By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce

A proposed land exchange to allow for construction of a road connecting an isolated community on the Alaska Peninsula with a nearby city airport is moving slowly through Congress, with proponents and opponents fighting every inch of the way.

“I'm sweating bullets to try and make this work,” said Bob Juettner, administrator for the Aleutians East Borough, which represents Akutan, Cold Bay, False Pass, King Cove, Nelson Lagoon and Sand Point.

Juettner spoke by telephone April 23 in the aftermath of a mark-up of the Izembek Enhancement Act before the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee in Washington, D.C.

The legislation still faces approval by the full House and Senate.

Juettner and others from the Aleutians East Borough have been trying for several years to negotiate a land swap. The proposed deal would give the state a seven-mile easement though the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge to complete a 25-mile stretch of gravel road to connect King Cove, population 800, with Cold Bay, population 87.

The King Cove road issue first came before Congress nine years ago. In 1998, a road plan between King Cove and the Cold Bay airport, located 25 miles away, was rejected after conservation groups opposed it.

Opponents, including the Wilderness Society, argue that the road would have far reaching impact on tens of thousands of the world's migratory birds that stop to rest, feed and nest at the refuge.

“Nearly the entire world population of Pacific black brant and Emperor geese rely on Izembek. So do Steller's eiders, tundra swans and dunlins,” the Wilderness Society said in a statement following the congressional session April 23.

The Izembek Enhancement Act would add 61,723 acres to the Izembek and Alaska Peninsula wildlife refuges. Of this new acreage, 45,493 acres would be designated as wilderness. Nearly 43,000 acres of this land would be transferred to refuges from the state of Alaska, with another 18,000-plus acres coming from the King Cove Corp., which was created under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

In exchange, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would transfer 206 acres for the road between King Cove and Cold Bay, with the road to be funded by the state.

Supporters of the project say completing the road is an issue of health and safety, so that King Cove residents could get to the Cold Bay all-weather airport for transport to Anchorage in case of medical emergencies.

Opponents, including several environmental organizations, say the whole thing just doesn't make sense.

King Cove residents see the road as a viable option to the hovercraft currently used as a transportation link between King Cove and the Cold Bay airport. The hovercraft has proven too expensive to operate on a steady basis, according to borough officials.

Congress approved millions of dollars in 1998 to provide for the hovercraft and access at both ends of the route, but financially the plan hasn't panned out, Juettner said. The whole proposition that a community can operate a regular vessel service with a population of less than 1,000 people doesn't make sense financially, he said.

David Raskin, who lives in Homer and is a representative of Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges, scoffs at the idea that the hovercraft is uneconomical.

“They have done everything they can to make it not economical,” he said.

Raskin also argues that the road would be no solution, “because it would be a minimum of a two-hour trip in the best of weather, and most of the time out there, especially in winter, it would be the worst of weather, and the road would be totally impassible.”

Cold Bay Mayor John Maxwell also scoffs at the idea of a road.

“They don't want the road primarily for health and safety reasons; they want it for entertainment, to drive on,” he said.

The most reliable solution would be a 45-foot sport fishing boat that could make the trip in an hour, he said.

Maxwell, a longtime employee of the Federal Aviation Administration in Cold Bay, said he walks a little over a half-mile to work on stormy winter days.

“You can't drive in it,” he said. While snow drifts average three to four feet, they can get as deep as 15 feet to 20 feet deep, he said.

Not so, said Juettner. “If the state can keep the road open on the Dalton Highway and through Thompson Pass, then they should be able to keep the state road open (between King Cove and Cold Bay). It is a safe and dependable access need. People need to be able to get from one place to another and not just for medical reasons.”

Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com.