Generator Building Fire

Site Narrative

• Requested by the Beaver Tribe

The Beaver Tribe’s former generator building caught fire and burned down in July 2007. At least one fuel tank (day tank) was associated with the generator building. Across the street is the village tank farm, owned by Beaver Joint Utilities (BJU). The tank farm and the generator building were constructed in the early 1990s and were originally operated by the Beaver Tribe. Fuel was also sold to community members and was dispensed to containers from the generator tank(s).

As part of a tank farm reconnaissance in Beaver conducted by a DEC term contractor in 2002, environmental soil samples were collected at the tank farm, but not at the generator building. Visual inspection around the generator building noted large amounts of stained soil, both where residents pumped fuel and where piping from the tank farm connected to the generator day tank. The 2002 report provided estimates of soil removal volumes at the BJU tank farm, and further suggested that excavation of soil at the generator building might not be practical because of the presence of the structure. However, with the building no longer in place, an updated assessment would help to determine best remedial approaches for this area.

DEC’s work in Beaver was planned to combine assessment of the burned-down generator building with a state-funded assessment of the former BIA school in Beaver. This “bundled” project has the active participation of partners from the Village of Beaver, the Yukon Flats School District, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service, and DEC.