Alaska OCS (Outer Continental Shelf) Socioeconomic Studies Program. Technical Report No. 69. Western Alaska Local Socioeconomic Systems Analysis

摘要

This report includes detailed community baseline data about Dillingham and Bethel, Alaska. It also projects and analyzes how the infrastructure of these towns could be affected by future growth without OCS development and includes methods, standards and assumptions by which such growth impacts can be quantified. In addition, it assesses the types of impacts which these communities might incur under conditions of OCS development. Dillingham is one of Alaska's major fishing and fish processing centers. However, the commercial fishing season here is extremely brief and the work force associated with it is highly transient. Thus, despite the scale of its fisheries industry, Dillingham is a relatively poor town in terms of the quality of its community facilities and services and would find it extremely difficult to upgrade those facilities and services under conditions of rapid economic growth. Bethel is the largest community in western Alaska. This town has grown from a small village to a major regional center during the past forty years and its growth has closely been tied to that of the region as a whole. As a second class city under Alaska law, Bethel has limited abilities to collect revenues and to provide the range of community facilities and services normally demanded in the town of this size. While Bethel actually provides a fairly comprehensive range of municipal services, it's forced to rely heavily on assistance from other levels of government to do so.