Alaskan Command the U.S. Navy plan to conduct training exercises in the Gulf of Alaska in May. The area comes within 140 nm of shore. Some locals are worried this poses risks to fish and fisheries.

Military attempts to allay environmental concerns over training exercise

During its meeting on Tuesday (12-13-16), the Sitka Assembly heard more about proposed military training exercises taking place into the Gulf of Alaska.

Northern Edge is an exercise preparing for crisis in the Indo-Asia Pacific region. The operation, which would be staged jointly about the Alaskan Command and the U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet, is scheduled for May of next year and comes within 240 nautical miles of Yakutat. Northern Edge will include both sonar and explosives. This has coastal communities across Southeast and Southwest nervous about impacts to wildlife.

At their November 8th meeting, the Sitka Assembly adopted a resolution (Res 2016-23 ) opposing both the location and timing of the exercise. And on Tuesday night (12-13-16), military representatives stepped up to the microphone to assuage those concerns.

Dr. Jerome Montague is an ecologist with the Navy. He said that only herring had a behavioral response to sonar and that explosions only harmed marine life at the surface of the water. “They’re not blowing up underwater and sending large shockwaves under the water. As fisherman in this room know, the surface isn’t covered with fish everywhere. It wouldn’t take any skill to be a fisherman. So we anticipate that most would occur where they are no fish.”

Members of the public were not persuaded. Two citizens – Naomi Bargmann and Lindsay Evans – spoke against the Gulf exercise, saying it could affect not only wildlife, but marine-based industries. Evans is a commercial fisherman. Addressing the Sitka Assembly during persons to be heard, she said, “We’ve seen whales wash up on shore. We’ve seen it in Homer and we’ve seen it in Kodiak right after these things have happened. And how can you prove it? You really can’t.  How far are they going down? You really don’t know. So I’m looking each and every one of you in the eyes. And I know as locals you understand how important this is. National security is without a doubt a very serious important issue. At the same time, so is our ecosystem.”

The Assembly did not move to rescind their resolution opposing Northern Edge.

Community hospital board seeks answers to three questions

Sitka Community Hospital is in talks with SEARHC about future collaboration. Before presenting their plan to the Assembly, CEO Rob Allen said the two hospitals want to iron out three issues:

  • How Native preference would be handled in any new health entity.
  • How equal patient access would be guaranteed.
  • How the governance would be structured, so as to maximize  local control and guarantee continuation of any agreements on these fundamental issues into the indefinite future.

If the hospitals can come to an agreement, Allen said new language would be added to their letter of intent.

Electric policy called into question

The Sitka Assembly also debated the new electric utility policy (Ord 2016-38), specifically the portion that offers a special rate for large commercial users with interruptible loads. Right now, their rate is 90% cheaper than the price of No. 2 diesel fuel. Members of the public and the private sector have said this isn’t fair to local fuel companies. Ultimately, the Assembly decided to keep the utility policy intact, but the body may pick up the discussion in the future.

Assembly holds executive session 

The Assembly also went into executive session for an hour to talk about the city’s procurement procedure, specifically how the contract was awarded for building a multi-purpose dock at the Gary Paxton Industrial Park. When they emerged, they approved a joint statement directing the city’s attorney to look into current procurement policies and make recommendations as necessary.