“Trident is building a 200,000 square foot facility,” Homka says.“When I say state-of-the-art, the facility’s air and water discharges will be clean.” The facility, situated along Captain’s Bay Road where the company literally flattened part of a mountain to make flat space, exemplifies the engineering determination required for development in Unalaska’s challenging topography. The project’s unprecedented scale requires substantial infrastructure upgrades, particularly in power generation. “They need 14 megawatts of power. We can currently produce about 12 in total, and we use an average of about eight during processing season,”notes Homka.This power demand alone requires rethinking the island’s entire energy infrastructure. Supporting this development, the city has planned a $70 million investment in the Captain’s Bay Road Corridor Improvement Project, addressing power lines, water and sewer lines, and road paving. While approximately 25% of funding has been secured through state and federal grants, the city continues seeking sources for the remaining $48 million. Market conditions and regulatory uncertainties have temporarily delayed Trident’s timeline. “They’ve delayed the project specifically because of things happening in the fishing industry market with Russia,” Homka explains. “There’s an oversupply of fish because they’re trying to flood the market, which affects our industry here.” For Unalaska, this represents the first major new industrial development in approximately 40 years, coinciding fortuitously with infrastructure lifecycle needs. “It’s a good scenario for us in some ways because it’s right when some of our infrastructure reaches the end of its life,” says Hernandez.“As we’re looking for future investments, we’re incorporating what’s coming to the island into our upgrades.” POWERING THE ISLAND’S FUTURE Unalaska faces a pivotal energy transition as it seeks to replace costly imported diesel with renewable PLACE HOLDER FOR OFFSHORE SYSTEMS INC Bronze Sponsor 85 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 06, ISSUE 05 UNALASKA, AK
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