Special delivery: tug and barge companies help Yukon River villages survive.

• Author: Stomierowski, Peg
• Position: TRANSPORTATION

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Summer unwinds slowly on the Yukon River as several tug and barge operations make dozens of journeys to remote Native villages to bring in fuel and freight supplies while the weather allows. And while it pays for these crews to have mettle, an almost circadian sensitivity to subsurface conditions--to place, time and change--is useful as well in the Alaska Interior.

"This is a tough job, performed by tough men and women," Inland Services tells potential customers. That may be so, and yet Matt Sweetsir, who works alongside them and has spent decades of seasons on the river, has his own unique way of seeing things.

"No one has to be burly to do anything in the 21st century," he weighs in. "In the 21st century, you have to be smart." Village residents rely on barge and air deliveries for fuel to power their boats, snow machines and four-wheelers. Aviation fuel is furnished for planes delivering food and medicine around the region--and sometimes ferrying patients elsewhere for care. Diesel fuel is used for heating homes and generating electricity.

BARGE COMPANIES

Many companies work in waters at the mouth of the river--including Delta Western, Northland Services, Brice Marine, Bering Pacific and Alaska Logistics LLC. Once a season, Bowhead Transport, using specialty beach craft designed for shallow landings, runs barge services to Arctic villages and the North Slope from Seattle, while other service purveyors access Alaska markets through Anchorage. Bowhead has worked in the icy waters of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas since 1983 for oil and gas companies and other clients including the North Slope Borough.

In addition, at least three primary operators ply their trade in repeated trips each season on the Interior portion of the Yukon upstream from St. Marys; they include Ruby Marine and Inland Barge Service out of Nenana and Crowley out of Anchorage.

CROWLEY BIGGEST

Crowley, which basically has two tugs working full-time and a third working about 30 days a year on the Yukon, is the biggest privately owned company on these waters. Four years ago, Crowley "expanded its footprint" in Alaska when it acquired the Alaska-based fuel distribution business of Northland Fuel, including the assets of Yukon Fuel Co. and Yutana Barge Lines. Yukon Fuel, based in Anchorage, and Yutana, out of Nenana, had been in business on the Yukon since the early 1900s.

Craig Tornga, the Crowley vice president responsible for the firm's petroleum field...