River erosion threatens road

Observation by Jeffrey Luther:

The erosion this year is threatening, and most likely will take the gravel pit access road before break up is over with. This will take our only gravel source away from us. The images show 12ft eroded since I made the measurements on May 19; it took only 6 days of river flow to do that. The May 24 image shows 19 ft eroded away. I am forecasting that part of the gravel pit access road will be gone in 10 days.

LEO Editor comment:

The direction of the river channel is changing in Noatak. As a result there is rapid erosion occurring and loss of important community infrastructure is imminent. This is the only road to Noatak gravel source. Last year Jeffrey Luther documented the loss of 30' at the old landfill site and 22-24" where the road is now. Noatak is request assistance to get the road moved or rerouted. As Jeffrey stated, in its current condition the poses a safety issue.

This post has been shared with regional and state government agencies including Northwest Arctic Borough, Maniilaq Association, ANTHC Emergency Services, the Alaska State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC), the Center for Environmentally Threatened Communities and the Army Corp of Engineers, and NANA. Mike Brubaker