Leaking Tanks and Melting Permafrost

Multimedia Journalism by Robert Lundahl | Nature and Technology Part 2, ©Copyright 2020 Agence RLA, LLC

In Kotlik, effects of rising waters and melting permafrost can be seen between the old boardwalk and its new replacement elevated above the flooding tundra. 

The trails lead to industry, subsistence economics and cultural practices, upending stability in the environment and delivering impacts equally across boundaries.

(Photos : Sprouse)

The uncovering of the ancient village at Nunalleq, and the tilting and leaking of the Oil Tanks nearby are kindred to the effects of warming temperatures in Southwest Alaska.

According to the laws of nature, Nunalleq has delivered the treasures and tools of an ancient past; and these must be protected and catalogued before the warming sea consumes them in a final deluge.

According to the laws of men, an oil spill clean up must take place on schedule.

There are a stack of pieces of paper... that came from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. And the pieces of paper all say the same thing. They go tick, tick, tick, tick.

A sled is prepared for winter travel, when sea ice forms a hard surface that allows for movement.

Villagers in Quinhagak rely on subsistence hunting, fishing, and gathering practices that supplement a low per capita income from paid employment. Its an existence and economy that has become tenuous and treacherous due to melting permafrost and sea ice.

One method of stabilizing fuel storage locally means tanks raised on a platform, sunk deeply into the Earth on piers. It's expensive.

"Land Farming," has been the "go to" technique for cleanup, but here in Quinhagak, it is not fast enough.

Living in balance with nature here may depend on less expensive technologies, using nature and biological means to accommodate what remains of an industrial era.

Phyto–remediation (plants) and Myco–remediation (mushrooms) are part of the process under consideration to mitigate damage to natural systems.

One definition of technology is the application of our scientific knowledge for practical purpose. So the recognition of a useful purpose within, or coming from a natural system by definition is most certainly a technology. 

Are Fungi a technology? Fungi are considered 'technology' within US and international patent law. These patents can be a specific strain or species that came directly from nature that is being directed towards some useful purpose as well as a process for the use or production of fungi. 

The technological aspect of this is that a purpose is being served and that the discovery or invention arose from applying one's special knowledge to the subject, hence the wording, 'intellectual property'.

"Mycoremediation and the Integrated Biological Approach consists of : 

Mycoremediation uses fungi to clean toxins from soil. Best on organic compounds, (petroleum, nutrients, and their more complex formulations like dioxins and pcb. Limited, can’t clean up inorganic compounds containing metals and metalloids.

"The Integrated Biological Approach uses a combined process consisting of mycoremediation, phytoremediation, microbes, and biochar. This allows us to treat multiple contaminants all at once. Groundbreaking adaptation in the field of bioremediation. 

It’s not one size fits all in the remediation industry. Each site has it’s own unique ecosystem. Our process includes the system of rigor we use to test every collection of fungi as it is added to our strain library which when completed indicates what compounds and site characteristics the strain is able to best perform in."

–Howard Sprouse