Pribilof Islands Historic Preservation and Environmental Restoration

Topics

Island Restoration
Causes of Environmental Contamination

The primary contaminant of concern on St. Paul and St. George Islands has been diesel fuel, although gasoline, kerosene, and waste oil also contributed to the need for remediation. Until the mid-1980s, St. Paul Island lacked a protected harbor. At St. George Island, it was not until 1993 that sufficient funding became available to construct a harbor. Without docking facilities, goods and supplies were lightered from ships anchored offshore onto skin boats called baidars, or onto small barges. Fuels used for home and commercial heating, electrical generation, and vehicle operation went ashore in drums or barrels. Beginning about 1970, barges lightered fuels through floating lines connected to onshore transfer pumps or connected directly to aboveground or underground storage tanks (ASTs and USTs). In addition, aboveground and underground pipelines facilitated transfer from one tank to another or to a facility, such as an electrical generating station or gasoline station. ASTs ranged from fifty-five-gallon home heating oil tanks to 200,000-gallon bulk storage tanks. USTs supplying homes with heating fuel typically held 500 to 3,000 gallons, whereas tanks for the electrical generating station held as much as 10,000 gallons. These processes resulted in inadvertent fuel spills and leaks. Barrels tipped over; pipelines and tanks corroded; and valves were occasionally left open.

Photo of two men on a boat and one man on shore looking on.
A truck arriving at St. George Island on a baidar (NARA).

The improper storage and disposal of waste oil and antifreeze on the islands also led to environmental contamination. Poor management practices of waste oil arose, in part perhaps, from the cost and difficulty associated with shipping the waste off the islands for disposal. Not until the construction of harbors on St. Paul and St. George Islands did opportunity improve to rid the islands of its waste oil. Yet, even then, the disposal situation did not improve. In fact, some vessels of the Bering Sea fishing fleet discarded their waste oils in barrels on the islands with little concern for proper disposal. Not until about 2004 did local entities on St. Paul Island invest in used oil burners as a cost-effective solution to the issue. On St. George Island, however, waste oil was stored in a dilapidated building located west of town. The building housed more than one hundred stacked, rusting drums filled with waste oil from the past ten to fifteen years. During 2007 and 2008, NOAA worked with the St. George community to rid it of its waste oil problem.

Aboveground storage tanks on St. George Island (NOAA).

NOAA's Mandate

NOAA Actions to Restore the Pribilof Islands

Completion of Corrective Actions

Lead and Asbestos Abatement

Department of Defense Environmental Restoration Responsibilities

Administrative Record