Crabber delivers fuel to St. Paul

ALEX DEMARBAN

December 07, 2007 at 4:39PM AKST

A crabbing boat loaded with emergency diesel fuel reached St. Paul on Friday, easing a fuel shortage in the Bering Sea village thanks to an unusual state agreement prompted by a seafood processor and a fuel supplier.

The Aleut village and three smaller Western Alaska villages are low on diesel fuel because a fuel-loaded barge hasn't been able to reach the communities since September, said Kirk Payne, Delta Western president and chief operations officer.

The Delta Western fuel barge, named SCT180 and carrying about 500,000 gallons of diesel fuel, is late because of bad weather, Payne said. Most recently, waves have kept the barge holed up for about six weeks in Port Moller on the Alaska Peninsula, he said. It's now stuck in Dutch Harbor about 270 miles south of St. Paul.

Besides St. Paul, Nikolski in the Aleutian Islands, Perryville on the Alaska Peninsula and St. George also need fuel, Payne said. Planes and boats carrying oil drums have delivered small shipments of emergency fuel to those villages, he said.

Diesel fuel is needed to run city power plants and keeps homes warm in most villages.

Low-pressure systems are rocking the Bering Sea with strong storms and big waves this fall. They"ve kept the fuel supplier"s slow-moving tug and barge out of St. Paul and St. George in the Pribilof Islands for the second-longest time in 22 years, Payne said.

For the tug and barge to travel, they need good weather to leave a port and at their destination.

"This is sensitive cargo and you need to be very sure of the weather," he said.

The more mobile crabbing boat that reached St. Paul over the weekend from Dutch Harbor, the Barbara J, will give that village of 460 a two-week cushion of fuel if residents and the city continue using it meagerly, said Phyllis Swetzof, city clerk.

"I'm pretty stoked," she said. "The captain of the Barbara J asked what's your contingency plan if the barge doesn't get in. I said you are our contingency plan."

The emergency delivery, by hose from the Barbara J to fuel trucks on shore, lasted Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday, said Swetzof.

Despite the extra fuel, residents are still being asked to turn down thermostats, minimize hot-water use and seal off cracks in doors and homes to help warm houses, Swetzof said.

The city is saving fuel too, such as not operating heavy equipment unless it must. For example, road graders are on hold and roads are bumpy.

"We"re thinking twice before turning the key," she said. "Nothing is as critical as keeping the power plant going and the homes heated."

The state Department of Environmental Conservation allowed the 110-foot crabbing boat to deliver about 35,000 gallons of fuel to St. Paul, said John Kotula, a DEC marine vessel section manager.

Fuel supplier Delta Western and Trident Seafoods, which owns the Barbara J and operates a seafood processing plant on St. Paul, came up with the fuel-delivery idea. They asked the department to add the boat to Delta Western's oil spill prevention and contingency plan.

Unlike the deliveries of fuel drums to the smaller villages, this operation needed state permission because fuel was pumped overboard, Kotula said.

Such amendments are commonly made to spill prevention plans " as fuel suppliers buy fuel from unexpected sellers " but not for an emergency such as a fuel shortage, Kotula said.

"This is the first time I"ve ever run into it," he said.

The state quickly approved a one-time delivery good only for St. Paul and for 20 days, Kotula said. Regulators thoroughly reviewed vessels diagrams, safety records, fuel transfer procedures and other information, he said.

The fishing boat was required to carry oil spill cleanup equipment on board, such as booms and absorbents to capture escaped oil, with extra people on shore to make sure the fuel transfer is carried out safely, he said.

No oil spilled, Swetzof said. Now, the barge just needs to arrive in St. Paul in time for the busy crab processing season that begins in January.

Trident, Delta Western and others won't let fuel tanks in the village go dry, said Earl Hubbard, a Trident vice president.

"(We) are not going to let Saint Paul run totally out of heating oil," he said.

Alex DeMarban can be reached at (907) 348-2444 or (800) 770-9830, ext. 444.