Last month the proposed road to the Ambler Mining District joined the team of mega-development zombies staggering around the state, desperately clutching for neglected wads of appropriated state dollars. The road project had been dead for nearly a year, and before that it had languished between the state Department of Transportation and the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority who paid consultants millions of dollars to keep Parnell's ill-conceived "road to (a Canadian mining company's) resources" alive, with no progress or economic justification. Despite this, Gov. Walker released $3.6 million for the project last month with a press release that stated, "This clarification allows the project to progress to a natural stopping point instead of stalled mid-step."
The project is at a perfect stopping point right now -- before the right-of-way application is submitted which will trigger the formal (and expensive) environmental review process and a need for additional millions from the state.
The governor plans to complete only the first, preliminary step of an Environmental Impact Statement: scoping. Scoping is intended to gather public input on what project impacts and alternatives the EIS should evaluate. Why even start the EIS, when there is not a plan, or enough money, to complete it? Construction cost estimates for the road have been between $190 million for a single-lane pioneer road (that would eventually need to be expanded for the volume of mine traffic) and $2 billion for a railroad from Nenana.
Why the governor's sudden change of heart? Right now the difference of $6 million in state spending could keep the doors on 58 schools open. AIDEA could be funding infrastructure for Alaskans, rather than foreign companies. Many villages in the ill-conceived Ambler road corridor's region are still without sewer and water. AIDEA's motto is "investing in Alaskans," and Gov. Walker should encourage projects that do so.
Instead, the main benefactor of the $3.6 million and the road is Canada's NovaCopper, whose CEO Rick van Nieuwenhuyse has lobbied hard for the state to build a road 220 miles long, over 15 major rivers, to NovaCopper's mining claims. NovaCopper wants AIDEA to fund the road, a road AIDEA firmly states will never be open for Alaskans' public use.
NovaCopper's CEO has had some tough luck with mining proposals in the past: He led development of the Rock Creek Mine in Nome. The state built a 3-mile "road to resources" for that mine and the city supplied electricity. After being given "expedited review" with no EIS, the mine operated only 2 months before being shut down. The water management system failed and conditions on permits were not met, resulting in one of the biggest Clean Water Act fines ever assessed in the Northwest at the time. The buildings and equipment are currently being dismantled and sold off by Bering Strait Native Corp., which took over reclamation.
The Rock Creek Mine failure followed van Niewenhuyse's proposal in Canada at Galore Creek. Years of exploration were halted immediately after revealing a startup cost over $2 billion more than originally revealed to shareholders. Allegations of securities fraud resulted in a $26 million class action settlement.
Two years of meetings with AIDEA in the villages along the proposed road route have been strained as questions go unanswered. Will the proposed gravel road be 15 or 20 feet high? How long will it be closed to the public? How will asbestos dust be contained along the road? Why is AIDEA building a road for a Canadian mining company with so many failures in its past? How will the road go through Evansville Inc. land when they are united against it? What about investing in Alaska villages instead?
The state of Alaska is currently unable to fund its own government with oil revenue so low the governor is proposing to turn the Alaska Permanent Fund over to the government as an endowment. Certainly the financial health and well-being of Alaskans should come before the corporate welfare of a Canadian company that is not going to help the state's fiscal situation.
Spending millions of state dollars on preliminary EIS scoping in order to bring the Ambler Road proposal to a "natural stopping point" makes no sense. It is time to stop enabling these zombie megaprojects and kill them once and for all.
John Gaedeke is a second-generation Brooks Range guide raised at his family's Iniakuk Lake Lodge in the heart of the central Brooks Range. He is also chairman of the Brooks Range Council, a group dedicated to defending the Brooks Range and its clean land and water.
The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary@alaskadispatch.com.