If it's their party, why is it Alaska's mess?

Frontiersman editorial board

Sunday's Frontiersman article about the Nike Hercules missile site at Goose Bay speaks to many issues facing the state of Alaska. There is no doubt that the cleanup of this site, and many others, has to be a priority. There are nearly 600 FUDS, Formerly Used Defense Site, locations in the state that are slated for some kind of cleanup.

One of the challenges is that nobody seems to want to claim the worst areas. The landfill portion of the Nike site is probably the dirtiest job facing … somebody. But nobody wants to lay claim to that job. Because of the convoluted ownership and responsibility history of that site, it's a difficult task to determine just who is responsible to clean up the mess. So it sits. Again, it's just one of nearly 600 sites.

The path to assigning responsibility will likely be a long, legal one. When large amounts of money and potential embarrassment are involved, the path is always long an legal. In the end, it will be reduced to the bottom line, as so many important issues are, and that will reduce the real problems to simple equations and cold calculations. It's easy to deal with problems that way. In truth, though, it's only a very small part of the actual impact -- of what really matters.

The people who live in this state have probably the most independent spirit left in the U.S. Alaskans are largely self-guided people who prefer to control their own destinies. The reality, however, may be that we are not as able to do that as we'd like. The vast majority of Alaska belongs to the federal government. The second largest slice rests on the plate of the state government. The people, individually, own very little of their state. The federal government and large resource extraction companies have benefited most from what this land has to offer.

There are many views of what makes Alaska great. On the economic side, it is clear that the state has most benefited from the extraction of non-replenishable resources. The presence of government facilities and personnel has also been of some benefit to Alaska. The question is, has the state gotten enough in return for the benefits others have gained here? Have Alaskans been left with fair compensation for the potential messes we may now have to clean?

The greatness of this state, its wilderness, its wide-open spaces and its resources are all fragile. As we clean up the mistakes of the past, we should also resolve not to make those mistakes again. It's up to Alaskans to protect Alaska. From now on, let's be sure we know who has to clean up after the party.