environment, a weeklong conference underway in Anchorage.
“It didn’t make sense to just look at permafrost thaw, erosion and flooding when there are new hazards that our communities are facing,” said Courtney Brozovsky, a geographic information systems specialist with a consulting firm contracted by the Corps of Engineers.
The list of new hazards can be further expanded or defined. “We’re also talking about ways that we can incorporate some other additional hazards such as glacial outburst flooding, typhoon and drought,” Jessica Evans, an environmental planner with the same contractor, AECOM, told the gathering.
The Denali Commission, an independent federal agency established by Congress in 1998, coordinates investments in rural Alaska infrastructure, economic development and public health. The 2019 threat assessment has been used to help guide those investments. The commission continues to function, despite attempts by the Trump administration to abolish it.
Of the new hazards that are slated to be added to the updated assessment, three have connections or possible connections to climate change. Landslides of different types are occurring around Alaska and are tied to forces like glacial retreat, permafrost thaw and heavier precipitation events. A University of Alaska Fairbanks and National Weather Service study published in November correlates the increase in reported Alaska landslides to reported average temperature increases of 1.2-3.4 degrees Celsius — roughly 2-6 degrees Fahrenheit — and 3-27% increases in precipitation over the last 50 years across Alaska.
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Landslides can cause dangerous localized tsunamis, as happened in Southeast Alaska’s Tracy Arm in August. And wildfire frequency and intensity have increased in Alaska as the climate has warmed.
Along with adding hazards to evaluate, other updates are intended to fill in past data gaps and to refine scoring methodology, Evans said.
The next step in the process is gathering public information, she said. After that, the team will try to figure out which hazards to aggregate, she said. The intended result is a more refined ranking system that focuses on relevant hazards for different geographic locations rather than grouping them all together, she said.
A draft report is expected in the summer, which will give more opportunities for public input. The final report is expected by the end of the year.
The Denali Commission has scheduled three events this month to gather public input on the project. The first is scheduled for Friday morning at the Atwood Building in downtown Anchorage. The second is scheduled for Feb. 10 at the Southeast Conference’s Mid-Session Summit. The third is scheduled for Feb. 26 at Zach’s Restaurant in Fairbanks.
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JUNEAU, Alaska (KTUU) – An Alaska drug task force seized roughly $162,000 worth of controlled substances during an operation in Juneau Thursday, according to the Juneau Police Department.
Around 3 p.m. Thursday, investigators with the Southeast Alaska Cities Against Drugs (SEACAD) approached 50-year-old Juneau resident Jermiah Pond in the Nugget Mall parking lot while he was sitting in his car, according to JPD.
A probation search of the car revealed a container holding about 7.3 gross grams of a substance that tested presumptively positive for methamphetamine, as well as about 1.21 gross grams of a substance that tested presumptively positive for fentanyl.
As part of the investigation, investigators executed a search warrant at Pond’s residence, during which they found about 46.63 gross grams of ketamine, 293.56 gross grams of fentanyl, 25.84 gross grams of methamphetamine and 25.5 gross grams of MDMA.
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In all, it amounted to just less than a pound of drugs worth $162,500.
Investigators also seized $102,640 in cash and multiple recreational vehicles believed to be associated with the investigation.
Pond was lodged on charges of second-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, two counts of third-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, five counts of fourth-degree misconduct involving a substance and an outstanding felony probation warrant.
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SAND POINT, Alaska (KTUU) – A teenage boy who was last seen Monday when the canoe he was in tipped over has been found by a dive team in a lake near Sand Point, according to a person familiar with the situation.
Alaska’s News Source confirmed with the person, who is close to the search efforts, that the dive team found 15-year-old Kaipo Kaminanga deceased Thursday in Red Cove Lake, located a short drive from the town of Sand Point on the Aleutian Island chain.
Kaminanga was last seen canoeing with three other friends on Monday when the boat tipped over.
A search and rescue operation ensued shortly after.
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Alaska Dive Search Rescue and Recovery Team posted on Facebook Thursday night that they were able to “locate and recover” Kaminanga at around 5 p.m. Thursday.
“We are glad we could bring closure to his family, friends and community,” the post said.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated when more details become available.
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This is a tax tutorial for gubernatorial candidates, for legislators who will report to work next year and for the Alaska public.
Think of it as homework, with more than eight months to complete the assignment that is not due until the November election. The homework is intended to inform, not settle the debate over a state sales tax or state income tax — or neither, which is the preferred option for many Alaskans.
But for those Alaskans willing to consider a tax as a personal responsibility to help fund schools, roads, public safety, child care, state troopers, prisons, foster care and everything else necessary for healthy and productive lives, someday they will need to decide on a state income tax or a state sales tax after they accept the checkbook reality that oil and Permanent Fund earnings are not enough.
This homework assignment is intended to get people thinking with facts, not emotions. Electing the right candidates will be the first test.
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Alaskans have until the next election because nothing will change this year. It will take a new political alignment led by a reality-based governor to organize support in the Legislature and among the public.
But next year, maybe, with the right elected leadership, Alaskans can debate a state sales tax or personal income tax. Plus, of course, corporate taxes and oil production taxes, but those are for another school day.
One of the biggest arguments in favor of a state sales tax is that visitors would pay it. Yes, they would, but not as much as many Alaskans think.
Air travel is exempt from sales taxes. So are cruise ship tickets. That’s federal law, which means much of what tourists spend on their Alaska vacation is beyond the reach of a state sales tax.
Cutting further into potential revenues, state and federal law exempts flightseeing tours from sales tax, which is a particularly costly exemption when you think about how much visitors spend on airplane and helicopter tours.
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That leaves sales tax supporters collecting from tourists on T-shirts, gifts for grandchildren, artwork, postcards, hotels, Airbnb, car rentals and restaurant meals. Still a substantial take for taxes, but far short of total tourism spending.
An argument against a state sales tax is that more than 100 cities and boroughs already depend on local sales taxes to pay for schools and other public services. Try to imagine what a state tax piled on top of a local tax would do to kill shopping in Homer, already at 7.85%, or Kodiak, Wrangell and Cordova, all at 7%, and all the other municipalities.
Supporters of an income tax say it would share the responsibility burden with nonresidents who earn income in Alaska and then return home to spend their money.
Almost one in four workers in Alaska in 2024 were nonresidents, as reported by the state Department of Labor in January. That doesn’t include federal employees, active-duty military or self-employed people.
Nonresidents earned roughly $3.8 billion, or about 17% of every dollar covered in the report.
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However, many of those nonresident workers are lower-wage and seasonal, employed in the seafood processing and tourism industries, unlikely to pay much in income taxes. But a tax could be structured so that they pay something, which is fair.
Meanwhile, higher-wage workers in oil and gas, mining, construction and airlines (freight and passenger service) would pay taxes on their income earned in Alaska, which also is fair.
It comes down to what would direct more of the tax burden to nonresidents: a tax on income or on visitor spending. Wages or wasabi-crusted salmon dinners.
Larry Persily is a longtime Alaska journalist, with breaks for federal, state and municipal public policy work in Alaska and Washington, D.C. He lives in Anchorage and is publisher of the Wrangell Sentinel weekly newspaper.
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