A long-sought plan to expand the Port of Nome to accommodate larger vessels has been approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and now heads to Congress, to be considered for inclusion in the Water Resources Development Act.
The deal, signed on May 28, in Washington D.C., was produced by the USACE in partnership with the city of Nome. It is a modification plan under the authority of Section 2006 of the Water Resources Development Act of 2007: Remote and Subsistence Harbors.
According to Col. David Hibner, acting commander of the Alaska District of the Corps, the plan provides safe, reliable and efficient navigation improvements to support this critical region of the state.
“Delivery of this important infrastructure will help to strengthen commerce and national security in the Arctic,” Hibner said.
The construction project would allow larger vessels access to the existing harbor by enlarging the outer basin and creating a new deep-water basin with a depth of 40 feet. Dredging would be required to deepen and maintain both basins and associated navigation channels.
The Port of Nome lies 545 miles northwest of Anchorage, along the Bering Sea coastline, south of the Arctic Circle, with no connection to the existing state road system. It serves as regional hub for a number of remote communities to access fuel and consumer goods.
Still, the Corps noted, limited marine infrastructure and insufficient draft depths at this site and in the Arctic have resulted in operational inefficiencies, increased safety risks and vessel damage, higher costs for goods and services, and threats to the long-term viability of the region.
Kawerak Inc., the regional tribal consortium of 20 federally recognized tribes in the Bering Straits region, has remained neutral to date on port expansion. In a letter to USACE in early February, Kawerak said the project has the potential to affect the community of Nome and Bering Strait region in many ways.
Kawerak made 11 recommendations to the Corps on the project, on matters ranging from cultural and archaeological resources and the cost of living to the importance of access to natural resources for subsistence harvest.
“Though Alaska Natives are a majority group in this region, there are many arenas where Alaska Natives aren’t fairly represented in order to highlight their values, culture and traditional practices,” the letter said.
In summary comments in the letter, Kawerak President Melanie Bahnke also noted that besides waste discharge, threats of oil spills with increased ship traffic are a consideration. The Corps’ plan includes draft limitations for oil spill response assets, but most, if not all, of the kinds of oil spill response assets can be in Nome without port modification, Bahnke said.
A copy of the complete letter is at kawerak.org/kawerak-comments-on-unresolved-issues-re-port-of-nome-feasibility-report.
Alaska’s congressional delegation applauded the completion of the report, which is already recognized in authorizing legislation, S.3591, the America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2020, which calls for expediting the feasibility report for the deep draft port in the Arctic.
“This infrastructure is vital as traffic through the Bering Strait increases and will provide a deep-water port in the region for both civilian and military vessels,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. “This project will also bring down the barriers that rural communities in the region face in accessing cargo, fuel and marine resources.”
A deep-water port for Nome represents more than an infrastructure, Murkowski said.
“It is jobs, an expanded economy, safer shipping and the portal to the Arctic,” she said.
Details about this project are available at poa.usace.army.mil/Library/Reports-and-Studies. At the top of the left column under “documents available for review,” select “civil works.”
