Coast Guard orders a Dutch Harbor pollution response, and the record doesn't say why

The U.S. Coast Guard hired Resolve Marine Group on Nov. 6 for oil or hazardous chemical spill work in Dutch Harbor, but the federal record of the order doesn't say what the work is for.

The company, based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is to provide labor, materials and equipment "to mitigate the harmful effects of an oil spill or hazardous chemicals incident" as directed by the federal on-scene coordinator, the Coast Guard official in charge of a spill response, according to the contract record.

The money comes through the Coast Guard's National Pollution Funds Center, which gives responders round-the-clock access to an emergency oil spill fund so they can act quickly. The center later tries to recover those costs from whoever is responsible.

The Coast Guard skipped competitive bidding, citing urgency, and committed $10,000. The company is paid by the hour plus materials, so the final cost could be higher. The order's work period began Nov. 5 and can run through Jan. 4.

The record lists a project number but names no vessel or facility. Neither NOAA's incident log, which tracks spills where the Coast Guard asks for its help, nor the state's spill response page listed anything in Dutch Harbor this fall as of Thursday.

The Coast Guard committed $447,000 to the same company in September after the vessel Rolfy discharged a mix of oils and diesel fuel into Seward's harbor and left a sheen, according to another federal record.

Other Alaska awards changed the same week. The figures below are obligations, money the government has committed rather than spent.

Koniag Advisory and Business Solutions, an Anchorage-based company in the Kodiak Native regional corporation's federal contracting business, got $138,652 more from the Indian Health Service to extend an order for an IT specialist in Oklahoma City through November 2027. The order now totals $273,299.

Fairbanks-based Wright Air Service got $105 more in Essential Air Service subsidy for flights to Manley Hot Springs, bringing the award to $10,348 so far. The federal program pays airlines to keep a minimal level of scheduled service in small communities.

Interior's contracting office pulled back unspent money from three flight orders that ended by Sept. 30:

• Wasilla's Pollux Aviation: $4,104 from a helicopter order for maintenance at the Snowbird Glacier SNOTEL station, one of the automated sites the U.S. Department of Agriculture uses to measure snowpack

• Fairbanks' Shadow Aviation: $3,546 from small-plane flights for the National Park Service's Arctic Network, which surveys yellow-billed loons from the air

• Nome's Bering Air: $21,065 from helicopter flights in the Kobuk area for a U.S. Geological Survey Alaska Science Center project the record calls Ferrum

It also cut $7,099 in leftover money from a year of electric service Chugach Electric Association provided to the Bureau of Land Management in Anchorage.