Fast Tracking Johnson Tract
— Satchel Pondolfino
How do we fight a gold mine during the next administration? We pay attention and keep a watchful eye out for corner cutting, we build our case for inevitable litigation, and we keep repeating the truth: Alaska does not need more gold mines. We don’t need them in Bristol Bay, in the Kuskokwim, or on the West Side of Cook Inlet. Gold is a non-critical mineral, mining it reaps little community benefit. Clean water and healthy habitat are not worth sacrificing in the name of jewelry, gold bars to fill Canadian banks, or wealth accumulation for multi-billion dollar corporations.
In last month’s print newsletter, we brought your attention to the Johnson Tract, the proposed gold mine that would operate inside Lake Clark National Park at the base of Mount Iliamna and the headwaters of Johnson River. This area on the West Side of Cook Inlet is rich in salmon and bear habitat. Recent growing concern over the area is amplifying the sentiments long held by local land and lodge owners: the ecological value of this place is too important to industrialize over.
This month the Native Village of Chickaloon passed a resolution opposing the mine, citing both cultural and ecological devastation the mine would bring. In a recent meeting with the Environment Committee at the Kenaitze Tribe, committee members expressed serious concerns about the mine’s impact on the practice of subsistence clamming near Tuxedni Bay. And earlier this year NOAA identified Tuxedni Bay as the most important winter habitat to the critically endangered Cook Inlet Beluga Whale.
Yet, as these concerns grow, just this month the Department of Interior and National Park Service canceled a public comment period on their draft resource analysis assessing a proposed easement for the haul road and port facility. The mine would use this infrastructure to transport ore through Lake Clark National Park & Preserve to Tuxedni Bay, where a deep water port would be constructed and the ore shipped out for processing. The blatant lack of public process, though legal in this particular case, is a clear indicator of what’s to come: an insider game of strong-arming to pressure regulators into rubber stamp permits as quickly as possible.
As we transition to the new administration, we know there will be less fair actors to count on within the regulatory agencies. Even so, as Johnson Tract moves through the permitting process, building the public record of opposition is vital to build our case for future challenges in court. Stay watchful, there will be opportunities to voice our opposition. The judicial system will always be a backstop, and Inletkeeper has a long history of utilizing this tool with great success.