Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 197
Southeast Alaska broke records for rainfall this spring. And for the Blind Slough hydroelectric plant near Petersburg, more rain means more power. Sometimes, however, there is such a thing as too much rain, according to Petersburg Borough Utility Director Karl Hagerman. "This year, there was just too much water to deal with," he said. The hydro plant uses water from a dam at Crystal Lake to generate power. But the record-breaking precipitation Mitkof Island got in May caused Crystal Lake to...
Though a $5 million federal grant to help pay for expanding the generating capacity at the Tyee Lake hydroelectric station is "clearly frozen," the head of the Southeast Alaska Power Agency hopes the funds will be released soon and the project can stay on schedule. The agency's lobbyist in Washington, D.C., and others "feel fairly confident ... that freeze will be thawed," Robert Siedman, chief executive officer of the Southeast Alaska Power Agency, or SEAPA, said earlier this month. The Tyee...
Federal employees across Southeast Alaska's Tongass National Forest received termination notices over Presidents Day weekend, part of what union leaders are calling an "intentionally dishonest" nationwide purge of civil service workers that has hit Alaska's rural communities particularly hard. In Petersburg, as of Sunday evening, at least nine Forest Service probationary employees were terminated, with seven more terminated in Wrangell. Most of those affected were early-career professionals... Full story
It’s time to expand the generating capacity at the Tyee Lake hydroelectric station to handle growing demand — particularly from heat pumps — the plant’s operator said of its plans to line up $20 million in funding and a federal permit to add a third turbine to the facility. The Tyee Lake station started supplying Wrangell and Petersburg in 1984. It was built with two turbines rated at 10 megawatts each, with an empty bay at the Bradfield Canal facility to add a third turbine when needed. That time is now, said Robert Siedman, chief executi...
A major copper-and-gold mining project in the rugged mountains of northwestern British Columbia — upstream from a Southeast Alaska fishing town — is poised for a boost from the Canadian government. Canada's department of natural resources last month announced that it plans to inject about $15 million U.S. into a massive copper and gold development just 25 miles from the Alaska border. The project is perched above tributaries of the Stikine River — a major salmon-bearing waterway that flows... Full story
A power outage occurred downtown Tuesday morning when an "elbow" near Petersburg Medical Center faulted. The elbow that was damaged is a component used to connect and disconnect a circuit to the town's electrical system. PMPL employees replaced the elbow and restored power in about 70 minutes. Located next to PMC, it was an elbow that had been in service for decades. Utility Director Karl Hagerman noted that it "must have had a crack in it or some other issue as it made a circuit ... and caused...
Forty-three people spent the night in Juneau's emergency shelter at Floyd Dryden Middle School on Monday night as a record-high flood from the Mendenhall Glacier inundated homes. Deputy City Manager Robert Barr said the total number of people who evacuated their homes is likely several times that; shelters are usually a last resort for people who cannot stay with family, friends or in a hotel. "You can imagine how hard it would be to wake up with water in your house, not expecting there to be... Full story
They may be out of sight to the general public but they are never out of mind for the U.S. Forest Service. The agency maintains 35 mountaintop repeater towers within the Tongass National Forest to provide radio coverage for their field crews and first responders. A contractor is installing new repeater stations at five sites this summer in the Wrangell and Petersburg ranger districts, part of an ongoing effort to switch out older units with newer models. Of particular importance to Wrangell, a...
Petersburg pays some of the lowest electricity rates in Alaska - 12 cents per residential kilowatt hour compared to the average in Alaska of 24.36 cents - thanks to the abundant renewable energy produced at the Swan Lake and Tyee Lake hydroelectric projects run by the Southeast Alaska Power Agency (SEAPA). SEAPA hydro continuously powers the communities of Petersburg, Wrangell and Ketchikan, except once each year when SEAPA schedules a ten-day shutdown at each project to work through a flurry...
Good Job Power and Light To the Editor: On May 16, there was a ribbon cutting at the new Blind Slough Hydro Power Plant. It was well attended and the Power and Light employees were noticeably proud of this accomplishment, as they should be. Replacing a 100-year old facility is always a challenge. In 2018, the Petersburg Borough engaged with McMillen Jacobs Associates to perform a condition assessment of the entire project. They recommended a full replacement of the powerhouse. Following this recommendation the Borough passed a bond for project...
A brief regionwide blackout across Ketchikan, Wrangell and Petersburg last week started with a spark. When a power pole in Ketchikan caught fire due to a failed insulator, the line was isolated so the fire could be extinguished - but removing the large load of Ketchikan's power from the grid overloaded two major hydroelectric facilities in Southeast, causing them to go offline and resulting in a complete loss of power in all three communities. Ketchikan, Wrangell and Petersburg get much of...
A field of snow near the Petersburg Reservoir glistened in the morning sunshine where, at 550 feet above sea level, Forest Service Hydrologist Heath Whitacre jammed a hollow aluminum tube through the snowpack to measure its depth and collect a core sample, making sure to strike the muskeg underneath. The Petersburg Ranger District has monitored two of several snow survey sites in the Southeast region since 1979: The Raven's Ridge site at 1,650 feet above sea level, and the site near Petersburg R...
March 7, 1924 – Of the many neglected products of our salt waters, none compare with the sea mussel in abundance, nutritiousness and palatability, according to “Fish Cookery,” by expert Dean John N. Cobb of the University of Washington college of cookery, published by Little Brown & Company. This book states that the mussel has a wide distribution, the Atlantic species extending down the eastern coast while a closely related species extends down the west coast to San Francisco on the Pacific coast, and is extremely abundant everywhere withi...
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) selected the Blind Slough Hydroelectric Project to receive up to $2.9 million in Hydroelectric Efficiency Improvement Incentives which will complete funding for the hydro project, support the facility improvements, and enable the borough to shift money to the Scow Bay Generation Project. "The whole energy efficiency grant is set up to help projects that will increase energy efficiency and small hydro," Utility Director Karl Hagerman told the Pilot. Hagerman...
In January The Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously voted to award the construction contract for the Blind Slough Hydroelectric refurbishment project to McG/Dawson Joint Venture for an amount not to exceed $5,744,000. The Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously approved an ordinance in its first reading that would rezone a lot located at 10 N. 12th Street for commercial use. The rezoning was requested by the Petersburg Indian Association ahead of their prospective purchase of the lot, which h...
Power rates in Petersburg will not increase next year, says SEAPA. The Southeast Alaska Power Agency (SEAPA) board voted to hold wholesale power rates steady for 2024, according to the report from the Nov. 30 SEAPA meeting. Assembly member Bob Lynn, who represents Petersburg on the SEAPA Board of Directors, presented the report during the assembly meeting on Monday. “From a wholesale power standpoint, there is no increase. There’ll be no rate increase for 2024,” said member Lynn. “There will probably need to be a quarter cent increase in 2025...
Oil and water don’t mix. We learned that in high school. And we learned it again when water got into a heating fuel line. In Alaska, oil and salmon don’t mix either, unless the oil is brushed on the grill before cooking a fillet. However, oil and salmon are in the same boat — economically speaking in Alaska. They both respond to supply and demand. When global oil supplies can’t keep up with demand, the price of a barrel of crude climbs higher. A shortage — or even a fear, a hint or speculation of shortage — drives up prices for the commodity....
A potential Southeast Alaska Power Agency (SEAPA) wholesale rate increase has been deferred by at least a year due to record high power sales in Ketchikan, Petersburg, and Wrangell this spring, according to Vice Mayor Bob Lynn. “It’s a record, I mean it’s about 5% above any previous sales that we did this past winter, which is pretty significant,” Lynn said during his July 3 report to the Petersburg Borough Assembly about the latest SEAPA Board meeting The SEAPA Board last approved a wholesale rate increase in December 2022, raising the pri...
Alaska’s coastal communities are home to more than a third of the U.S. wastewater plants that are still allowed to treat their sewage at the lowest and most basic technological level. But six cities in Southeast Alaska may soon have to invest in improvements to better clean their wastewater before discharging it into the ocean. That is the message from draft permits that have been released or are to be released by the Environmental Protection Agency, which has determined that too much bacteria is going from the sites into marine waters. The a... Full story
The Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously approved a fuel adjustment charge for the annual Southeast Alaska Power Agency shutdown during its meeting last week. SEAPA is scheduled to shut down its hydroelectric power supply to perform maintenance to Tyee and Swan Lakes from May 31 to June 9. During those 10 days, the borough will run its diesel plant, which the fuel adjustment charge looks to offset the high cost of doing. According to Utility Director Karl Hagerman, the adjustment will take...
The Southeast Alaska Power Agency Board named a new CEO during its meeting earlier this month while the need for additional generation remained a central talking point according to a report from Vice Mayor Bob Lynn and Utility Director Karl Hagerman. The SEAPA Board selected Robert Siedman as the agency's new CEO, pending contract negotiations. Siedman was appointed as acting CEO at the December board meeting and is set to replace former CEO Trey Acteson who retired from the role at the end of...
SITKA – After hearing comments Tuesday night on the “existential threat” facing the Southeast troll fishing industry, the Sitka Assembly gave unanimous approval to a resolution and a financial contribution to help the Alaska Trollers Association fight a lawsuit by a conservation group against a federal fisheries agency. “I hope we have a unanimous decision because if the resolution is going to have any effect, we have to have real solidarity,” Assembly member Thor Christianson said prior to the vote. ATA Request and Resolution The resolutio...
The Southeast Alaska Power Agency Board approved a wholesale rate increase at its Dec. 8 meeting, raising the price to 7.3 cents per kilowatt hour-a 0.25 cent increase-beginning in January 2023. According to Vice Mayor Bob Lynn and Utility Director Karl Hagerman, who reported on the SEAPA Board meeting at last week's Petersburg Borough Assembly meeting, the decision to raise rates followed a review of a rate study completed this year. A draft of the rate study, which was presented at the last...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously voted to appoint 14 people to the Housing Task Force during Monday's meeting. Members of the task force include Gary Aulbach, Jay Barnard, Annette Bennett, Joyce Cummings, Darcie Ewert, Larry Hofstad, Sarah Holmgrain, Ashley Kawashima, David Kensinger, Malena Marvin, Jeff Meucci, Erin Michael, Jalyn Pomrenke, and Jeigh Stanton Gregor. The assembly also chose Stanton Gregor to act as the group's facilitator after a unanimous vote. The group was...
Assembly Member Bob Lynn and Utility Director Karl Hagerman provided a report on SEAPA activities during the Petersburg Borough Assembly meeting on March 7 including details on the Southeast Alaska Power Agency’s updated website and the likelihood of further rate increases. Lynn reported that SEAPA CEO Trey Acteson told the SEAPA board during its February 28 meeting that a 3/4 of a cent rate increase over time is needed to make up for the costs of the debt service for the submarine cable, the 4R improvement plan, the vegetation management p...
