Nome Port Commission looks at new season
The Nome Port Commission met in City chambers Thursday, June 18 for a session that went a long two and a half hours because there was much to discuss.
Port Director Joy Baker started it off with praise for Alaska’s congressional delegation for their work on the Nome Port Bill in time for the upcoming session of Congress. “Otherwise it would have had to wait two years,” said Baker. “Senator Sullivan was working double time.”
Commissioner Jim West Jr. reported he’d been approached by citizens asking how the city would raise the significant amount of money for its share of the cost of the project. “We’re working on it,” he told them. He said there is Chinese interest in financing the port and that he’d had a call from an FBI investigator about Chinese investment in Nome.
Commissioner Charlie Lean reported three big Russian factory trawlers have gone north of the Bering Strait. A day later some kind of waxy yellow substance was washing up on the beach near Gambell. Lean said there’s a high likelihood that it’s fish oil, a by product of factory processing. American vessels burn the fish oil mixed in with fuel as a supplement. “It doesn’t sound like petroleum oil,” said Lean.
“We’ve been very busy,” began Harbormaster Lucas Stotts in his report to the commission. There are two tankers offshore. Crowley, Drake Construction and Ridge Marine are very active. The floating docks are in the water and being used by dredgers and fishermen. He and Joy Baker have been going over the COVID-19 protocols.
On June 16, a private skiff was leaving the harbor while Alaska Marine Excavation’s dredge was handling pipe used in their operation. Warnings had been broadcast on the proper radio channels and the skiff said they had their radio on. But they ran over the pipe and tore off their lower unit. Despite 20 years of the dredge operating in the harbor this is one of the first incidents.
Stotts told of the Bering Pacific Construction tug Diane H. with the barge Kumtuk damaging the middle dock after striking a fender. He personally witnessed the event. The repair is in progress. “It just shows why we like to have guys watching folks come and go,” said the harbormaster. If for some reason somebody has a mishap in the middle of the night staff will watch the video footage.
The port’s restrooms are open to the public and they are nice and clean. “Things are off to a good clip,” said Stotts.
Seekers has finished their work on the fuel line between storage tanks. They hydro tested the eight-inch line a few days ago. Crowley is hoping to do a fuel transfer in late June.
In the Port Director’s report Joy Baker began with the sediment buildup problem under the causeway bridge. The Army Corps of Engineers plans to do the dredging but there is work to do determining whose property and whose material is involved. “We just want to make sure the bridge breach is cleared of material so the system will flush,” she said. The bridge is there for fish to pass through. “It’s not so much about the fish going through as changing the salinity, having a less abrupt salinity change so when the little fry go out they don’t hit a wall and get concentrated and then the predators eat them all,” said Charlie Lean. The sediment has been dredged in the past and the results were not great.
“I’d like to see us put some requirements on the tugs and larger vessels to have to use a tug assist,” said Baker. “We could even implement environmental restrictions. Current and wind speed, in particular. If we require the tug then we’d need to supply one.”
“We would not be an anomaly,” said Joy. “I believe you will find a number of ports that require the large ships to use assistance to come into docks.” Baker believes long-term thinking is needed and that this is the time to start. “I think it’s worthy of us to consider because we’ve had a couple of incidents. We’ve had a couple of near misses that were frightening, although nothing happened.” She suggested the commission have a work session on the topic and bring some experts in.
One of the commissioners asked if Nome is more challenging than other ports. “You have a 509 foot opening, which is a very small entrance,” said Harbormaster Stotts. Add in the current of the river and the wind and docking can be difficult.
Jim West Jr. suggested there are reasons for the City to own a tug, firefighting out on the pier being one of them. “Do we have enough business to keep our 6,000 hp tug happy?” asked Commissioner Gay Sheffield.
In new business Harbormaster Stotts outlined plans to move the individual container storage to a location where traffic from fuel trucks and barge cargo vehicles would not be impaired by container owner traf
fic. He identified the pad where the state trailers used to be as a good location to place them. Renters are asking for 40 x 40 size lots to rent so they can place a couple of containers, a tent, and a work area. They can put their dredge on the lot and keep everything together. The potential for the City to make money off leasing plots this size was taken under discussion.