Energy & Mining

Tribes near Ketchikan submitted evidence Jan. 30 to the Canadian and British Columbia governments that they hope will give them a voice in transboundary mining discussions.

The tribes say the evidence proves they’ve had a historical presence along the Unuk River, which runs through the border.

Southeast Alaska tribes have long demanded a seat at the table in how Canada manages mining projects that affect lands and waters across its border.

On January 30, a coalition of the Lingít, Haida and Tsimshian Tribal governments submitted testimonial evidence to protect the Unuk River, one of their river watersheds. The tribal group fears the watershed could be damaged by a proposed open-pit gold mine on the other side of the border.

The coalition is called the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission (SEITC) and represents 15 tribes and tribal groups in Alaska and Canada.

“The border that transects these transboundary rivers is a completely false construct. Nothing in nature respects that line on the map – the water, the salmon, the people, the wildlife, nothing respects that. What happens in the upper reaches of these trans boundary rivers will impact our tribes, our communities, and our tribal citizens,” said Guy Archibald, SEITC’s executive director.

The evidence submitted by the commission, which includes personal testimony from tribal members of Metlakatla and other communities along the border, is meant to demonstrate the Lingit people’s historic presence along the Unuk River. The river, northeast of Ketchikan, is an established wild salmon habitat and holds cultural significance to Alaska Natives. And the tribal governments say it is under threat from Eskay Creek Mine, a silver and gold mining project proposed upriver in British Columbia,.

Essentially, the tribes are alleging that unregulated mining across the border in Canada is conflicting with the tribe’s obligation to protect traditional lands for future generations.

Tazia W’ally Sthaathi Ta Wagner, a member of the Wolf Clan in Metlakatla, testified that she grew up harvesting hooligan, moose and king salmon on the Unuk and plans to protect that cultural right.

“I would love to see us do another community harvest on the Unuk River again and see those bright smiles on everyone’s faces one more time. And to bring hooligan again to our elders, that is what I would really love to happen in the future, for generations to come,” she said.

Skeena Resources, Ltd., the Vancouver-based mining company in charge of the mining proposal, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Earthjustice, the organization representing the tribal commission, has also brought a case against the Canadian government alleging that their refusal to consult with Alaska Native Tribes on large-scale mining development is an international human rights violation. The claim was recently recognized by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

“This isn’t a new right. I mean, these are rights that go back millennia,” said Earthjustice attorney Ramin Pejan. “The ownership of the Unuk River and the territory and the use of that river is integral to their culture, to their subsistence. It goes back thousands of years before these borders were in place.”

Pejan said the goal is to capitalize on recent Canadian legal precedent to get the country to consult with Alaska tribes properly – the way they would for tribes protected under the Constitution in Canada. Something that Guy Archibald said felt hopeless a few years ago – even from the state of Alaska.

“Alaska signed a [Memorandum of Understanding] with British Columbia to have a trans-boundary working group,” Archibald alleged. “They did that without any consent or consideration of the tribes. It’s bilateral. It’s between Alaska and BC. The tribes are not involved. And the state doesn’t share any of that information with us.”

Then, a door opened back in 2021. That door was the Desautel case – an Indigenous American citizen tried in Canada’s courts for killing an elk in British Columbia without a hunting license. The defendant lived on a reservation in Washington and argued that he was exercising his aboriginal right to hunt in the traditional territory of his ancestors. Archibald explained that the case forced the Canadian Supreme Court to ask a central question.

As Archibald put it, “Do Indigenous, non-resident people of Canada – people who live outside of Canada but have ties to traditional lands within Canada – have any rights to those lands? And the Supreme Court said ‘yes.’”

Pejan said that the Eskay Creek Mine case is the first case through that door opened by Desautel but it is by no means the biggest. It is dwarfed by the KSM Mine, a proposed project that would be one of the largest open-pit mines on the planet.

If the coalition succeeds, it would be the first time in history that a US-based tribe is granted “Participating Indigenous Nation” status in Canada. The country has never legally recognized US-based Indigenous peoples as stakeholders in the country’s policy decisions.

“You know, we keep hearing that these resources are so abundant. They’re just infinite. Like the buffalo?” Archibald, an environmental chemist by trade, complained, citing his past as a miner and what he calls “the standard mining company line.” “And on and on. And then we keep making the same mistake over and over and over again.”

For Archibald, the chances to make mistakes are running out.

“Alaska is the last stand,” he said. “These transboundary rivers are the last undeveloped salmon spawning rivers left in North America. If we don’t get it right here, then we’ve run the table. There is no place further to go. So this is the place to make the stand.”

ConocoPhillips has already begun to develop its Willow oil leases in the western Arctic, but environmental organizations and a group of Inupiat people opposed to the project are still trying to stop it.

Attorneys for both groups of opponents argued at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that the federal agencies made mistakes when they approved the project.

Earthjustice attorney Erik Grafe argued that the government should have fully considered lower-impact options. Instead, Grafe said, the agency clung to the idea that it had to allow development on the whole field, and only at the end chose to trim the proposal slightly.

“The decision that they reached was constrained by the lack of alternatives they looked at,” he said.

The groups also claim the agencies didn’t adequately consider the climate impact Willow would have on the region’s polar bears and other animals listed under the Endangered Species Act.

The government’s attorney, Amy Collier, said experts at the agencies did consider that an increase in greenhouse gas emissions would cause the Arctic to lose sea ice, which the region’s polar bears depend on. But, she said, the link wasn’t direct. They didn’t have evidence that the specific emissions resulting from the Willow project would shrink sea ice in this part of the Arctic, hurting this particular population of polar bears.

Willow has become a flashpoint for climate activists and others who say President Biden’s approval of it is incompatible with his climate goals. It’s the largest new project on federal land anywhere in the country and would produce 180,000 barrels a day.

ConocoPhillips Attorney Jason Morgan said the Bureau of Land Management’s approval of Willow was the logical result after years of careful planning and study.

“So how could BLM then come back and say: ‘I know we’ve zoned it open to surface development. I know we’ve issued you leases and charged you millions of dollars for these leases. But we’re not going to allow you to develop this area, even though your proposal complies with all of the stipulations,’?” he said.

Willow has broad support from tribal and government leaders on the North Slope. The region is projected to reap billions of dollars in revenue sharing and local taxes over 30 years

The U.S. Forest Service will issue a final proposal on Friday to allow Hecla Greens Creek Mine to expand their waste storage facility and continue operations for 12 to 18 more years. 

Greens Creek is the nation’s largest silver producer and one of Juneau’s largest employers, with about 500 employees. The mine’s existing tailings facility on Admiralty Island stores ground rock and other waste leftover from the mining of silver, gold, lead and zinc. But that facility could run out of space as soon as next year. 

If approved, the Forest Service’s new proposal would allow an additional 5 million cubic yards of waste storage — the equivalent of about 1,500 Olympic-sized swimming pools — along with the construction of a new road at the mine. 

The proposed expansion, which will develop an additional 2.3 acres of land, is the most conservative alternative that the Forest Service considered. Two other proposals would have disturbed even more land, but extended the life of the mine by up to 28 years or 40 years.

This is the mine’s third expansion of its waste storage facility since it opened in 1989. 

Because the mine operates within Admiralty Island National Monument, it must go through a strict environmental review process. The Forest Service’s proposal is accompanied by a supplemental environmental impact statement, which attempts to address some of the public feedback that has been collected since Greens Creek proposed the latest expansion nearly four years ago. 

One of the primary concerns from environmentalists this time around focused on contamination linked to “fugitive dust,” or fine particles of ground rock laced with toxic metals like lead. They called for more measures to prevent that dust from blowing out of the tailings facility and into the environment. 

Forest service geologist and project manager Matthew Reece says the agency has collaborated with the mine on a fugitive dust mitigation and monitoring plan that attempts to address public concern. 

“We heard pretty loud and clear from the public during that process that they would like to see that plan,” Reece said. “Apart from that there were a lot of requests about additional biological monitoring and some additional water quality monitoring. So we’ve included a number of additional mitigations.”

The project will be constructed in two phases to allow for the additional monitoring. After phase one is completed, nearby creeks and lichen will be tested for fugitive dust contamination before the second phase of construction proceeds. 

And additional water quality and biomonitoring sites will be added to keep track of potential fugitive dust contamination after the expansion project is complete. 

This summer, the mine was fined $143,000 for violations of hazardous waste management protocols from 2019. Some of those violations had to do with lead contamination, when lead dust seeped out of a poorly sealed storage building and lead contaminated mining tools were disposed of in the tailings facility. 

If the expansion of the waste facility moves forward, the mine will also have to hire an independent review board of engineers to oversee its design, construction and operation.

But Reece said the proposal is not yet final. Its release marks the start of a 45 day-comment period, in which individuals or organizations that have previously commented on the project can submit their objections by mail, fax or electronically before March 19. 

Kensington Mine recently cut pay by 20% for all of its hourly employees hired before 2016, according to a memo obtained by KTOO.

The gold mine is owned by Coeur Alaska and is about 45 miles northwest of Juneau, near Berners Bay. It’s only accessible by air or water. 

In the memo, which was sent in early January, the mine’s general manager Steve Ball wrote that the amount of pay that would be cut beginning on Jan. 21 was originally offered as a premium, and it was not supposed to last forever. The memo said the premium was introduced back in 2016 as “short-term financial relief.”

The memo said that, moving forward, all hourly employees would be paid the same amount for the same job, regardless of their hire date. 

Kensington began commercial production in 2010. Now, with about 400 employees, the company is the second largest private employer in the City and Borough of Juneau.

The company did not answer KTOO’s questions about how many employees would be affected and what financial impact the premium has had on the mine. Rochelle Lindley, the mine’s community and government affairs manager, provided a statement from the company saying it does not comment on employee compensation matters.

According to Ball’s memo, the mine’s mill grade and overall production have dropped almost 20% over the past three years, and labor costs per employee have increased 7% in the same period. He wrote that the mine is not in a financial position to continue the premium and will struggle to remain viable long-term if it does not find ways to reduce costs.

 In 2022, the U.S. Forest Service approved a controversial expansion of the mine’s operations, which extends the life of the gold mine for at least another 10 years. 

If you are a Kensington Mine employee affected by the cut, you can reach reporter Clarise Larson here. 

Cold weather has caused surging demand for natural gas in Southcentral recently and problems for the region’s gas utility, Enstar.

The Northern Journal reports that, as the cold in mid-January prompted gas-burning furnaces across the region to run more frequently, Enstar experienced an equipment failure that caused it to reduce output from a gas storage reservoir. And that created questions around whether Enstar would have to take special measures to meet the increased demand, including the possibility that customers would be asked to turn down their thermostats.

Temperatures in the region have dipped again, down to 15 below Thursday in parts of Anchorage and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, and are expected to drop further.

Northern Journal reporter Nat Herz has been following the issue and explains that the focus continues to be on the availability of gas from a storage reservoir.

Listen:

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Nat Herz: So right now, to keep ourselves warm and to generate our electricity in Southcentral Alaska, we are relying on gas coming directly out of wells in Cook Inlet. And we are also significantly relying on gas coming out of this natural gas storage facility operated by Enstar. I think about roughly half of the gas that we’re using right now is supposed to be coming out of this storage facility. However, as this cold snap got underway and they started pumping the bejesus out of this reservoir, all of a sudden, they started experiencing some problems. And in fact, I think at least one, if not two, of the wells started producing, not just gas, but sand. And your boiler does not run on sand. So because of these technical problems, it’s making it hard to flow out all the gas from Cook Inlet that we need to heat our homes and our businesses and run our power plants.

Casey Grove: And I think you noted in the story that you had at Northern Journal that this is connected to that larger looming shortfall that we’ve been hearing about, that people are talking about importing liquefied natural gas to meet demand in the future.

But this is happening right now. And, you know, I think we heard in those discussions that the average homeowner doesn’t need to worry about their house running out of gas. But maybe we do now? I mean, is that something I should be concerned about, as an Anchorage resident or, you know, a resident of Southcentral, that my house is just gonna be cold one day?

Nat Herz: I think it’s pretty clear that no one is going to, like, have their gas all of a sudden abruptly shut off. And I don’t think that’s what anyone has to worry about. I think there’s the potential… like this Cook Inlet gas storage facility right now is only able to produce about two-thirds of the gas that it is supposed to be able to produce at one time, because of the problems with these wells.

If that gets worse, or if the demand increases, because of the really intense cold snap, that’s where you might start, I think, to hear from both policymakers and from electricity producers and from gas providers, “OK, now we need to start talking about demand, and can people please turn their thermostats down to 60 degrees from 65?” And, you know, who knows how far that might have to go. But I think like those are the next sort of steps and things you might be hearing about.

Casey Grove: And I guess, with electricity generation in particular, toO, there’s like this patchwork of different interties that either, we don’t feed as much electricity somewhere else, or we could potentially bring, you know, power generation from other places to us, right?

Nat Herz: Yeah, so, for example, in Southcentral Alaska we have a number of different utilities that have a number of different types of power plants. And the most efficient that we have, on a sort of fossil fuel basis is, is these natural gas plants. But in Fairbanks, they do have the option to, instead of buying cheaper power that’s produced at Southcentral natural gas plants, they can actually stop using that natural gas power and burn, I think it’s like naphtha, or they also even have the option to go to diesel in the Mat-Su Borough with their electric utility. So there are ways that we can adapt.

Casey Grove: Do they also burn coal up in Fairbanks, too, though?

Nat Herz: Yeah.

Casey Grove: You mentioned the conversation around renewables. And it sounds like some folks in the utilities don’t think that that is a viable option for dealing with potential shortages, right?

Nat Herz: It’s a tricky conversation. I mean, this conversation started because the president of Enstar, John Sims, went to a public meeting last week and, unsolicited, made this comment about how we’re, you know, struggling to meet demand. “And you know what, wind and solar aren’t coming to the rescue,” (he said). And it was a little bit of a head scratcher. Like, this actually isn’t really relevant. It’s not like we have that stuff and it’s not working. And in fact, you look out and you see it the wind turbines spinning at Fire Island. Like that helps the cause.

I talked to Sims about this afterwards, and what he was saying is basically like, “You can’t count on that stuff on a day like this, like you can on a, you know, fuel like natural gas or oil.” His argument is, “Maybe we need to be thinking about that sort of base load reliable power that we can layer these other forms of renewables on top of.

I ran these comments past some of the advocates that we’ve been hearing from about the need to transition to renewable power, and they really are basically saying, “Enstar is kind of trying to rally the troops here, because their business model — Enstar is a privately owned company — their business model depends on people continuing to buy natural gas.” There’s going to have to almost certainly be liquefied natural gas imported, because we’re not going to be able to meet demand with Cook Inlet gas. And when that happens, it’s going to cost a lot of money to build the infrastructure that we need and to bring the cargoes in.

And in fact, there was recently a study that came out — a major, like, $1 million study from the University of (Alaska) Fairbanks that actually said the cost of putting in all of these renewables and all the battery storage that you’d need to make the grid resilient enough, is pretty much on par with what it would cost us to continue buying fuel for these natural gas plants. And I think there is a pretty compelling argument that if the costs are the same, why wouldn’t we want to set ourselves up to kind of generate our power locally rather than be sort of subject to the whims of these like global markets for petroleum products?

 

Alaska’s sole U.S. representative, Mary Peltola, visited Juneau over the weekend as part of a series of meet-and-greets she hosted across the state to kick off her reelection campaign. 

Peltola, a Democrat, spoke with KTOO about her first term, why she thinks FEMA needs an overhaul, and more.

Listen:

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Mary Peltola: One of the things I’m very proud of is the work that my office has done in really leading the charge to convince the FTC not to approve the mega merger between Albertsons and Kroger. This really will affect every Alaskan household. Even if you’re in the bush, this will affect you. …

And of course, working on Willow. Willow is something that our leaders have been working on in Alaska for over a decade. And I am proud of the fact that I helped bring it across the finish line. I was the one who worked with the leadership in my caucus, to really insist that Joe Biden meet with us. That was not a sure thing. And it was really a coup that we were able to get a meeting with him and John Podesta and two of his other staff. And the senators and I made very compelling cases. And I do feel like I singularly did push that forward. …

One other thing I’m really proud of is the executive order that came out a few weeks ago, banning illegal Russian trawling, where they’re poaching our salmon, and marketing them through China using slave labor, Uyghur labor, driving down our prices. And that will affect fishermen in Southeast tremendously. If we can get those fish prices back up where they need to be, we can keep fishing. We can have fishing families that can continue to fish and make a profit. 

Clarise Larson: The Alaska House Judiciary Committee advanced a bill earlier this month that would repeal ranked choice voting and open primaries. There’s also a group hoping to put the repeal question on the 2024 ballot. How has ranked choice voting shaped your campaigns, and what are your thoughts on these repeal attempts? 

Mary Peltola: You know, a lot of people projected onto me that I was polite and didn’t slam other people because of ranked choice voting. That is like muscle memory for me. The 10 years that I worked in the legislature, that was a real take-home lesson that I learned, that you need to have 59 best friends if you want to get anything done. And I really have that just built into my habits, so that was natural. And it worked well for ranked choice voting. And I think that Americans and Alaskans want more civility and more middle-road candidates. It’s really interesting to me to hear very, very conservative people blasting ranked choice voting, because with ranked choice voting, we also elected the most conservative governor in the United States, Mike Dunleavy. … I do hope that other states look at this and see the success that it has brought, and it is not a complicated system. It’s very, very simple. And I’m very optimistic that ranked choice voting can help bring more middle of the road candidates forward who will put their names forward and work in a more collaborative way. 

Clarise Larson: In Southeast and across Alaska, we’re seeing an increasing number of disasters that could be made more common or severe by climate change. What role can you play in helping Alaskans better prepare for that future? 

Mary Peltola: FEMA needs a systemic overhaul. They were designed to accommodate six natural disasters a year. I believe last year, we had about 28. The size and scope of our natural disasters have compounded so much, and FEMA hasn’t really kept up with that in terms of their systems. So that is something that long-term needs to be addressed, and I’ll be happy to work on. …

We have seen in Southeast Alaska three very concerning mudslides, one in Haines, one in Sitka, and one in Wrangell. I was able to go to Wrangell and see firsthand the impact of the slide, talk to one of the victims, an amazing woman who survived the slide. I was able to talk with folks from the municipality and people who are there rescuing that night. And one of the things that we need to be working on in Alaska is really partnering with universities to get things like soil stability samples, taking a much closer look at areas that are of concern in Wrangell. The folks there on the ground said that there were multiple other sites that they would have guessed would have had a mudslide before the site that had it. So even for the folks who’ve lived there all their lives or have families who’ve lived there their whole lives, it’s really hard to tell where these mudslides might happen. And it’s really important as Alaskans for us to start getting a better ability to predict where these are and get out of harm’s way before a disaster happens.

Clarise Larson: To a lot of Americans, Congress seems pretty dysfunctional, with very little getting passed. And it seems like national politics are about as far as they could get from the kinds of bipartisan models we’ve seen in Alaska politics. Do you have any hopes left for a more productive Congress or thoughts on how that could come about?

Mary Peltola: I’m always hopeful. And I do believe that Alaska has so much to teach the rest of the nation in terms of working collaboratively and working across party lines and setting partisanship to the side to solve our problems. Nowhere else in America are you going to see a tripartisan House Minority and a tripartisan House majority, and I think that that is so reflective of Alaska.