Coast Guard Forces Valdez personnel train on snow machines in the Nome harbor Jan. 12, 2012. The Forces Valdez personnel are preparing to enforce the safety zone during the fuel transfer from the Russian tanker Renda. (AP Photo/US Coast Guard, Petty Officer 2nd Class Charly Hengen)
Coast Guard Forces Valdez personnel train on snow machines in the Nome harbor Jan. 12, 2012. The Forces Valdez personnel are preparing to enforce the safety zone during the fuel transfer from the Russian tanker Renda. (AP Photo/US Coast Guard, Petty Officer 2nd Class Charly Hengen)
Coast Guard Cmdr. James Houck, the Forward Operating Base Nome Ice Boss, assists Scott O?Shea, with Vitus Marine, outline a safe path across the ice for fuel transfer hose in the Nome harbor Jan. 12, 2012. The path is being prepared for fuel hoses to deliver 1.3 million gallons of petroleum product to the City of Nome. (AP Photo/US Coast Guard, Petty Officer 2nd Class Charly Hengen)
This image provided by the U.S. Coast Guard from the bridge camera aboard the Ice Breaker Healy taken at 4:01 a.m. EST shows lites on the shore line as the Healy and the tanker approach Nome Alaska Friday Jan. 13, 2012. At the time of this image the Healy was 9.2 miles from Nome. (AP Photo/US Coast Guard)
In this image provided by the U.S. Coast Guard the Russian tanker Renda transits through the Bering Sea with the Coast Guard Cutter Healy?s assistance Jan. 10, 2012. The Renda is carrying 1.3 million gallons of petroleum products for delivery to Nome. Progress was stalled by thick ice and strong ocean currents Tuesday. The vessels made nine miles but drifted with the ice while at rest for a total gain of just six miles, Coast Guard spokesman David Mosley said. Ice conditions remained tough Wednesday. The Coast Guard said the two vessels were in densely concentrated ice about 100 miles from Nome by mid-afternoon. (AP photo/US Coast Guard)
In this photo provided by the US Coast Guard, the cutter Healy, left, breaks ice around the Russian tanker Renda in the Bering Sea Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012, 97 miles south of Nome, Alaska. The two vessels departed Dutch Harbor for Nome on Jan. 3, 2012, to deliver more than 1.3 million gallons of petroleum products. (AP Photo/U.S. Coast Guard/Petty Officer 1st Class Sara Francis)
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) ? A Russian tanker has muscled its way through hundreds of miles of Bering Sea ice several feet thick to deliver fuel to Nome. Now comes the tricky part: getting more than a million gallons of diesel and gasoline to shore through a mile-long hose without a spill.
The problem is that Nome's harbor is iced-in, preventing the 370-foot (113-meter) tanker from getting to the city dock. It will have to moor offshore to transfer its 1.3-million gallon (4.9-million liter) payload across the ice and to fuel headers that feed a nearby tank farm.
"I think all of the precautions have been addressed," Nome Harbormaster Joy Baker said Friday. "I think everything that should be done has been done."
For days, operations officials have looked at how best to lay the segmented fuel hose across the shore-fast ice for the transfer. The idea is to get the tanker as close to the harbor as possible to reduce the chance of a spill.
There has been a lot of anxious waiting since the ship left Russia in mid-December. It picked up diesel fuel in South Korea before traveling to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, where it took on unleaded gasoline.
A Coast Guard icebreaker escorted the tanker through the Bering Sea pack ice, the two vessels at times barely crawling along as officials looked for new techniques to get the tanker free of shifting ice.
Late on Thursday, the Coast Guard Cutter Healy and the Renda stopped six miles (10 kilometers) offshore to wait for daylight and figure out how to get the tanker within about a mile of the harbor so its hose will reach the dock.
Nome Mayor Denise Michels sat in her car Friday morning in record-breaking low temperatures and gazed past the harbor entrance. Her eyes focused on the lights coming from the tanker and the icebreaker just before dawn.
"It is right out there. You can see it," she said. "We are pretty excited."
That's where the ships remained Friday evening, Coast Guard spokesman David Mosley said.
The Coast Guard is evaluating where to place the Renda "where there's enough water around it that the Healy can then break the Renda free once the delivery is done," he said.
The Healy can only get so close to shore because it's shallow near Nome.
"Out of the safety of the vessels, they're taking the time they need to evaluate where to put the Renda so the operation to shore can be done safely, but then so we can break them free and get them on their way afterward," he said.
A lot remains to be done before the fuel transfer can occur, said University of Alaska Fairbanks researcher Greg Walker, who is in Nome providing information about ice conditions near the harbor. The tanker needs to get positioned securely in the ice and moored so it won't move during the process. Crews also need to finish removing large boulders of ice in a rubble field and leveling large pressure ridges to create a flat surface for the transfer hose.
Once the tanker gets as close as it safely can to the city dock, the ice will have to be allowed to refreeze to keep the ship stable. Then, the hose's segments will have to be bolted together and inspected before the fuel can begin to flow.
Personnel will walk the entire length of the hose every 30 minutes to check it for leaks. Each segment will have its own spill containment area, and extra absorbent boom will be on hand in case of a spill.
The state is requiring that the fuel transfer be initiated only in daylight hours. The transfer can continue in darkness if there is adequate lighting and other safety considerations, said Betty Schorr, industry preparedness program manager for the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.
Nome's northern latitude leaves it mostly hidden from the sun this time of year, meaning that after Friday's 11:39 a.m. sunrise, there would be just 5 hours and 4 minutes of sunlight.
The transfer could be finished within 36 hours if everything goes smoothly, but it could take as long as five days, Schorr said. If successful, it would mark the first time fuel has been delivered by sea to a Western Alaska community in winter.
A fall storm prevented Nome from getting a fuel delivery by barge in November. Without the tanker delivery, supplies of diesel fuel, gasoline and home heating fuel Nome are expected to run out in March and April, well before a barge delivery again in late May or June.
Michels said the weather has been extremely cold this winter. The temperature in Nome dipped to 34 degrees Fahrenheit below zero Friday, breaking the record set for that day in 1973.
In temperatures like this, the fuel really gets gobbled up fast, she said.
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Online:
Coast Guard webcam, http://bit.ly/wEsemi
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