By Rob Stapleton
Alaska Journal of Commerce

A handful of Alaska villages have run out of heating oil, and are either having to bundle up for the winter or pay more than double the going price to restock.

Meanwhile, some data indicates families by the dozens are leaving their homes and moving to the cities.

The communities of Ambler in Northwest Alaska; Nikolski and Perryville, in the Aleutians; Kodiak Island's Karluk; and St. George and St. Paul in the Bering Sea all had to have fuel oil shipments flown in during the past few weeks.

Flying heating oil into villages pushes the price from the average of $4.25 a gallon to as much as $11 a gallon, said Delise Calcote, office manager with Alaska Inter-Tribal Council.

Increased fuel prices and long, cold winters, as well as a reduction in the number of shippers, have left these villages with no choice but to fly in fuel.

Exacerbating the problem is the lack of available tanker aircraft to fly fuel to villages. There are only a handful of tankers capable of moving large quantities of fuel. One of the larger companies, Evert's Air, has been busy delivering fuel to Iliamna to supply the work Pebble Mine. Those shipments have backed up delivery schedules for the rest of the state.

Villages order their fuel in the spring for barge delivery in the summer months for use the following winter.

A chartered Lynden Hercules flew some fuel into the village of Ambler, at a cost of about $8 a gallon. The aircraft couldn't take a full load because of the short length of the village's runway.

Alaska Central Express flew fuel to Nikolski, Perryville and to St. Paul in late February.

Nikolski officials said the village could not get an additional barge load of fuel delivered in early February because of bad weather. And U.S. Coast Guard officials would not let local company Magone Marine Service use a landing craft to ship fuel to Dutch Harbor and back to the community.

“I don't deliver fuel for a living, we are in the marine salvage business, we just do it occasionally,” said Dan Magone, president and CEO of Magone. “The Coast Guard heard that we were trying to do a load and reminded us that our vessels have not been certified for commercial type deliveries, so our hands are tied.”

Delta Western, a larger barge company, damaged a barge last year, putting the craft out of service and hampering fuel deliveries, according to Coast Guard officials. Delta Marine delivers to communities in the Aleutians, Kodiak Island, and Bering Sea villages and along the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers.

Villages thirsty for fuel either did not receive fuel as scheduled earlier in the season or have no way of storing large quantities and ran through their supply due to colder temperatures that hit in January.

Also prices for fuel for heating and transportation have risen from previous years, busting some village budgets, according to AITC officials.

State of Alaska officials are aware of the village fuel situation, as some have declared emergencies, according to spokesperson Sharon Leighow with the governor's office.

“This is a concern to the state and the situations are being monitored,” said Leighow. “We don't feel it has reached crisis level. Nikolski and St. George have withdrawn their disaster declarations.”

Meanwhile, Nikolski residents have cut back on electricity use, dressing in layers, and using space heaters and wood stoves. The village recently installed a wind generator, but it is yet to go online.

School is being held in the home of a teacher, the store is open a few days a week, and the village council office is closed, all to save on energy use.

Some real and anecdotal data seems to indicate many rural Alaskans are giving up the village life and are moving their families to the urban areas.

Data from CITGO's heating oil grant program shows that 700 households that were on the list last year have moved.

“The fact that there are over 700 fewer households requiring fuel subsides in rural Alaska leads us to believe that Alaska Natives are becoming economic refugees in their own state,” said Nikos Pastos, environmental director for the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council.

AITC staff described stories of families of as many as eight people moving to Anchorage and living in a one-room apartment.

“We don't think the state is aware or adequately addressing this,” Pastos said. “Besides the fact that there are few jobs and little economic base, and now that winters have become colder, the state is basically saying, 'Move to the city.'”

Still, the program is growing, adding about 2,500 new names to the list, to 14,500 households from across the state. The program is distributed through 14 nonprofits to 153 villages in Alaska by more than 130 vendors.

Last year the CITGO Heating Fuel Program donated $6.48 million in Alaska, the 2008 program plans on a humanitarian donation of $8.2 million.

AITC is responsible for the distribution of the CITGO funds in Alaska. The program provides 100 gallons of heating oil - about a month's worth - to Alaska Native households in rural Alaska.

Rob Stapleton can be reached atrob.stapleton@alaskajournal.com.