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P E N I N S U L A
MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014 Soldotna-Kenai, Alaska
Vol. 44, Issue 220
50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
New gas platform for Cook Inlet now en route
Question How do you deal with mosquitoes? n Bug dope, bug candles, bug coils n Lots of swatting n Just keep moving n Live and let live n Stay inside and lock the windows To place your vote and comment, visit our Web site at www. peninsulaclarion. com. Results and selected comments will be posted each Tuesday in the Clarion, and a new question will be asked. Suggested questions may be submitted online or e-mailed to news@peninsulaclarion.com.
In the news Safety measures increase ahead of Seward race C
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ANCHORAGE — Authorities are warning runners not to underestimate Mount Marathon in Seward as activity gears up for the traditional July Fourth run up and down the mountain. Crews are working hard to ensure the safety of racers during the 3.1 mile race, KTUU reported. Those measures include spreading the word about potential dangers. Veterans will take novice runners up the trail June 21 to help familiarize them with the mountain. Seward Fire Department chief Eddie Athey said anyone thinking of climbing the mountain, whether it’s for a race or just a hike, should pack appropriately, and let family and friends know of their plans and a timetable. “A lot of folks want to consider (Marathon) a day hike, and that’s just simply not a good way to do that,” Athey said. “If you’re going to make a journey up that mountain, you should go with the mentality that I could spend more time up there than I thought.” The increased measures come a few months after Peggy LeMaitre filed a lawsuit against the race organizers, the Seward Chamber of Commerce. Her husband, Michael LeMaitre, disappeared in the 2012 race. She claims organizers were negligent and showed outrageous conduct. — The Associated Press
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By TIM BRADNER Morris News Service-Alaska Alaska Journal of Commerce
The new Furie Operating Alaska platform planned for Cook Inlet is en route to from a Texas fabrication facility towed by a Crowley Maritime Corp. tug. Meanwhile, pipe for subsea pipelines to connect the platform with onshore gas facilities is also being shipped, although Crowley is not handling that movement. Craig Tornga, a Crowley vice president, said Crowley’s tug Photo by Will Morrow/Peninsula Clarion Ocean Wave, which is towing a barge loaded with the platform, has departed Ingleside, Texas, A pair of aircrafts from the Alaska Wing of the Commemorative Air Force taxi on the tarmac at the Kenai Municipal Airport and is now headed to Cristobal, during the Kenai Peninsula Air Fair Saturday afternoon. The planes were among a number of vintage aircraft taking part in Panama, for a Panama Canal the event. transit. Furie Operating Alaska will install the platform in July and August for the company’s planned Kitchen Lights gas production project. Two 10-inch subsea pipelines will also be built. Furie is a Houston-based privately-held oil and gas company that does not release its gas reserve estimates or potential production. However, the facilities being installed have the capability of handling 30 million cubic feet per day, according to plans filed by Furie with the Alaska By KELLY SULLIVAN “There are some pretty Division of Oil and Gas. Peninsula Clarion unique pieces in his collection,” The platform will be located Tom Cooper, owner of Alaska about 20 miles northeast of NiWhat started as curiosity in Horn and Antler, said. kiski and about 15 miles southCooper has been working 1978, progressed into James west of the ConocoPhillips TyKunkle’s 90-piece collection with horn, tusk and bone for onek platform, which serves that of ivory, baleen, bone and tooth over three decades, and has company’s North Cook Inlet gas carvings on display at the Sol- done repairs on nearly half field. of Kunkle’s carvings. Using dotna Visitor Center. Furie drilled its first exploraKunkle likens his addiction natural materials for carving is tion well, KLU No. 1, at the site in to collecting the artwork to “a something to cherish, he said. 2011 using the Spartan Offshore “It’s better sitting carved on guy on cocaine.” Drilling Spartan 151 jack-up rig. “I just got hooked on it,” a self, than resting at the botThe company drilled three other Kunkle said. “I was only plan- tom of the Bering Sea,” Cooper wells in 2012 and 2013 using the ning on buying about six piec- said. jack-up rig to confirm the discovKunkle started his colleces.” ery and test other prospects. This summer, 50,000 tour- tion during what Cooper called State officials said the comists and residents will view the the “heyday of ivory carving.” pany is obligated under its lease intricately designed artwork, In recent years carving has bework commitments to drill two Soldotna Visitor Center Coor- come less common, especially more exploration wells in the with walrus ivory, since the dinator Tami Murray said. area. The pieces, resting inside a mammal is rarely hunted anyFurie’s platform will be the glass case, are the first stop at more, he said. first new offshore production According to the Marine the center. The display contains facility installed in Cook Inlet items ranging from a 1-inch Mammal Protection Act, walrus since the mid-1980s when Forest polished tooth with the tiny ivory is only legal if acquired Photo by Kelly Sullivan/Peninsula Clarion Oil Corp. installed the Osprey oil chiseled image of a women’s before 1972, or “pre-Act,” or This walrus ivory harpoon wielding carving is part of James production platform at the Reface, to a massive, worn and when registered by an Alaska Kunkle’s 90-piece art collection housed at the Soldotna Visitor See IVORY, page A-16 Center. See FURIE, page A-16 chipped mastodon tusk.
Taking flight
State history preserved Ivory collection on display at Soldotna Visitor Center
States raise concerns about Alaska ‘mother of proposed Coast Guard rules midwifery’ retires By PHUONG LE Associated Press
SEATTLE — As the U.S. Coast Guard moves to assert its federal authority over maritime issues, officials in Washington, Alaska and other states are concerned by what it may mean for states’ rights in preventing and preparing for oil spills. State officials in California, Washington and New York have asked the Coast Guard to withdraw rules it proposed in December. They say the rules would limit the states’ role in protecting citizens from vessel accidents and pollution. In December, the Coast Guard released proposed rules
that outline a number of regulations that it says would override state and local law. The proposal clarifies the Coast Guard’s federal authority over areas such as vessel safety and inspection, small passenger vessels, marine accident reporting, among matters. But in comments to the federal agency, some state officials say the rules are too broad and sweeping. The rules would interfere with or create confusion about statespecific laws regarding spill reporting, tug boat escorts or oil spill contingency plans, they say. For example, Washington state requires tug escorts for all tankers entering
the Strait of Juan de Fuca and headed for Washington ports. But under the proposed rules, the state would be prevented from requiring those escorts, said Maia Bellon, the state’s Ecology Director. “This is not acceptable to protect our waters,” she said at a hearing last month. In Alaska, officials are worried the proposal would take precedence over state regulations requiring tanker escorts for Prince William Sound. The rules also create uncertainty about whether staterequired oil spill contingency plans for tankers would be pre-empted by federal authority, Larry Hartig, commissionSee RULES, page A-16 C
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By ALLIE NIELSON Morris News Service-Alaska Juneau Empire
JUNEAU — Kaye Kanne can be considered the mother of midwifery in Alaska. From founding the Juneau Family Health and Birth Center to successfully lobbying midwifery legislation into law, she has given thousands of women in Juneau and other Southeast communities something that was never available before, the option of alternative birthing methods. After practicing midwifery for three decades, attending more than 1,000 births and
opening the JFHBC in Juneau, Kanne retired from the birth center in April to focus on her work at the national level, which she has also been doing for the past 22 years. “When I ended up moving to Juneau in 1984, I had attended 200 births by then, but I hadn’t been practicing on my own,” Kanne said. “There was no licensing in Alaska, so I immediately got involved in that. It took eight years to get a midwifery board. The first board got the law passed in 1992, so there could be midwives in Alaska.” Kanne served on that See MIDWIFE, page A-16