By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce

Scientific reports commissioned by an environmental law firm in Anchorage conclude that critical salmon fisheries would never fully recover from impact of a proposed Chuitna coal strip mine.

The reports, written by scientists from Alaska and Maryland, concluded that PacRim Coal LP's plan to strip mine for coal directly through 11 miles of salmon-bearing streams would significantly damage local wetlands and headwater streams in the area 45 miles west of Anchorage, in an area known as the Beluga coal field. Restoration of those wetlands and streams that feed into the Chuitna River would be virtually impossible, they said.

"Copies of those reports have already been distributed to the state's large mine team, and we are going to take that information into account as we go through the permitting process," said Ed Fogels, director of the office of project management and permitting, which is involved in all large resource development projects within the state Department of Natural Resources.

Fogels said that his agency has not yet seen the final mine reclamation plans, nor the final mine design itself, "so we haven't started to really review what the impacts of that mine are going to be. Some of the mine design is still in flux and we will take that information (from the studies) into account as we go through the permitting process.

"The question is whether can they restore that piece of the salmon stream to its prior salmon productivity level, and if not, how close, and what would be the effect of that on the local watershed, " Fogels said. "Those are the kinds of things we will have to evaluate before deciding if this thing should go forward."

PacRim officials were not immediately available for comment.

Trustees for Alaska commissioned the reports for the Chuitna Citizens Coalition and Cook Inletkeeper.

The Chuitna proposal from PacRim LP, a Delaware-based corporation, if permitted, would result in the first strip mine in Alaska excavated directly through salmon spawning habitat, the Chuitna Citizens Coalition said in a statement.

The proposed project would be a surface coal mining and export development project for ultra low sulfur, sub bituminous coal, with a minimum 25-year mine life and production rate of up to 12 million tons of coal a year, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources notes on its website. The project is now in the advanced permitting stage, DNR officials said.

Commercial fishermen, subsistence users and local property owners opposed to the mine argue that it will contaminate the Chuitna River, which supports all five species of Alaska salmon, and destroy surrounding wetlands, wildlife habitat, tributaries and ruin traditional fishing grounds in Cook Inlet.

Authors of the three reports are Lance Trasky, a retired habitat biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game; Mark Wipfli, an associate professor of aquatic ecology and fisheries at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and Margaret A. Palmer, a professor and director of the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory at the University of Maryland.

On the web:

www.inletkeeper.org/energy/Chuitna90813.htm

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