Contractors start bulk fuel upgrades in Kivalina, Wales and Eek, first of 10 villages

Contractors began construction this summer on new bulk fuel storage in Kivalina, Wales and Eek, the first three of 10 rural Alaska villages in a $100 million federal upgrade with a three-year deadline.

Tanks for all 10 projects have been bought and are being fabricated for delivery over the next two years, Alaska Village Electric Cooperative President and CEO Bill Stamm wrote in a July column. Villages off the road system store a year of heating oil, transportation fuel and power-plant diesel, he wrote, with resupply once or twice a year in the ice-free months.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency money went to the Denali Commission, which picked the villages from a needs-based priority list, according to Denali Commission meeting minutes from July 16, 2025. The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium administers the grant. The Alaska Energy Authority manages Aniak, Eek, Russian Mission, Shageluk and Tuluksak; the cooperative manages Kivalina, Kobuk, Noatak, Quinhagak and Wales.

"This is life changing money for the communities involved," Stamm wrote.

The grant period runs from Aug. 1, 2025, through July 30, 2028, according to ANTHC. Stamm wrote that weather and logistics often knock Alaska projects off schedule, and that running 10 projects at once strains everyone from grant administrators to painting contractors. Last winter went to contract negotiations, community meetings, land acquisition and cargo bookings.

The new facilities sit above flood level on earthen pads or steel piles, inside secondary containment, a lined earthen dike that holds fuel if a tank leaks. In Wales, the cooperative's state water quality certification request describes a gravel pad 17 feet above sea level holding four new 30,000-gallon cooperative tanks, three 30,000-gallon city tanks and a new power plant, with construction estimated to run from June 2026 to June 2028.

The Alaska Energy Authority estimates statewide deferred maintenance on bulk fuel facilities at about $1 billion, according to its budget request for bulk fuel upgrades. In August 2024, the agency moved two Shageluk tanks that were at risk of falling into the river.

"In Alaska, summer can go by in the blink of an eye," Stamm wrote. "And in three blinks, we need to have these done."