Interior obligates $30,180 for TEMSCO helicopter flights to service USGS Unuk River gage

TEMSCO Helicopters of Ketchikan will provide helicopter flight services to maintain the U.S. Geological Survey's Unuk River stream gage through Feb. 28, 2027, under an Interior Department delivery order drawn from its on-call Alaska helicopter contract. The order was signed Oct. 15, and $30,180 has been obligated so far.

The Unuk gage is one of five USGS super gages on rivers that flow from Canada into Southeast Alaska. A super gage is a standard streamflow gage fitted with continuous water-quality monitors, meant to track climate and land-use effects and hazardous-substance spills.

Congress directed the USGS in 2018 to develop a water-quality strategy for the transboundary rivers, and Unuk data collection began that year. The agency samples every six to eight weeks. USGS estimates the watersheds' salmon fisheries add about $1 billion a year to the regional economy.

A British Columbia–Alaska monitoring review lists monitoring stations tied to the Brucejack Mine and the KSM Mining project in the Unuk watershed.