King Cove ‘optimistic’ about land swap for road easement

VICTORIA BARBER

April 25, 2008 at 10:54AM AKST

King Cove community and tribal leaders are cautiously optimistic after a hearing on Senate Bill 1680 on Tuesday, April 15, before the U.S. Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

"I feel that we had the more compelling arguments. Some of the questions were tough, but I feel that we came across as clarifying them very well," said Della Trumble, president of the King Cove Corp., who testified in Washington, D.C., on behalf of the Agdaagux Tribe.

"It was very more emotional than anything else, when I considered what people have through," Trumble said.

The Izembek and Alaska Peninsula Refuge and Wilderness Enhancement Act of 2007 would increase the size of the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge by more than 61,000 acres in exchange for a 206-acre easement for a single-lane gravel road running through seven miles of the park to connect King Cove to the airstrip of Cold Bay, 25 miles away.

At present, King Cove residents must travel by plane, boat or ferry to Cold Bay, a dangerous trip in gale-force winds and heavy fog.

Trumble said that 11 people have died flying between King Cove and Cold Bay since 1979, and that pregnant woman must relocate to Anchorage six to nine weeks before their due date for fear of premature labor or complications during unpredictable weather.

"My niece was born at sea on the galley table of a fishing vessel," said Trumble in her testimony at the hearing. "Her mother’s premature labor forced her to endure a dangerous, three-hour ocean voyage because of high winds and blizzard conditions."

The King Cove Corp. is calling the land exchange "a commonsense solution" to the King Cove access problem and an excellent deal for the federal government as well.

However, Stanley Senner, executive director of Audubon Alaska, said that no amount of acreage could compensate for the damage that a road would do to what he called "the ecological heart of the refuge."

"From the standpoint of migratory birds, especially, this relatively small area is unquestionably of global significance," said Senner in his testimony.

Senner said that while the site of the proposed road is small, it drives straight through the most critical and sensitive area of the refuge.

Waterfowl such as the brant, emperor goose and Steller’s eider are dependant on the eelgrass beds of the Izembek and Kinzaroff lagoons, which are close to the proposed route.

"The enormous productivity of eelgrass beds in Izembek Lagoon and other lagoon on the north side of the Alaska Peninsula is a key element in driving the productivity of the larger Bering Sea ecosystem," Senner said.

This is not the first time that King Cove and environmental groups have clashed before Congress. In 1998, a similar effort with less land was unsuccessfully proposed. As a compromise, Congress appropriated $37.5 million under the King Cove Health and Safety Act for improvements to the King Cove clinic, an airport and a hovercraft to transport residents between the two cities.

However, King Cove has found it difficult to attract appropriate medical personnel to man the clinic, and the cost of operating the hovercraft has proven prohibitive. Trumble said that the Aleutians East Borough is $832,000 out of pocket due to hovercraft, and she expects to see a complete shutdown of hovercraft operations soon.

When the federal government designated the land between King Cove and Cold Bay as wilderness, the people of King Cove were not consulted or informed. City Manager Gary Hennigh says that the land access issue is "an indigenous injustice done to the Aleuts of King Cove that needs to be addressed."

"Clearly it was a very positive day for us," Hennigh said. "Sen. (Lisa) Murkowski did a wonderful job ... and it showed that to the Audubon Society, birds and sports hunters are more important than the people who live in King Cove."

Trumble said that whatever the fate of bill 1680, the fight will continue for King Cove’s road.

"It’s still an uphill battle. This is never going away for us until we resolve it," Trumble said. "We’ve got to keep moving, there are kids that believe in this, it will never go away."

Victoria Barber can be reached at (907) 348-2424 or toll free at (800) 770-9830, ext. 424.