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- [00:00]
Ammon Swenson
Support for Alaska Public Media on Demand.
- [00:03]
Jonathan Miller
Comes from Siri, an Alaska Native corporation with operations and investments spanning five continents, 45 states and two U.S. territories.
- [00:19]
Max Graham
I mean, each tank is capable of storing like twice as much oil as was released in the Exxon Valdez disaster.
- [00:27]
Casey Grove
Disagreement in Valdez over how to prevent an oil spill at the end of the Trans Alaska Pipeline. From Alaska Public Media, this is statewide news on Alaska News nightly for Friday, October 3rd. Good evening. I'm Casey Grove. Also tonight, former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson enters the crowded 2026 race for governor.
- [00:45]
Dave Bronson
Chief executive experience within the government realm is fairly unique.
- [00:51]
Casey Grove
Those stories and more tonight on Alaska News Night Leap. Among the most vulnerable Alaskans to the ongoing federal shutdown could be thousands of parents who depend on WIC to help them buy food. WIC is the acronym for Women, Infants and Children, a federal program administered by the state. It provides food benefits to women who are pregnant or breastfeeding and families that include a child under five as long as the household meets income limits. Jeff Turner, a spokesman for Governor Mike Dunleavy, says Alaska has enough money in the program to last through the first week of the shutdown. Whether cash reserves last beyond then is unclear. In past funding lapses, Alaska found the money to keep paying WIC benefits. A statement from the governor says the state will have to reassess if the shutdown goes on beyond a month. Nationally, WIC depends on money Congress must appropriate each year. In that way, it is unlike the larger SNAP food program, which is considered an entitlement. More than 8,000 Alaska households receive WIC benefits. For now, WIC offices around the state are open. Congress seems no closer to passing a funding bill. The Senate adjourned until Monday. Former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson is joining the race for governor. He announced his candidacy Thursday as he kicked off a two day series of events in Fairbanks, Wasilla, Anchorage and Soldotna. Here he is speaking this morning at the Sullivan arena in Anchorage.
- [02:29]
Dave Bronson
I've tackled crime. I've taken on homelessness. I brought record investment to our city. And I've shown that when you put the people first, government can work in the way it was intended. That's why I'm running for governor.
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Casey Grove
Bronson is running as a Republican and says he plans to focus on economic growth, infrastructure, affordable housing, education, and, quote, protecting the permanent fund dividend. In a crowded field that includes 12 Republicans. Bronson says he shared many of his competitors values and policy priorities, but he says his experience leading Anchorage sets him apart.
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Dave Bronson
I'm the only one that's had that executive experience, others have legislative experience and that that is important, don't get me wrong and others had some small business experience, but at the end of the day, chief executive experience within the government realm is fairly unique.
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Casey Grove
Bronson rode a wave of pandemic induced frustration to be elected to lead the state's largest city in 2021. He frequently clashed with the left leaning Anchorage assembly over the City's approach to COVID 19, and homelessness. He also faced accusations of creating a hostile work environment which led to wrongful termination lawsuits and high staff turnover across departments. He lost a bid for reelection to former Assembly Chair Suzanne LaFrance last year. Stakeholders in Valdez are embroiled in a dispute over oil spill protections at the terminal there, at the end of the Trans Alaska Pipeline, where tankers load up on crude bound for the lower 48. On one side are the city of Valdez and the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens Advisory Council. On the other, alyeska Pipeline Service Co. Which operates the pipeline and terminal. The city and the watchdog group worry that aging safeguards like an asphalt liner beneath massive oil storage tanks would no longer be effective at preventing an oil spill from reaching the Sound. They want Alyeska to replace the liner or at least fully inspect and repair it. Northern Journal reporter Max Graham has been following the back and forth as a review of Alyeska's contingency plan plays out. Graham says some observers think a spill from the tanks could rival that of the infamous 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.
- [04:38]
Max Graham
These tanks are huge. I mean, each tank is capable of storing like twice as much oil as was released during the Exxon Valdez disaster. And so the sort of, worst case, most catastrophic kind of spill you could imagine would be a ton of oil. That said, Alyeska says the likelihood of that is like very small. And it wouldn't all go into the Sound. I mean, the worry is that it would just sort of seep into the ground and then possibly contaminate groundwater and eventually make its way into the ocean.
- [05:12]
Casey Grove
What is Alyeska? What is their plan in the event of some type of spill? What kind of equipment, what kind of plan do they have to deal with that?
- [05:22]
Max Graham
Yeah, they have a ton of equipment and they do trainings and they inspect these tanks and they say they just are prepared and state law requires that they have all kinds of these sort of contingencies in place. And that's actually what this dispute has arisen from is a plan that Alyeska submits to regulators every five years that outlines all these things, and the liner is a part of that. But the sort of question at hand here is really, you know, is this liner doing its job?
- [06:00]
Casey Grove
So what do we know about the integrity of that liner?
- [06:05]
Max Graham
The city of Aldez, in their appeal to the state, says not much. Like, only 1% of the liner has been inspected, they say, over the last 48 years. And of that 1%, there have been holes and leaks detected in the past. And the request here from the city is for Alyeska to fully inspect it and repair it, if not fully replace it with a new kind of liner.
- [06:33]
Casey Grove
Now, I imagine Alyeska would say that that's a huge job. Right. I mean, how would they even go about doing that?
- [06:40]
Max Graham
Yeah, so I reached out to Alyeska, and they wouldn't really comment on the details of the dispute while it's playing out with regulators in front of an administrative judge. Still, Alyeska will say and has said publicly that the likelihood of a major spill is vanishingly small. It's something like they would expect something like that to happen maybe once in every 100,000 years. And there's no question that the work of replacing the liner would be a lot like, it's 50 acres, and it's buried beneath several feet of soil and gravel. So it's hard to imagine how you could just sort of rip it all up beneath these tanks that are like critical pieces of infrastructure for these whole pipeline system without causing some kinds of major interruptions. And I haven't seen any sort of cost estimate about how much that would cost. But, yeah, it seems like there's no question that it would be an enormous task just logistically.
- [07:41]
Casey Grove
I mean, whether they have to get down under these massive tanks and look at this liner over this huge area. How would they do that?
- [07:52]
Max Graham
Yeah, there are two different techniques that they've proposed at different times. One is effectively like you put an electrode in the ground, and then you send this electric current around the liner, and then you can sort of see if the current moves through any leaks or holes in it. And that kind of gives you a sense of the integrity. And then another method that Alaska has proposed more recently is sort of hydraulic test where they flood it, and then, you know, find leak that way, just with water. And what exactly they'll do is still, like, they're still discussing that, negotiating that with regulators. And the state has not yet fully approved, like, any kind of comprehensive inspection plan.
- [08:37]
Casey Grove
That was Max Graham, a reporter with the Northern Journal, find his full story about spill protections at the Valdez marine terminal@northernjournal.com still to come on Alaska News Nightly, the story of a Cuban architect turned Anchorage artist and the nun who helped him find his talent.
- [08:56]
Sister Lucia
The first few paintings I recognized a gift, but he did not really believe in me at first.
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Casey Grove
That's ahead. Stay with us. Alaska climber Balin Miller died Wednesday while climbing El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. The 23 year old Miller gained recent renown as an emerging mountaineer known for solo climbing treacherous routes in Alaska and beyond. Born and raised in Alaska, he was a graduate of West Anchorage High School, where he was also on the ski team. Janine Moorman, Miller's mother, says her son's love for climbing began at the age of three, when his dad set up a small climbing wall at their home.
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Dave Bronson
He'd read and read and read and he taught himself. And he just had friends that would also climb and they would just go to Boulder and do stuff. Seward highway, so many like mom, can I go to the Seward highway and go climb? I mean, this is when he was like 17, 18, go see what highway and climb.
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Casey Grove
Mormon says her son eventually graduated to larger endeavors, traveling to Canada, South America and across the Lower 48 to climb. She says he spent 53 days summiting peaks in Denali national park and Preserve.
- [10:05]
Dave Bronson
He summited, did four summits in those 53 days, two of which one was a route on Mount Hunter. It was the backside. It's one that had never been done. It'd never been soloed before on Hunter.
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Casey Grove
Moorman says Miller had successfully climbed El Capitan before. She says on his last climb before he died, Miller reached the top of the Faces Sea of Dreams route. But he had issues bringing his gear bag up, which led to his death.
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Dave Bronson
His whole bag was stuck. And so he it's what it sounds to me is he repelled down to unhook the rail, the hull bag, and he ran out of rope and repelled right off the rope.
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Casey Grove
Moorman says her son's lifestyle was dedicated to climbing, often on a shoestring budget, working odd jobs and living mostly out of his Prius. She says she hopes Miller is remembered for his bold and charismatic energy. As the race to mine antimony is gaining traction in Alaska, so is the rush for the federal government's financial backing. Now the Trump administration is injecting millions of dollars into an Australian company's project about 100 miles northwest of Anchorage. As KYC's Patrick Gilkhurst reports, Nova Minerals is not the only antimony interest in Alaska, hoping for investment from the feds.
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Patrick Gilchrist
Mining companies want federal dollars to help them dig up antimony from sites in Alaska. And this week the Pentagon awarded a grant worth more than $43 million to the Alaska subsidiary of Nova Minerals. The money is intended to turn the company's Estelle project, located in the Mat Su Borough, into a hub for producing munitions materials. Nova Minerals CEO Christopher Gaertuisen says the project is on a two year schedule.
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Dave Bronson
And so what this grant is for is for us to further define our resource out there and then to mine the material and process the material to produce the munitions grade. Antimony trisulfide, they call it.
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Patrick Gilchrist
He says he doesn't anticipate that the ongoing government shutdown will affect the funding. Antimony, which is often associated with gold deposits, has a number of possible applications, including flame retardants, solar panels, semi semiconductors and ammunition. The US Government considers it a critical mineral. Antimony was mined in Alaska off and on between 1905 and 1986, typically in response to wartime needs or higher prices. The revived interest comes amid a push from the federal government to boost mineral production and China's ban on antimony exports to the U.S. china has been the United States biggest supplier of the mineral. The award to Nova Minerals comes through Title 3 of the Defense Production act, which allows the president to approve aid for businesses that buttress national defense. That's a lever the Biden administration also pulled to bolster critical mineral production and reduce reliance on foreign supply chains. Garethisen says the award will fund what he calls a pilot phase. He says Nova hopes to later build a refinery at Point Mackenzie in South Central to produce more than munitions with Alaska's antimony.
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Dave Bronson
This grant is so important for Alaska because the race is on. Other states have some antimony discoveries and this and that, and the race is really on is who and what state is going to get and where is the antimony refining hub going to be for the United States?
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Patrick Gilchrist
Other companies with antimony projects in Alaska may have different models, goals and stages than nova. But on top of the mineral they want to mine, the companies share at least one other thing in common. They're also looking to tap the Trump administration for funds. Dallas based US Antimony plans to recover the mineral from discarded rock waste at historic mining sites in Alaska and truck the ore down to its smelter in Montana. The company began its first small scale antimony reclamation in Alaska in early September at the Mohawk mine near Esther. And last week US Antimony inked a $245 million contract with the Defense Logistics Agenc to supply antimony ingots to the Defense Department's store of critical minerals. During an investors conference in September, U.S. antimony Vice President of Investor Relations Jonathan Miller said the company has been working with Pentagon officials throughout the year and.
- [14:42]
Jonathan Miller
At the DOD's request, we put together scope papers and white papers for a.
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Max Graham
Grant essentially outlining what would be needed.
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Jonathan Miller
For us to expand our operations and our claims.
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Patrick Gilchrist
Miller said in the call that the company will likely announce a federal award of just under $30 million in the near future. That was before the government shutdown, however, and he also did not say whether the money would be directed toward the company's Alaska operations. Another Australia based mining company, Felix Gold, still says it's targeting the end of this year to start mining antimony at its Treasure Creek project just north of Fairbanks. Similar to the other two companies, felixgold has also sought federal support for that plan, and the company is touting a visit from officials with the Environmental Protection Agency and Federal Permitting Council, saying their recent stop at Treasure Creek represents a substantive milestone. In a call with investors last month, Felix Gold Executive Director Joseph Webb said the visit was as good as you can get and helped the company's case, but that he couldn't guarantee anything just yet. In Fairbanks, I'm Patrick Gilchrist.
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Casey Grove
Nearly 100 large whales were reported entangled around the US in 2024, almost a 50% increase from 2023. That's according to a federal report released earlier this month. KMXT's Brian Venoil breaks it down.
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Jonathan Miller
Whales can be spotted along much of the US Coastline, and sometimes they're caught up in fishing gear. Last year, 95 entangled whales were reported to the national oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. According to a recent report, at least three died. Eight were reportedly already dead. Last year's numbers are up from 64 entangled whales in 2023, though the volume of reports has varied significantly in the last 15 years. Sightings of entangled whales peaked around 2015 for the five regions. NOAA tracks by state. Alaska had the third most reports last year, following California and Massachusetts, respectively. Hawaii was fourth by species. Humpbacks were the most spotted in tangled the report showed at least 77 individual animals caught in fishing gear. The next most entangled species were gray whales, North Atlantic right whales, minke whales and sperm whales. One fin and one bowhead whale were also reported. The species of two entangled whales couldn't be identified. NOAA officials responded to 37 of them. Sometimes that meant they found an entangled whale and helped free it. But last year, only 11 were either fully or partially freed. Other times, attempts were unsuccessful. At least one was killed by untrained individuals attempting to free it. Four reportedly disentangled themselves. NOAA suspects many others are still entangled. Most were caught in some mix of fishing line and buoys. About a fifth were caught in traps like shellfish pots. Reports can be filed to NOAA's 24 hour hotline and responders will need to know locations, what type of gear animals are caught in, direction it might be headed and any photos or videos. In Kodiak, I'm Brian Benoit.
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Casey Grove
A tribe on the North Slope hosted an emergency management course in utqiarvik last week. Organizers say it's the first for a tribe in Alaska and part of an effort to bolster coordination between communities in the Arctic during disasters. The Alaska Desk's Alyona Nydin reports Inupiat.
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Alena Knighton
Community off the Arctic Slope is a regional tribe representing seven North Slope villages. The tribe worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or fema, to host a course to prepare villages to respond to disasters. Stephanie Nelson is the director of emergency management for the tribe. She says the training was important in light of increasing emergencies in the region and given the isolated geography of many North Slope communities and the outcome is.
- [18:28]
Casey Grove
Enhancing the communication from all attendees and becoming better at being prepared to respond to different levels of incidences emergencies that we face within the Arctic.
- [18:45]
Alena Knighton
The four day integrated emergency management course brought together over 50 people every day. Participants included state and federal emergency managers, local leaders representing North Slope villages, cities and tribal governments, as well as businesses tied to the local oil and gas industry, including ConocoPhillips and Santas. Nelson says that two major discussions focused on scenarios similar to actual emergencies from 2022, like Typhoon Murbach in Point Hope and a gas leak at Alpine oil field near Newexit. Participants used those examples to discuss how cities, North Loboro and tribal governments can work together in an emergency situation.
- [19:27]
Casey Grove
Those community members were able to kind of discuss different aspects in regards to who responds, how does this get relayed to the public and how do we communicate with one another from local community to the region?
- [19:42]
Alena Knighton
The course is the result of the tribe's efforts to implement an official emergency management program. They are the second tribe in Alaska to do that, following the Tlingit and Haida Council. John Pennington is a professor of homeland security and emergency management at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He's an advisor to the tribe and helped put the program together.
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Dave Bronson
It's using the strength of the Alaska Native communities that are the North Slope to improve emergency management through the lens of Alaska Natives.
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Alena Knighton
First and foremost, Pennington says that communities in the Arctic have been seeing intensifying storms and erosion. They also see disasters that federal emergency managers are not familiar with, such as an ice scoring event that in 2023 severed all communications for three months across the North Slope. The state of Alaska is responsible for a vast area where several communities can experience disasters at the same time. But Pennington says that the tribe's new emergency program will also help North Slope communities to seek disaster declarations directly from the federal government when needed, which can speed up the delivery of assistance. In Anchorage, I am Alena Knighton.
- [21:05]
Casey Grove
Noel Perez Delgado spent his career as an architect in Cuba before coming to the United States. But a global pandemic, a debilitating illness and an injury left him unemployed and homeless in Anchorage. Then he met a Catholic nun who taught him to paint. And now, as Alaska Public Media's Ammon Swenson reports, his art is headed to gallery walls for the city's first Friday. Tonight.
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Ammon Swenson
Music plays from a speaker while vendors sell produce, confections and crafts at a farmer's market in Mountain View, One pair sticks out from the diverse crowd that includes refugee and immigrant growers and small business owners. A tall man includes glasses selling brightly colored paintings smiles as he towers over a diminutive Catholic nun with a look of adoration.
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Casey Grove
Where's the oil?
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Ammon Swenson
Sister Noel Perez Delgado met Sister Lucia during a painting class at Brother Francis Shelter last fall, and she helped change his life.
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Casey Grove
I have to be grateful every single day.
- [22:00]
Ammon Swenson
54 year old Delgado's story is one of resilience, of losing everything and finding something else, a new way to express himself. Thanks to Sister Lucia, she taught Delgado to paint, and she says she quickly noticed that he had talent and something to say.
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Sister Lucia
The first few paintings I recognized a gift, but he did not really believe in me at first. But after so many people around in the Brother Fancy shelter, the clients, the staff, directors, nurses, so everybody come to give him compliments and he start to think, maybe, maybe that is really good.
- [22:35]
Ammon Swenson
Before meeting Sister Lucia, Delgado did know how to sketch. He was born in Cuba, and he went to university there and built a career as an architect designing resorts on the island. He says he never gave moving to America much thought, but at 34, a surprise win in a visa lottery changed his path. He decided to head to the United States, working around the east coast in Seattle. While his professional credentials were not valid in the US he was able to leverage his skills to get Jobs as a drafter and architectural designer. It was all going well until Covid hit. He was laid off. And an eventual diagnosis of fibromyalgia, a chronic condition, left him unable to work.
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Casey Grove
In around two months. I have pain all around my. My body, joints and things like that.
- [23:17]
Ammon Swenson
The climate in Seattle aggravated his illness, so he decided to give Anchorage's dry summer a try. He arrived in May of 2024, and he says he was shocked to learn just how costly housing is here. He couldn't afford it. He camped, stayed nights in hotels and used Craigslist to find places to crash.
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Casey Grove
But I was ruining out this money because I wasn't expecting it. Was that that expensive here? The food, the transportation, everything here is kind of crazy.
- [23:46]
Ammon Swenson
Then came the first snow. He slipped outside. And then he needed medical care. And for insurance purposes, that meant he also needed a permanent address. So as a Catholic himself, he headed to the Brother Francis shelter. And that's where Sister Lucia and painting entered his life.
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Sister Lucia
I think I really talked him into it, really persuaded him, because he said, oh, I never painted. I'm not a painter. So he told me his background is an architect. And I said no. So you have the skill of many skills of a painter.
- [24:20]
Ammon Swenson
Through her encouragement, mentorship, Delgado began painting non stop, producing around 100 pieces and even helping other residents get creative when Sister Lucia wasn't at the shelter. He uses his knowledge of color theory and design to create vibrant paintings combining pointillism with bold lines, from abstracts to stylized figurative pieces.
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Sister Lucia
I think he has a lot in his mind. It's just a matter of how to bring it out.
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Ammon Swenson
Becky Stefan of Stefan Fine Arts was will be hosting the upcoming first Friday event featuring Delgado's paintings. She says it's not just his story that drew her to his art. He has serious talent.
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Casey Grove
It wasn't a charity deal. Yeah, he had to have the quality.
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Max Graham
And the body of work. Just a body of work alone.
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Casey Grove
But then having a cohesive body of work and having a voice was pretty impressive. And beyond that, I have to like the person. And he was likable. I think that's important and I think it comes in the artwork.
- [25:16]
Ammon Swenson
Delgado says he's thankful for all the support he's received from the community.
- [25:20]
Casey Grove
Everybody has tried to find the best in me and to put what they have in my hands. It's not just me, it's a group of people that. It was amazing and it's a huge. I'm grateful for that.
- [25:37]
Ammon Swenson
He's using the funds he makes from selling his pieces to pay for medications and a ticket to Seattle to find work in architecture. But in his free time, you'll, of course, still find him painting. In Anchorage, I'm Ammon Swenson.
- [25:56]
Casey Grove
And that's all for this edition of Alaska News Nightly. We had reports tonight from Liz Ruskin in Washington, D.C. eric Stone in Juneau, Wesley Early, Alyona Nyden and Ammon Swenson in Anchorage. Brian Venouin Kodiak and Patrick Gilchrist in Fairbanks, our audio engineers, Chris Hyde. Madeline Rose is our producer. And I'm Casey Grove. Have a great weekend.