Y-K Delta
RSSY-K Delta region news
Local organizations and topics
Numbers are stories in the last 30 days.
Have a story from Y-K Delta? Send a tip
Week of Sep 14
Petition would vacate Eek Street; comment by Oct. 20 or lose the right to object
A public street in Eek would become private property of the city and AVEC, no one has said why, and anyone who wants to object later has to speak up by Oct. 20.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Bethel council to vote Sept. 22 on paying utilities for Atsaq Place supportive housing
Bethel City Council votes Sept. 22 on paying water, sewer and waste utilities for Atsaq Place supportive housing, a 24-unit shelter for people experiencing homelessness.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Bethel flooding is forecast to return with Thursday morning's tide
The Kuskokwim River pushed water into low-lying Bethel this week and is expected to rise again Thursday, as onshore winds hold it back from draining.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Two missing after boat overturns near Bethel
Two people are missing after a boat overturned near Bethel on Tuesday afternoon. Search and rescue efforts are ongoing.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Two men die in a plane crash near Aniak, Troopers say
Two men were killed when a small plane crashed after taking off from a moose camp near Aniak, Alaska State Troopers said.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
A Bering Sea storm brings flooding and high winds to the Y-K Delta
A Bering Sea storm is bringing coastal flooding and damaging winds to the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, including Kipnuk, still rebuilding from last year's typhoon.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Three Alaska disaster declarations have no Federal Register notice
Three Alaska disaster declarations have no federal notice, though rules require one. For the Mat-Su storm, the finished notice has sat unfiled since April.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Kipnuk households paid $18 million; no village infrastructure project
Kipnuk families got $18 million in disaster aid after losing 153 homes, but almost none of the money to rebuild roads, water and public buildings has come.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
More from Y-K Delta
A Tanana company will dig diesel out from under old BIA school sites
The government left diesel in the ground under old BIA schools in Western Alaska. It is paying a Tanana company $247,786 to dig some of it out.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Week of Sep 7
Bethel judge sentences Wassillie Brink to 30 years in Kasigluk assault
A man with a prior conviction for sexual abuse of a minor got 22 years to serve for a 2022 assault in Kasigluk. Western Alaska's rate is double the state's.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Alaska villages can rebuild after Halong. They can't use the money to move.
Western Alaska villages hit by Typhoon Halong can get federal money to rebuild, but not to relocate — the declaration left out hazard mitigation.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago3 min readFrom 
Bethel's water plant has been sending filter backwash onto open ground
Water flushed from Bethel's treatment filters has been running onto the tundra instead of into the sewer lagoon. The city does not say for how long.
by Melinda Communities.News2mo ago2 min read
Southwest Alaska carried most of the state's tuberculosis cases last year
Southwest Alaska, with about 5% of the state's population, had 46 of Alaska's 77 tuberculosis cases last year — roughly nineteen times Anchorage's rate.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min readFrom 
Pilot uninjured after plane flips during off-airport landing in Caribou Hills
A pilot walked away uninjured after flipping his plane during an off-airport landing in the Caribou Hills, and was flown back to Soldotna by helicopter.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Three Alaska National Guard wetland surveys go out to bid, with proposals due Sept. 21
Alaska Army National Guard is buying wetland surveys at three aviation facilities in Kotzebue, Bethel and Nome, budgeted at $45,000 to $50,000 each, with proposals due 2 p.m. Sept. 21.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Rabies is climbing among wildlife across the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta
Rabies is rising among Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta wildlife. Foxes come in to den in village landfills in late winter, and rural dogs live outdoors.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
About Y-K Delta
The Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, often called the Y-K Delta, is a vast tundra and wetland region in Western Alaska where the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers meet the Bering Sea. Bethel is its hub city, and most of its villages have no road connection. People travel by boat, snowmachine and small plane.
Subsistence salmon fishing and goose hunting sit at the center of life in the region. Its stories return to Kuskokwim and Yukon salmon closures, the effect of Bering Sea pollock bycatch on Western Alaska chum, coastal and river flooding from Bering Sea storms, and the high cost of power and fuel in rural villages.
Regional institutions include the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation, Calista Corporation, the Kuskokwim Corporation and the AVEC rural power cooperative. State and federal fisheries managers make many of the decisions that shape the region's harvests.
More from Y-K Delta
New independent expenditure group registers in Anchorage to back Nellie Jimmie's re-election
A new group will spend without limits to re-elect Rep. Nellie Jimmie. Its chair is general counsel of the Native corporation for her region.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
A $2 fix could cut $49,944 a year off Bethel's fitness center energy bill
Two dollars. That is what Bethel would have to spend to cut nearly $50,000 a year off the fitness center energy bill, according to an audit.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
The roof went on wrong at Bethel's gym expansion and has to come off
The roof and walls went on wrong at Bethel's gym expansion. They come back off at no cost to the city, and nobody has set a new completion date.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
10 Kuskokwim Delta villages named in flood outlooks for Friday
High water coming down the Kuskokwim meets storm surge pushing up it at Friday's high tide. Ten western Alaska villages could see flooding or erosion.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
Pollock official puts bycatch impact on Western Alaska runs at 1.9%
Pollock fishing in the Bering Sea reduces Western Alaska salmon returns by 1.9% on average, but a proposed cap on chum bycatch won't take effect until 2028 and tribal groups say it's still not enough.
by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
A Tyonek man died Saturday after neighbors heard gunshots
A Tyonek man died Saturday after neighbors heard gunshots and found him wounded. The state medical examiner has not determined a cause of death.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min readFrom 
Week of Aug 31
Bethel shut off the water at a house leaking sewage and it came back on
Bethel shut off the water at a house leaking sewage. The resident turned it back on the next day, and the repair deadline has now passed too.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Federal grant will test a Yup'ik healing framework against homelessness
Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness won $450,000 to serve Alaska Native households facing homelessness through case management and traditional Yup'ik healing practices through August 2027.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
The Kuskokwim Delta's high tides have passed. Forecasters expected no flooding.
High tides Friday and Saturday will peak a foot above normal along the Kuskokwim Delta, but forecasters expect no flooding in Kipnuk, Kwigillingok, Kongiganak and Quinhagak.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Bethel's deadline to fix a sewage leak passed two weeks ago
Untreated sewage is leaking onto the ground at a Bethel house. The city's repair deadline passed two weeks ago with no word on whether it was met.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Bethel Fire Department recruits nationally for a captain and firefighters
Bethel Fire Department is recruiting a captain and firefighters nationally to fill gaps in its eight-person career staff serving over 6,000 residents.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
Water forecast 2 to 4 feet above normal high tide in Eastern Norton Sound
Water along Eastern Norton Sound should run 2 to 4 feet above normal high tide from late Thursday into Saturday, with beach erosion likely.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
Forecasters flag Kwigillingok as water rises along the Kuskokwim Delta coast
Water along the Kuskokwim Delta coast is forecast 1 to 2 feet above normal high tide, with forecasters flagging Kwigillingok as most exposed to this front.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
Bethel council to take up a holiday rescheduling rule, in a code section that does not set meeting dates
Bethel's city council could reschedule meetings that fall on holidays under an ordinance introduced Tuesday, Sept. 8.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Chugachmiut's Sugt'stun language game gets new gameplay footage
Nunaka means my village in Sugt'stun. It is also a free game teaching the language to children in a region where fluent speakers are dwindling.
by Alaska News2mo ago2 min read
$21 million for 29 miles of the road that supplies the North Slope
Federal records show $21 million for 29 miles of the Dalton Highway, the road that supplies the North Slope. The state awarded the work in May 2025.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
Week of Aug 24
Alaska court: guardian, not child's lawyer, waives therapy privilege
Alaska Supreme Court ruled a child's guardian can waive therapy confidentiality in state custody cases, letting a tribe access a 10-year-old's psychiatric records over his lawyer's objection.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
Troopers rule Akiak house fire non-criminal
A home burned in Akiak in July with no injuries reported. State investigators have closed the case, finding the cause undetermined but not criminal.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago1 min read
Why the Coast Guard is paying a Homer helicopter company to reach roadless villages
The Coast Guard is paying a Homer helicopter company $345,000 to fly inspectors to roadless Alaska villages to reach the fuel facilities it regulates.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
Comment open on Pilot Station Airport permit for mail-delivery ATV storage
Alaska transportation department is seeking public comment on a five-year permit to store a mail-delivery ATV in a shipping container at Pilot Station Airport, with annual rent around $676.
by Alaska News2mo ago1 min read
Comment closes Thursday on 18-year rent-free FAA lease at Chenega Bay Airport
Alaska is deciding whether to give the FAA an 18-year rent-free lease for weather equipment at Chenega Bay Airport. Comments close Thursday at 4:30 p.m.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Short on officers, Bethel police look to grow their own with a cadet program
Bethel's police, the hub much of the Y-K Delta relies on, are short officers and dispatchers and are looking to grow their own through a cadet program.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
Kuskokwim Delta villages rebuilding from Halong face another storm
Kipnuk and Kwigillingok, still rebuilding from last October's Typhoon Halong, face another storm this week, with coastal flooding possible Friday.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Montana man charged with 37 counts in Bethel hunting residency case
A Montana man faces 37 criminal counts in Bethel for claiming Alaska residency to hunt while living out of state, a violation that affects license costs and permit eligibility.
by Alaska News2mo ago2 min read
