The Northwest Arctic and North Slope boroughs passed a joint resolution earlier this month supporting the Ambler Road Project. If completed, the road would span more than 211 miles, from the Dalton Highway west to a mining region just south of the Brooks Range.
But many residents of the Northwest Arctic say their voices are not being heard.
Ruth Iten is one of them. Last month, she traveled up the Kobuk River by dog sled, going door-to-door collecting signatures for Protect the Kobuk, a newly formed grassroots organization opposed to the road.
“I don’t know if the people who did the voting, did they ask people in their communities?” Iten said. “Did they really go out and try? I mean, I was hitting the streets.”
Iten has lived in several Northwest Arctic villages, over more than four decades. Last week, she was in Washington D.C. visiting with Rep. Mary Peltola to express concerns over what Iten said is a misrepresentation of the region’s support for the proposed road.
“The Northwest Arctic region is not united in support of the Ambler road,” Iten said.
10 years of contention
The proposed Ambler Road project has been a source of controversy for more than a decade now. The road would pass through the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve on its way to the Ambler Mining District, an area with large deposits of copper, zinc and other strategic metals.
Supporters say access to the mining region will provide economic opportunities and generate tax revenue for rural residents already struggling with a high cost of living. Opponents cite fears about harm to subsistence food sources and caribou herds, as well as other changes the proposed road could bring.
Local buy-in has been a problem for the project before. The Bureau of Land Management’s initial environmental review was suspended, in part because of a lack of public engagement and tribal consultation. Failures to properly analyze cultural and subsistence impacts were also cited supporting the document’s initial suspension.
Now, the project is awaiting approval of a revised version — called a supplemental Environmental Impact Statement.
Advocates worry that this statement will be marred by lack of public input too.
“The comments I got from someone here in Kotzebue was ‘I don't think people really want to hear what we have to say,’' said Iten. “Then in the villages, another comment I got was ‘I've never been asked about this before.’”
The two boroughs met in Anchorage earlier this month to encourage a speedy process for the supplemental impact statement. Representatives from the Northwest Arctic Borough said they tried to set up a meeting in Kotzebue, but couldn’t make it work due to time constraints. They said there were call-in numbers for the Anchorage meeting, but that those lines “may have been tied up at the time.”
Caribou concerns
China Kantner grew up between Kotzebue and Paungaqtaugruk, about 30 miles downriver from the village of Ambler. She spoke at Tuesday’s Northwest Arctic Borough Assembly meeting. Like Iten, she has been visiting villages in the region to hear from the people who live there.
“People that we have talked to want to protect their subsistence way of life, protect their families from violence against women, protect their communities from drugs and alcohol that may be brought in on the road,” Kantner said. “But that resolution voted on in Anchorage assumes that mega-development and subsistence can coexist.”
Kantner also represents Protect the Kobuk. The group formed this winter and already has 500 followers on Facebook. Kantner says that in four weeks, her group has collected over 230 signatures, from members of every tribe in the region.
Kantner says many of the people she spoke with are worried about caribou. The Western Arctic herd, which passes through the region, was one of the largest in the world, but its population has declined by almost 300,000 in just two decades.
Opponents fear the effect large-scale mining operations could have on the fragile caribou population.
“One of the most common concerns was the potential effect of the road on the caribou migration,” Kantner said
The borough’s response
Nathan Hadley Jr. is the president of the Northwest Arctic Borough Assembly. He supports the road as a potential economic engine. The borough gets most of its money from taxes on the Red Dog Mine – an open-pit lead and zinc mine 80 miles north of Kotzebue – which could run out of ore in less than 10 years unless it’s expanded.
Teck, the Canadian company that owns Red Dog, has an agreement with the borough that has supplied millions to pay for borough schools and other services.
Some, like Hadley, fear for how the region will support itself in the near future.
“The borough provides a lot of services to the villages,” Hadley said. “Without this payment in lieu of taxes, like for example, the Red Dog mine, the Borough wouldn't be able to provide services that the borough's providing.”
Hadley grew up and represents the small community of Buckland, a village of around 400 people 75 miles southeast of Kotzebue. He says the borough is in support of responsible development in the region, in part, because of some of the challenges rural residents face.
“Many people in our villages have to choose what bill they're gonna be behind on,” Hadley said.
The Bureau of Land Management will be in the Northwest Arctic Region this week consulting with tribes as the feds decide whether to approve the project’s new environmental analysis.
