"My goal is to move to solid land," said Tom, tribal liaison to state and federal agencies for the relocation of Newtok. "We don't have very much time left because of the erosion speed."

The river bank, however, isn't the only thing that has deteriorated: Communication problems between government agencies has led to inaccessible federal funds appropriated for planning Newtok's relocation and concerns over more than $1 million in recent infrastructure spending in the village.

In the last 50 years, more than 4,000 feet of land bordering the village has receded into the Ninglick's frigid waters that empty into the Bering Sea. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimates that by 2009 erosion will have washed away of much Newtok, located about 100 air miles northwest of Bethel in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.

The Newtok Traditional Council in 1994 considered six potential relocation sites and, following a vote by the village, selected a site about nine miles from Newtok on the north end of Nelson Island, Tom told attendees of the semi-annual meeting of the corps' Coastal Engineering Research Board on June 8. The board met in Anchorage June 7-9 to discuss coastal engineering in Alaska.

The corps estimates that it will cost between $80 million and $100 million to move the village, said Larry Scudder, study coordinator for the corps' relocation planning work for Newtok.

The corps has made some progress in helping Newtok in its relocation effort, including performing a geotechnical overview of Newtok's new site and holding a workshop for state agencies to discuss a timetable for relocating the village. But confusion over whether the corps can spend federal funds appropriated for its Newtok relocation studies has kept it from carrying out much of its plans this year, Scudder said.

Congress appropriated $2 million to fund the Alaska Villages Erosion Technical Assistance program for fiscal year 2004, authorizing the corps to bear the full expense of its projects even though the corps typically shares its project costs with state and local agencies. Scudder said the corps used the money for relocation studies for the villages of Shishmaref, Newtok, Kivalina and Unalakleet.

Congress again appropriated $2 million to continue the corps' efforts under the program for fiscal year 2005, which ends Sept. 31, 2005. The reauthorization, however, didn't explicitly say the corps could conduct its studies at the full expense of the federal government, causing some in the corps to question if the money could be spent without a portion of the projects' costs paid for by the villages, Scudder said.

Flooding in the village of Newtok in October 2004 forced the residents of the home shown in the above picture to stay with a family member until the water receded. PHOTO Courtesy of Newtok Traditional Council

Scudder said U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, is aware of the problem, and that he expects it to be sorted out for fiscal year 2006.

While Stevens' press secretary Courtney Boone declined to comment on whether Stevens was working on making the funds available, she said the needs of the villages being affected by erosion was important to the senior Alaska senator.

The U.S. General Accounting Office questioned how expensive and difficult it would be to move Newtok's new health clinic in its December 2003 study of Alaska Native Villages affected by flooding and erosion.

When the Denali Commission and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developing decided to jointly fund the $1.1 million clinic, they were unaware of the village's plans to relocate even though legislation for the land exchange had already been introduced in Congress, the study said.

Without knowledge of Newtok's intention to move, the clinic wasn't designed to be portable, said Al Ewing, executive director of the Denali Commission.

"It may be possible to move what we have there, but it is doubtful," he said.

Tom thinks that the clinic can be moved to Nelson Island, but he doesn't know how much it would cost to move it or any of the village's other buildings, he said.

With knowledge of the relocation plan, the Denali Commission probably would have waited until the village had relocated to invest in a new health clinic, Ewing said. "I think that in hindsight with our investment policies and the information that we have now, the investment probably wouldn't have been made."

Since the commission became aware of the relocation plans, it has held off on making further infrastructure investments in Newtok, saving the projects for the village's new site, he said.

While the village considered co-locating to Bethel, its residents rejected the perhaps less expensive relocation option because they want to be able to maintain their subsistence way of life on familiar land.

Tom said in an interview that the new site on Nelson Island would allow Newtok's 300 or so residents to continue their way of life and provide them with the opportunity to build an organized village with better water, telephone and bulk fuel storage infrastructure than what the village has now.

Following authorization from Congress, the U.S. Department of Interior exchanged land with the Newtok Village Corp. in late April 2004. The village corporation now owns nearly 11,000 acres in and around its selected relocation site.

Tom told attendees of the corps meeting that he and his fellow residents hope to relocate to their new land by 2010.

Tom said his village has had some success in its effort to relocate, though no government agency has opted to lead Newtok's move and there is still much to be done.

Using funding from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the village contracted ASCG Inc. to carry out two studies. The Anchorage-headquartered firm completed a transportation plan for Newtok's new site in December 2001 and a report supporting its relocation efforts in January 2004.

The village also has secured $75,000 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to clean up its current site upon relocating to Nelson Island, Tom said.

As the housing administrator for the Newtok Traditional Council, Tom is taking into consideration the village's relocation plans by arranging for new manufactured homes to be installed in such a way that they can easily be moved to the new site, he said.