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75 cents FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2013 newsminer.com
T h e v o i c e o f i n T e r i o r A l A s k A s i n c e 1 9 0 3
Sourdough Jack:
“My favorite trail is the one of crumbs I leave from the kitchen to the couch.”
The weather.The sky should be free of clouds today and full of sun. It’ll also be chilly.
High today ..............39Low tonight ............22
WEAThER » A7
GooDMorninG
Classified » C1 | Comics » B3 | Dear Abby » Latitude 65 | Markets » B4 | Nation » D5 | Opinion » A6 | Outdoors » B1 | Weather » A7INSIDE
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Starbucks’ decision to ban guns in its stores likely won’t affect Fairbanks locations. » a4Inside Today
arE You aN olivE or a FlorENcE?It’s “The Odd Couple — The Female Version.”
Latitude 65
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Aurora forecast.Auroral activity will be low. Weather permit-ting, low displays will be visible overhead from Barrow to Fairbanks.
This information is pro-vided by aurora forecasters at the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. For more infor-mation about the aurora, visit http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast
oN a rollIce Dogs go 4-0 in second straight NAHL Showcase win.
SPORTSPage D1
STarTiNg STroNgNanooks spikers win GNAC opener.
SPORTSPage D1
BlaZiNg a TrailState parks makes progress on new trail.
OUTDOORSPage B1
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By Jeff [email protected]
The Yukon River has been the launching point for plenty of hunt-ing trips through the years, but Pat Druckenmiller and Kevin May returned home to Fairbanks this summer with an unprecedented col-lection of trophies.
The University of Alaska Museum of the North researchers brought back about 2,000 pounds of dinosaur footprints from a July expedition, a discovery that could illuminate the murky Cretaceous period in Alaska history.
The prints date back to 90 million to 100 million years old. That makes the site about 30 million years older than the other major dinosaur finds
in Alaska, located on the North Slope and in Denali National Park and Pre-serve.
“We’re getting a look at a complete-ly different era,” said Druckenmiller, the museum’s earth sciences curator.
The discovery was the product of a long-imagined voyage by May,
By Matt [email protected]
The Alaska Department of Envi-ronmental Conservation is expected to release a draft of its long-awaited air pollution regulations to the public today.
The regulations are a response to ongoing pressure from the Environ-mental Protection Agency to curb win-tertime air pollution in the Fairbanks area, which has largely been blamed on an uptick of wood burning in the Interior.
DEC spokesman Ty Keltner said he
couldn’t discuss the regulations, but said the department will work to reach out the community and refine the reg-ulations before they go into effect.
“Getting those comments from the public is very important,” he said. “This will take quite a long time. ... There’s going to be open houses in the com-munity where people can come learn more.”
The regulations are an element of the State Implementation Plan (SIP), a document required by the EPA that tallies every air quality measure and needed to get it under control.
Keltner said it will be the whole pack-
age, not just the regulations, that will get the state and Fairbanks into attain-ment with the federal regulations.
“These regs are small portion of the overall air quality plan that will come out later on,” he said.
The SIP will include measures like the borough’s wood stove exchange program, education programs and the Interior gas trucking project in addi-tion to whatever regulations are finally adopted.
That SIP, however, is nearly a year late.
Borough Mayor Luke Hopkins, who has been a lead in the borough’s efforts
to tackle air pollution locally, said he was happy to hear the state will finally be rolling out something, saying such an action is overdue.
“We are glad that they’re rolling something out,” he said. “There’s a lot of pressure (from the federal govern-ment) because there’s not action being taken.”
The borough attempted to imple-ment its own regulations, propos-ing fines the operators of dirty wood stoves, before it was barred by voter initiative.
By Matt [email protected]
With four of five scheduled days down and just four of 15 scheduled witnesses heard from, the Regulatory Com-mission of Alaska tacked four more days onto its hearing between two utilities compet-ing to distribute natural gas in Fairbanks’ medium-density areas.
Unless the counsels for the privately held Fairbanks Natu-ral Gas and municipal Interior Gas Utility dramatically pick up the pace, RCA’s administrative law judge Judge J.P. Wood on Thursday said the two will be back in front of commissioners for four days next week.
“The commissioners have been considering the pace of this hearing and the allotted time and have been consider-ing the best way to proceed,” Wood said during an afternoon break, before announcing the four-day schedule next week.
The pace he referred to could be described as unusually gla-cial.
After opening arguments Monday, the past three days have focused entirely on the questioning of the four people responsible for the owner-ship, operation and financ-ing of FNG. That list includes investors Hendrik Vroege and Wendy Carlson as well as FNG
DEC to release draft air rules
AIR » A7
Steven Alley Sr., of Valdez, from his Fairbanks Memorial Hospital bed Thursday, tells how he, his son and stepson were rescued by the Alaska Air Guard from a crash on the Richardson Highway near Paxson. The air guard helicopter was returning from another rescue when they happen along the Alleys. SAM HARREL/
NEWS-MINER
By Sam Friedman [email protected]
It probably was about 20 minutes, but it seemed like a forever that Steven Alley Sr. and his son sat trapped in a partially submerged and overturned truck Wednesday morning along the Richard-son Highway.
Alley, 69, a commercial fisherman who owns a dump truck business in Valdez, had been driving a Chevrolet pick-up to Fairbanks on Wednes-day morning with his son and stepson. South of Paxson, they ran into unusual mid-September conditions Alaska State Troopers later described as “blizzard like.” About three inches of snow were piled on the road, he estimated.
valdez man recounts rescue after crash near Paxson
RESCUE » A7
RCA extends its gas utility hearing on pacing issues
GAS » A7
Prehistoric pay dirt
researchers uncover dinosaur footprints during Yukon river expedition
Above: Kevin May, Pat Druckenmiller and Paul McCarthy (left to right) inspect an outcrop of Cretaceous rock along the Yukon River. Left: The hind footprint of an herbivorous dinosaur is seen. PHOTOS BY PAT DRUCKENMILLER
Katherine Anderson, Meg O’Connor, and Julie Rousseau wrap aluminum foil around tracks for safe transport back to the museum. Pat Drucken- miller assigns field numbers and records notes about the fossils. PHOTO BY
ROGER TOPP
DINO » A7
