The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, or AIDEA, is continuing outreach to Interior communities near the proposed route of an industrial road to a controversial mining district in Ambler, but some communities along the route have voiced opposition and now one has declared its land off limits.
Karsten Rodvik, AIDEA’s head of external affairs, said the meetings are part of the state’s effort to get input on the 200-mile road before starting work on the Environmental Impact Statement, or EIS. Meetings last week were held in Bettles & Evansville, Allakaket and Alatna, Hughes, and Huslia. AIDEA has had to push back filing for permits to begin EIS work for several months, but Rodvik said it won’t be long now.
“With the inclusion of the meetings we’re holding in the Koyukuk River communities this week, I believe we’ve held roughly 35 community meetings,” Rodvick said. “Right now we are securing the services of a third party contractor, and we expect to have the permit application prepared and filed with the appropriate federal agency by this fall.”
But AIDEA’s proposed route to the 75-mile mineralization mining prospect near Ambler faces new complications in the wake of a declaration in July by Evansville Incorporated. The ANCSA Corporation owns a stretch of land along the road’s proposed route, and the resolution signed last month declared that the Evansville board of directors is “opposing construction of any portion of the proposed Ambler Mining Road” on their land.
“We of course respect their right to express their opinion and state their case in their resolution,” Rodvik said of the decision. “We are reaching out to Evansville, Inc. to follow up on the concerns they noted, and we of course are investigating potential routes north and south of the area they noted.”
Bettles Mayor Gary Hanchett, close by to Evansville, was at the Aug. 18 meeting with AIDEA. He alleged that, by “reaching out” to its critics, AIDEA is ignoring what they’ve already said.
“They said they were working with Evansville on this, and of course that only aggravated people,” Hancett said. “And they gave us the attitude, that ‘well, this is not really gonna stand, they’ll change their minds, and it’s only temporary.'”
“That was astounding,” Hanchett said. “That cavalier way is not received well by anybody.”
Hanchett said, for himself and others opposing the road, the promise of jobs and mineral development is short term, and not worth the long-term costs.
“We just don’t see it that way. Just the opposite. Progress for us is to stop exploiting the land,” Hanchett said.
Hanchett admitted there are residents in his community of Bettles, in nearby Evansville, and in other Interior communities who support the road project as it moves towards the EIS phase. But he said that does not obviate the formal opposition coming from tribal and corporate entities in the region. Monday’s presentations, Hanchett charged, were almost identical to the slideshows and speeches he and others saw in Kotzebue back in June. Hanchett said the meetings are beginning to feel increasingly repetitive.
“Quite frankly there’s a number of people who feel they’re wasting their time, and they’re really aggravated. They see it as arrogance on AIDEA’s part to keep pushing this thing, when they know they’re not wanted.”
