Eroding Shoreline Threatens to Topple Alaska Fuel Tanks

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, September 14, 2007 (ENS) - U.S. Coast Guard personnel are monitoring fuel storage tanks in Kivalina that may become damaged due to heavy rain, 35 knot winds and nine foot seas eroding soil on the nearby coast.

Presently, the fuel tanks containing about 240,000 gallons of diesel fuel and gasoline are just 30 feet from the shore.

Village crews are working steadily to fill and strategically place sandbags to maintain the seawall on the ocean side of Kivalina

Coast Guard Sector Anchorage is preparing a response to prevent an oil spill should it become necessary. Some response equipment is pre-staged by the storage facility, Alaska Village Electrical Cooperative.

Other residents have evacuated to Red Dog Mine about 16 miles away. Fewer than 400 people reside in Kivalina, which is located at the tip of an eight-mile barrier reef located between the Chukchi Sea and Kivalina River.

Village elders say 50 years ago the ocean coast was 1.5 miles from Kivalina.

The shoreline at Kivalina is being eroded by the surf and storm conditions serve to accelerate the decay.

In previous years the annual ice edge formation protected the village shore from savage winter storms, but as of September 13, 2007 the ice edge had not formed below the Bering Strait.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2007. All rights reserved.