 Local Issues
Air pollution is so bad during Fairbanks winters that we are often inhaling more toxins than residents of downtown LA. Every spring, hundreds of Fairbanksans diligently clean heaps of trash off the roadsides, only to see it reappear within days. In the summer, the water of the Chena River flowing under the Cushman Street Bridge is visibly clogged with grass clippings and garbage. Clearly, there are environmental issues in Interior Alaska that have nothing to do with wilderness, wildlife, and the "last frontier," and everything to do with the problems of urban living.
The Northern Center is now working with the City and the Borough, as well as with local residents, to address air quality, water quality, and trash (including, when possible, recycling). While these issues may not be as monumental as the struggle over thousands of acres of unspoiled wildlands, they are issues that affect our daily lives, and our health. And that makes them more than worth the effort.
Facts to ponder
Air quality
- Fairbanks is one of only seven cities nationwide ranked by the EPA as a "non-attainment" area for carbon monoxide pollution.
- The main source of carbon monoxide in our air is motor vehicle exhaust.
- When inhaled, carbon monoxide enters the blood stream and reduces the amount of oxygen delivered to all body tissues.
- During the first minute after a cold start, vehicle emissions are 50 to 100 times higher than they are when the engine is fully warm.
- Using engine block heaters two hours before driving can cut emission rates by about two-thirds, and costs only 12 cents a day.
- Human health effects such as impaired breathing, chronic respiratory disease, weakening of the immune system, cancer, and premature death can also be caused by nitrous oxides, ground-level ozone, sulfur dioxide, and particulates.
- Nitrous oxides and sulfur dioxide are mainly produced by industrial sources such as power plants. They are regulated through air quality permits - but these permits could be more rigorous.
- Particulates come from many sources, including wood stoves, open burning, and driving with studded tires on dry roads. Using wood stoves with catalytic converters - and using stoves efficiently - can greatly reduce particulates.
Trash and Recycling
- The Fairbanks - North Star Borough currently collects paper, aluminum, and hazardous materials such as batteries and household chemicals.
- The paper is pelletized and burned as fuel at Eielson Air Force Base, while aluminum and other metals, which have higher market values, are sold for reuse.
- Obstacles to implementing glass and plastic recycling include the lack of local markets for these materials, and the prohibitive expense of transporting them down to Anchorage or beyond.
- The Borough lacks collection points for recyclables, other than the landfill itself. This lack severely hampers citizen participation.
- The Northern Center has adopted a 1.8-mile stretch of College Road as part of the local adopt-a-highway program, and we have cleanups at least three times each year.
- The annual spring cleanup, organized and facilitated by the Borough, is always a successful event, but does not solve the root problem of littering.
Water Quality
- Hydrological gauges in Alaska provide data on only 1% of all water bodies, making it very difficult to determine whether or not a water body is "healthy."
- Major threats to the Chena River are groundwater contamination, inadequate riparian protection, low water levels, overcrowded city waterways, and uncontrolled, poorly planned development along the waterways.
- Toxic waste (TCE) has leaked into ground wells on the Bentley Land Trust and is making it's way via groundwater up Noyes Slough (documented) and potentially into the Chena River and ultimately the Tanana.
- Two-stroke engines used on many motorboats are so inefficient that they dump 1/3 of their fuel unburned into waterways.
- Heavy metal contaminants and organic pollutants are present in the Chena, and present significant threats to the health of the river system.
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