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Every summer, dust blows across the town and tundra of Nome. It’s hard to avoid – the area’s gravel roads and heavy traffic from subsistence, recreation and construction kicks up lots of it. But this summer has been especially dusty, thanks in part to some unusual weather.
Several times a day, Nome resident Aaron Jackson can be spotted out front of his home on Steadman Street watering the road.
“People are out and about out in the country. Their vehicles come in with a lot of mud, and it just gets deposited here and there,” Jackson said.
Jackson has lived on the busy road that bisects downtown Nome for over 40 years. He retired nearly a decade ago, which gave him more time for his daily habit. He said he does it for the health of his neighbors and pedestrians passing by.
“There's a lot of stuff in that dust. I don't know what it is, but it's not healthy,” Jackson said. “So I try to do my part, keep it down so they don't breathe it.”
Jackson isn’t the only resident of Nome worried about what’s in the dust. Mitch Erickson is a certified instructor for the Mine Safety and Health Administration. He said in recent years, MSHA training has focused on the dangers of silica dust in mining operations. The microscopic compound is abundant in the earth’s crust and can cause respiratory diseases.
“Silica is pretty much in the soils everywhere, especially here, you know, because you got your quartz and stuff, and, yeah, it's a challenge. There's no doubt about it,” Erickson said.
Out of curiosity, Erickson recently examined some dust under a microscope. He suspects he found silica, and plans to send a sample for testing to confirm. He said in the meantime, miners – and the community – need to be more careful.
“We're just little placer miners here, so, get your water truck out and keep it down. The city, get your water truck out, keep the dust down. So there's no real simple answer to me," Erickson said.
Compounding the problem is unusually dry weather. Rick Thoman, Climate Specialist with the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy, said the record books will remember June for being rainy, but a deeper dive would reveal the rain came in just a few days.
“That's really deceiving. Since the middle of June, it has been well below normal rainfall, and hence the dust,” Thoman explained.
Thoman said three weeks from mid-June through the first week of July saw an average temperature of 56.9 degrees. That’s the warmest three weeks Nome has seen since 2019.
“The warm weather that we've had since the middle of June certainly exacerbates that in that it's warmer, so that, you know, the water that's there in the road surface evaporates more quickly,” Thoman said.
Healthcare officials are ringing the alarm bells too. Each summer, Norton Sound Health Corporation’s Office of Environmental Health runs a dust awareness campaign. The office’s acting Director, Alicia Reitz, said the department is carefully monitoring the dust for health risks.
“Of course, there's cancers associated with poor air quality,” Reitz said. “As far as acute symptoms go, that's probably going to show up mostly with people who already have asthma, other lung conditions or are immunocompromised.”
With support from national non-profit Direct Relief, Norton Sound has N95 masks available to regional residents at no cost. The masks are located in Nome at the main hospital building or in villages at clinics.
Reitz said controlling the dust from dry gravel and dirt roads is a constant challenge, but if drivers keep their speed down, the dust will stay down too.
