Chalk this up as another blow to the US Government's reluctance to acknowledge or address global warming.

While the Republicans in the Senate are going to undermine the House's passage of new CAFE standards, and Bush is threatening to veto the higher fuel economy bill on top of that regardless, the US Northern Command also known as NORAD also known as the North American Aerospace Defense Command (yeah, the acronym baffles me too) is shutting down three short range radar stations (SRRS) along the Northern Alaskan Coast, as reported in the New York Times.

The problem is soil erosion. Something that 86 percent of Native Alaskan villagers know all too well, according to a General Accounting Office report from 2003 (PDF).

Here's the deal. The coastline on which these unmanned radar facilities- hold outs from the Cold War - is literally crumbling away beneath the NORAD sites. The Lonely Point SRRS is feeling the loss the most. This is from an environmental report from the Air Force:

The coastline along the Beaufort Sea adjacent to the facility is eroding. It has receded approximately 11 feet per year from 1992 to 2005, based on analysis of aerial photographs from 1992 to 2005. - Point Lonely Short Range Radar Station (4.2mb PDF)

You can see the 1992 shoreline and the 2005 shoreline. Shave another 22 or so feet for the last two years. The other problem is that as the coast comes inland it is getting closer to contaminated ground. The report goes into some detail about how messy the USAF has left the place. In fact, there are many reports on the many short- and long-range radar stations that dot the Alaskan coastline, and those air force fly boys sure knew how to dirty up a place.

But what is the real problem? The Arctic ice that stabilizes the shoreline is no longer there. Not even in the winter. It is normal for the summer melt season to open up the shipping lanes for the barges to bring supplies, and in the past, men, to the radar stations. Once the nine- or ten-month winter season hits, however, the only way to reach these radar stations was by snow mobile. Now, with waves crashing onto the shore for those nine or ten extra months a year, more and more soil is being taken back into the sea - along with anything that sat atop that soil. In this case, it is a radar station and the other equipment, including dumpsites for who knows what. Add to that the melting of permafrost, and I foresee things getting a whole lot worse before they get better.

For those of you who doubt the coast being ice free in winters in Alaska, check this out, then the following clip.

 

The National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado also has a great Quicktime clip. It looks like the ice stopped coming to shore in the mid-1990's. Right about the same time that Point Lonely started losing 11 feet a year.

The three SRRS that NORAD is shutting down are Lonely Point, Bullen Point and Wainwright. Is this just the beginning? There are six other radar stations and USAF sites along the Beaufort Sea.

Here's my next question. If the sites fall into the sea, what happens to the clean up efforts? Will the USAF be let off the hook? Some of the price tags I found (5.3mb PDF) to clean up (called the Clean Sweep program) were in the $5 million range. Will the crumbling coast spur the USAF to clean things up faster or will they see the Beaufort Sea as a cheaper method of making that Clean Sweep?