The fuel transfer could begin at daybreak on Monday, a process that is expected to take 48 hours. The Russian tanker is snuggly moored near a causeway, with hook-ups to the community's fuel tank farm.
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell and Department of Environmental Commissioner Larry Hartig flew on a Coast Guard C130 to Nome Sunday morning along with a group of reporters, to learn more about the mission.
Rear Admiral Thomas Ostebo, Commander of the 17th Coast Guard District, took the government officials by helicopter to visit the Healy.
One of the issues the Nome fuel delivery has raised is whether the Coast Guard is equipped to handle a growing mission in the Arctic. The Healy, which is primarily a research ship, is America's only functioning ice breaker. Russia has a fleet of 25. Alaska's other neighbor, Canada, has six. The Renda's journey comes at a time when shipping traffic in the arctic is expected to grow -- due to climate change and the push to explore arctic waters for oil and gas.
This is the first time an ice-locked community in Alaska has had a fuel delivery in the winter. The Renda and the Healy have traveled almost 700 miles and crossed 300 miles of sea ice -- in a journey that started out in Dutch Harbor on January 4th.
The delivery insures that Nome will have enough heating oil and gasoline to get through the winter. After severe storms in the Bering Sea kept a barge from making its pre-winter delivery, the only other option would have been to fly it in.
Sitnasuak Native Corporation, which owns Nome's main fuel distributor, says that option was too expensive -- that it would have taken hundreds of flights to get that much fuel to Nome, a process that could have added up to 3 or 4 dollars a gallon to fuel that was already selling at 6 dollars a gallon.
When the corporation decided to hire the Renda to deliver the fuel, it said this would still be cheaper than flying in. Sitnasuak says it may be awhile before the exact cost of the shipment are calculated.
Watch the full story of the Renda's historic journey to Nome.
Contact Rhonda McBride
