Military to help Newtok move

ALEX DeMARBAN

October 30, 2008 at 12:41PM AKST

A few good men and women will help an imperiled village in Western Alaska move to higher ground.

U.S. Marines, Navy Seabees and soldiers from other branches will provide manpower, engineering and heavy equipment to assist Newtok residents as they build a new village not far from the old one, officials at the Pentagon said.

The military effort is scheduled to get under way next summer when Marines establish a base camp at the new site. Later, the soldiers will turn their attention toward constructing roads, an airstrip and an evacuation shelter that will eventually serve as a community center.

The five-year commitment of troops is a win-win for everyone, said Capt. Karen Trueblood, deputy director for the Department of Defense program that will provide the soldiers.

The military will gain valuable construction and logistical experience, while the community saves money on labor, shipping and other costs, she said.   

The assistance will speed up construction and help the village meet its goal of moving to the new site beginning in four years, said Stanley Tom, who has led the village’s relocation effort.

“It will be a big help,” he said.

Newtok is a Yup’ik community of 325. It’s one of three Alaska villages with fast-eroding shorelines that may have less than eight years left at their current location, according to the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. The others are Shishmaref and Kivalina, also in Western Alaska.

Global warming, which has left shorelines frozen for shorter periods, is commonly blamed for the erosion in those villages and several others in Alaska that are losing land more slowly.

Moving the villages won’t be easy. The Corps of Engineers estimated in 2006 that efforts to build new villages will cost tens of millions of dollars from state and federal sources, raising doubts about whether such undertakings are possible.

In Newtok’s case, the Ninglick River has encroached by more than half a mile in the last 54 years, destroying the landfill and barge landing not long ago. Another 40 feet or so vanished during a flood this summer, leaving the river 200 feet from the village, Tom said.

Mertarvik, the Yup’ik name for the proposed village nine miles from Newtok, sits above the flood plain on Nelson Island. Plans include installing more than 60 homes and constructing a new power plant and water and sewer system.

Newtok’s move will cost $130 million, the Corps of Engineers estimated in 2006. That’s about $400,000 per resident.

That soaring estimate left Newtok leaders — and state and federal officials who formed a planning group to help them — scrambling to find cheaper options.

The soldiers will save the village millions of dollars and may provide a template that other eroding villages can follow, said Jamilia George, the state co-chair on the Denali Commission, who sought the military’s help for Newtok.  

“These guys bring their own food, their own housing,” she said. “They’ll get materials and their own heavy equipment to Mertarvik.”

Construction is tremendously expensive in rural Alaska, she said. Labor costs are high and shipping materials isn’t easy — barges and aircraft must haul materials because no roads link to the state highway system.

The Marines will transport lumber, windows and other building materials from the hub community of Bethel to Mertarvik in a landing craft, she said. The state and Newtok must get the materials to Bethel.  

The military won’t help until the state Department of Transportation, using a combination of state and federal dollars, builds a $1 million barge landing at Mertarvik, Trueblood said.

That will be finished next summer, George said.  

The soldiers — including active duty and reserves — will spend the rest of the summer establishing the base camp and making other preparations. They plan to begin building in the summer of 2010, Trueblood said.

The military support comes courtesy of the Defense Department’s Innovative Readiness Training Program. Founded in 1993 at the urging of former President Bill Clinton, the program has helped communities across the nation build everything from roads to houses to youth centers.

In Alaska, soldiers in the program recently helped the village of Metlakatla build a road in Southeast. They also provide annual medical help in remote locations as part of Operation Arctic Care.
    
Alex DeMarban can be reached at 907-348-2444 or 800-770-9830, ext. 444.