King Cove road bill advances in Senate

VICTORIA BARBER

September 19, 2008 at 2:01PM AKST

Federal legislation approved last week could lead to the construction of a road linking King Cove to an airport at Cold Bay.

Senate Bill 1680, sponsored by Sen. Lisa Murkowski and co-sponsored by Sen. Ted Stevens and Hawaii Democratic Sen. Daniel Akaka, authorizes a land exchange under which the State of Alaska and the King Cove Native Corp. would give the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service more than 61,000 acres. The U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee unanimously approved the bill Sept. 11.

In return, the State of Alaska would get 206 acres in the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge to build a road from King Cove to Cold Bay.

Similar legislation, House Bill 2801 authored by Rep. Don Young, has already passed the House Natural Resources Committee. However, neither bill yet been brought to the floor in the House or Senate for a vote.

Murkowski called the proposed exchange “more than fair.”

“Many residents of King Cove have been stranded in emergency situations, unable to access the airport just across the bay due to inclement weather,” Murkowski said.  “The proposed road through the refuge to the all-weather airport at Cold Bay would be narrow and unobtrusive.”

However, environmental groups are heavily opposed to the bill. A letter signed by 28 environmental organizations and sent to lawmakers said that the exchange is not worth the damage that the road’s proposed location, along a thin isthmus between two lagoons, could wreck on the exclusive feeding grounds of a variety of rare or threatened waterfowl, including the Pacific black brant and Steller’s eider.

Desiree Sorenson-Groves, vice president for government affairs for the National Wildlife Refuge Association, called the land swap a trade of “quantity for quality.”

After the Senate committee scheduled a hearing on the issue last April, staff members from committee Chairman Sen. Jeff Bingaman’s and Sen. Ron Wyden’s offices considered a number of management regulations and compromise language to incorporate into the bill.

That compromise includes prohibiting any kind of commercial use of the road. An environmental impact statement would have to be conducted before a road corridor could be built. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne would also have to determine that the land exchange and the road corridor are in the public interest.

That compromise language is unlikely to reassure environmental groups, who have expressed opposition to a road of any kind.

“At the end of the day, there’s a road going through that refuge,” said Sorenson-Groves.

This is not the first time the road proposal has been brought before the federal government. In 1998, a land exchange bill was introduced in Congress, but was unsuccessful due to environmental concerns.

As a compromise, Congress appropriated $37.5 million under the King Cove Health and Safety Act for improvements to the King Cove medical clinic and airport and to fund a marine transportation system link — a hovercraft —between the two cities.

“The problem we feel was solved in 1998 with the hovercraft, which has had a 100 percent success rate,” said Sorenson-Groves, in reference to the hovercraft’s successful medical evacuation of King Cove residents. “They can’t justify a road with their successful hovercraft.”

However, the City of King Cove has called the hovercraft too expensive to operate, saying that it has run a net annual deficit of more than $1 million and that mechanical problems and poor weather have combined to keep it out of service much more than anticipated.

As to the clinic, the city said that it was unable to attract doctors with the skill level needed to handle emergencies and life-threatening illnesses

Sorenson-Groves added that organizations such as the Refuge Association would be “hungry” to help King Cove find the money to keep the hovercraft in operation if it meant keeping a road from being built.

Murkowski’s communications director Michael Brumas said that it is uncertain whether the U.S. Senate will vote on the bill before the session ends. The majority leader sets the schedule for voting, but the Senate may break from the end of the month until after the November election.

Since the resulting bill differs from the bill passed by the House, the House Committee on Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the House Natural Resources Committee will have to resolve differences between the two before the bill can become law.

But for now, King Cove representatives are encouraged by what they see as progress in the right direction.

“We are giving up an unprecedented amount of valuable habitat land for a road corridor through the wilderness,” said Della Trumble, president of the King Cove Native Corp.

“But it’s worth it if we can protect the health and safety of residents who need to be medevaced out of the community,” Trumble said. “The Native people have proven to be good stewards while subsisting on this land for thousands of years. We will continue to protect this precious environment as we always have. This is a huge step forward.”

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