State proposes five-year lease extension for Noatak school site at airport

Noatak's public school and the bulk fuel tank farm that serves it would stay on state airport land five more years under a lease extension the state proposed Aug. 6. The complication is that the airport itself is slated to close.

The airport is being relocated because Noatak River erosion has narrowed the buffer to the runway to less than 300 feet. Once the replacement opens, the existing airport is set to be deactivated and closed to all aircraft, according to the project's final environmental assessment. The new site won't have bulk fuel storage; a community fuel transfer system is planned instead.

That leaves an open question the lease extension doesn't resolve. The school and the fuel farm sit on a parcel tied to an airport that's going away, and the state hasn't said what the airport's eventual deactivation and property disposal would mean for that land. The applicant, the Northwest Arctic Borough, and community stakeholders have pushed to keep the lease in place without interruption so the school and its fuel supply stay secure.