The oil pipeline is drying up and the gas pipeline is more than a decade away from being operational.

So what does that mean for the state in the meantime?

Experts agree Alaska has vast untapped resources; but it's hard to get at them for development. Some aren't waiting around for a natural gas pipeline. They want to figure out how to get those resources to the world market by sea.

When outsiders think of Alaska, they think mountains, wide open spaces and wildlife. But many say those things aren't enough to bring the state into the future. They worry if we don't develop our resources, Alaska could soon become obsolete.

"We don't have a state. We'd have no opportunity. And we would have a brain drain. People would have to leave, and our economy would collapse. You can't live off of a dividend check, and that is what we are leading up to right now," said Representative Don Young (R), Alaska.

The problem is: most of our natural resources and minerals are above the Arctic Circle.

"The reason they are

still there is they are not what we call accessible," said Young.

The Trans-Alaska Pipeline was created to make North Slope oil accessible to world by the only means possible at the time: land.
Now, there could soon be a new way: the sea.

With global warming melting sea ice in the north, the ocean corridors are opening up.

"It reassess what you need- the capability- and that's ports and infrastructure," said Colonel Kevin Wilson of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

More ports mean more sea traffic. Add that with off shore oil drilling, and some worry it could be a recipe for another aquatic disaster.

"With the increased traffic, the probability of more ship accidents and ship disasters are more prevalent," said Wilson.

"Yeah there is revenue, but it's scary because we live off the land and the ocean. And it's something that we don't know enough about. Therefore, we have to be afraid," said Mayor of Northwest Arctic Borough Siikauraq Whiting.

For the Native people of the north, development could mean a lower cost of living and more jobs. But development also increases the risk that the environment and the subsistence way of life will suffer.

"My mom always said, 'You have a dollar, and you have a fish. You can eat your fish and it will sustain you; and the dollar is just a dollar.' We have to make sure that we are able to balance the two," said Whiting.

Finding that balance will be the hard part.

Local, state and federal agencies all agree:
No one organization can bring Alaska into the future alone.

It'll take a partnership to develop our resources and still preserve the Alaskan way of life.

The Ports and Harbors Conference delegates will head back to their communities to continue the discussion about how the state's waterways will play into Alaska's future.

To contact Andrea, call 907-273-3186.