Environmental Newsletter Volume 14 Iss. 3 Summer Edition

ENVIRONMENTAL NEWSLETTER Volume 14 Issue 3 4

Our last Environmental Committee

meeting was a huge success! Karin

Landsberg from DEC and Amelia

Simeonoff from Harbor Seal

Commission led discussions on air

emissions and promoting the health of

harbor seals. An activity and topic of

discussion each individual were in

charge with contributing their roles

into their ideal vision of what a good

community looks like.

After dividing into two groups, “kids”

and adults gathered to develop their

“ideal” community. The kids were so

involved in developing the ideal

community; they aided the adults in

creating their new community too.

Each member in the group decided

which roles were necessary to support

the developing community. It was

apparent that they were enjoying the

project and the “kids” really drawn

into the idea of their own ideal

community. Each group then

presented their ideal communities and

explained what was needed for the

community to thrive.

i

THE ADULTS PLANING AND CHOOSING ROLES FOR THEIR IDEAL COMMUNITY! IN THIS ISSUE

1: Littering in our community.

2: Sewage going to Beach.

3: Fisherman dumping oil

engines & hazardous materials

into the harbor.

4: Air Pollution & Water

Pollution

5: Environmental Educational &

Outreach

After the presentations,

discussions began to determine

community environmental

concerns associated to our own

community. Below is a

highlight of the main issues, in

order of importance, of our

concerns for our people and

wildlife.

ENVIRONMENTAL NEWSLETTER | Issue 3 2

First and foremost, we would like to thank Saint

Innocence Academy, students & staff, Old

Harbor Native Corporation, community

volunteers and the visiting military for helping us

host 3 community cleanup events. It was a

pleasure being a part of all three events,

especially seeing some of the kids who’ve

participated in the school clean up event show up

and help continuously maintain a clean

environment for our neighborhoods downtown,

uptown, and newtown.

With 50+ volunteers, we collected a total of 129

bags of trash and 16 bags of recyclable materials!

That’s not including the number of miscellaneous

items such as ropes, used lead acid batteries, oil

and many other items found hidden in the bushes.

It’s great to see the kids take part in these clean

up events as they help us to help them keep our

community clean for generations to come.


Did you know Earth Day is April 22nd. On this day

over 175 countries celebrate the Mother Earth and

increase awareness of issues impacting our Earth.

This is a day of celebration to preserve our planet for

years to come. In Old Harbor, we celebrated our 4th

annual Earth Week with daily activities about the

world around us connected to our Alutiiq Values.

The week kicked off with our annual Bear Awakening

Celebration. We had activities for all ages about bear

education, safety and of course bear art. Tuesday was

Air Day. We held our Volunteer Environmental

Committee meeting along with a presentation on our

Road Dust project and indoor air quality tips. Garden

Day helped kick off the hoop house growing season

with volunteers helping us fill the boxes and make a

few more. Our Nature Art show was a success as

always with over 30 entries on display. Unfortunately,

the rain made our Annual Clean-up a challenge. St.

Innocent’s Academy made a huge impact collecting

almost 30 bags of garbage in the pouring rain.

This year Karin Landsberg with Alaska Department

of Environmental Conservation joined us for the

festivities. She was in Old Harbor doing a Rural

Emissions Inventory on Old Harbor to help us

establish our baselines for Air Quality in Old Harbor

overall. The week was an incredible success with

over 20 people showing up almost every day to lend a

hand or learn something new. Thank you Old Harbor

for making Earth Week 2014 a success once again!


The Old Harbor Environmental Department is working

together with Julie Matweyou and the Kodiak Island

School District to help maintain this ongoing shellfish

monitoring project. Samples are collected every month

during the lowest tides and are sent out to a lab to be

tested for PSP (paralytic shellfish poisoning). This year’s

samples have been staying above the danger zone that is

not safe or recommended for consumption than usual

compared to last year.

The chart on the right is the results of the testing. As you

can see in February through July of 2014, PSP levels have

rose dramatically and as such we recommend that you be

safe if you do decide to consume any shellfish this year.

Early signs of PSP include tingling of lips or tongue, which

may begin in a few minutes of eating toxic shellfish or may

take up to an hour to develop. Symptoms may also

progress to tingling of fingers and toes to loss of muscle

control in the arms and legs, followed by difficulty

breathing. Some people have experienced a sense of

floating or nausea. If you experience any of these, stop

consuming shellfish and contact the clinic.

Muscles of the chest and abdomen may become paralyzed.

With high toxic exposures, death can occur in as little as 2

hours from paralysis of the breathing muscles.

For more information on Paralytic Shellfish poisoning,

visit https://seagrant.uaf.edu/features/PSP/psp_page.html

https://seagrant.uaf.edu/features/PSP/psp_page.html


It was a sunny and warm day for the last day of school in Old Harbor. The kids were in for a special treat as they got to go on a field trip to the stream restoration on the north side of the runway. It was a team effort to pull off this extra-curricular activity as school staff and volunteers joined forces with Shearwater and military personnel to get the kids and some of their parents out to the job site and learn more about the safety, construction, science and personnel on this important economic development project. A multi-agency team from the military’s Infantry Readiness Training program (IRT) will be carrying out the bulk of the work this summer and their soldiers helped with some heavy lifting in the restoration of Sculpin Creek – literally. The guys helped to haul gravel and substrate along the 800’ length of new Sculpin using 5 gallon buckets! The creek couldn’t have been as big a success without their help.

When the children arrived on site, they were given a brief safety presentation about the site and then a broad overview of the work that has gone on at the north end of the runway. Because of the runway expansion, approximately 600 feet of the creek had to be moved. Affectionately called Sculpin Creek due to the large number immature coast range sculpin that were caught during sampling, a temporary culvert was put in to allow construction equipment to have access to the peninsula until the new creek channel could be blasted which happened at the end of the season in 2013. Below is a picture taken after the blast in 2013.

But on this day, the kids were given a tour of the new stream channel and some of the elements that make a quality stream in Alaska. The project team worked diligently through the permitting process, design and implementation to try to copy what a stream in nature would look like when re-creating the “new” Sculpin Creek. Large boulders, smaller cobble and even smaller gravel were used in a winding pattern to make up the bed of the creek. Hours of work from the crew were necessary to pull off this amazing task utilizing an excavator, dump truck, skid steer and manual labor.

On top of the rock foundation, live vegetation that was to be removed from the peninsula and filled in this season was carefully scraped up keeping the roots intact and transplanted along the creek. Willow, birch, alder and large patches of muskeg were moved to provide vegetative cover along the sides of the creek as well as much needed shading and in-stream cover for baby fish to hide.

The smaller substrate is needed to house those smaller bugs and animals that live in the gravel. The kids all got to participate in a macro invertebrate identification lesson, where scoops of the existing Sculpin Creek were placed on the tops of upside down buckets and they tried to find anything moving. The kids did a fantastic job of using identification guides to figure out which bugs we had in our creek.


z

After learning the background of the creek restoration, the kids got to learn about how the creek was sampled. For the past three years, Shearwater has been sampling the creeks utilizing a backpack shocker to catalog how many and what kinds of fish were present in them. For the most part, all the fish that have been found were juvenile coho, dolly varden or sculpin. In the picture below, the kids listen to a talk from the biologist explaining how the shocker works and what type of advanced education is needed to perform biological studies. The kids also learned that water quality is very important to small fish and water pollution that comes from garbage or operating off-road-vehicles in the creek can hurt the fish.

At the end of the talk, the kids got to release fish that were screened off from the creek during construction as the stream was officially cut over into the new channel. At a glance the small fish appeared to be juvenile dolly varden, but upon further examination, they were actually pink salmon! So the kids got to release pink salmon that almost immediately after hatching go straight to the ocean. It was a very rewarding experience for the kids to learn about salmon habitat and then be able to release the fish into the brand new channel!

The kids wrapped up their day by getting to put on a safety vest and hard hat and getting to sit and get their picture taken in the huge articulated dump trucks. I know the kids had a ton of fun, but not as much fun as the Shearwater and military folks did talking with them!


In many ways Styrofoam is bad. One

way it is bad is that it never

biodegrades. Styrofoam can never be

biodegraded because it is resistant to

photolysis. Photolysis is when light

breaks down protons that originate

from a light source. Since it cannot be

broken down it is found all over our

cities, beaches, and landfills.

A second way Styrofoam is bad is that

it pollutes the air around us. The way

Styrofoam is made is by using hydro

fluorocarbons otherwise known as

HFC’s. HFC’s have a negative effect

on our ozone layer, which causes

global warming. Another way that

Styrofoam is unhealthy for

environment is when because it contaminates even our subsistence foods.

containers are made out of Styrofoam

the chemicals that are in it can leach

into our foods and can lead to heart and

respiratory problems. Last is that

Styrofoam is an un-sustainable

substance and is made out of petroleum

which is a very harmful chemical and

creates a heavy pollution. The bottom

line is Styrofoam is really bad for us

and our environment.

We are still finding reusable mugs and

water bottles making their way up to

the landfill. If you have any of these

items that you would like to get rid of

and/or have no need for them, please

bring them down to the tribal building

to be donated to the tribal youth

program and put to good use.

Help us make use of reusable goods by

recycling them or donating them to

places that could use them. Got other

items that you have no use for? Donate

them to the Thrift store located next to

the Nuniaq Food Market.


Contact: Dr. Bob Gerlach, Department of Environmental

Conservation, 907-375-8214, [email protected]

Dr. Ali Hamade, Department of Health and Social Services,

907-269-8086, [email protected]

JUNEAU— The Alaska Departments of Environmental

Conservation (DEC) and Health and Social Services (DHSS)

have received further results from the U.S. Food and Drug

Administration (FDA) on the latest radiation testing of Alaska

seafood. The results confirm information from federal, state

and international agencies that seafood in Alaska waters poses

no radiation-related health concerns to those who consume it.

This testing of cod and three species of salmon (chinook, chum,

and sockeye) showed no detection of the Fukushima-related

radioisotopes iodine-131, cesium-134, or cesium-137.

The results indicate no appreciable risk from any tested

radionuclide in these fish and support previous radionuclide

testing results of sablefish, pollock and halibut from Alaska

waters. DEC and DHSS have posted the findings on their

websites and will update the web pages with any future

sampling results.

All samples were analyzed by standard techniques routinely

used by the FDA to evaluate food safety. The fish samples were

composites, containing tissue from several fish, and were

collected using a statistical protocol. Samples were collected

from the Aleutian/Bering Sea, Bristol Bay and Gulf of Alaska.

The state of Alaska continues to collaborate with its partners,

including the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Alaska

Native Tribal Health Consortium, Cook Inlet Keeper, North

Slope Borough, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),

FDA, and others to compile and evaluate additional

environmental sample data.



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Old Harbor AK 99643

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Environmental Newsletter Volume 14 Iss. 3 Summer Edition