The discussion around the proposed Pebble Mine in Southwestern Alaska has primarily been focused on Bristol Bay. But the effect the project will have on Cook Inlet and Homer is still unclear. The Army Corps of Engineers is preparing an environmental impact statement analyzing the impacts of Pebble Limited Partnership’s proposal. They will gather input on what to include in the EIS from the public during several scoping sessions throughout April. Homer environmentalists want to make sure the Corps studies any potential implications for the Homer area.
Mike Heatwole is the spokesperson for the Pebble Limited Partnership and he said there are two major pieces of infrastructure that would likely affect Cook Inlet and Homer. One would be a nearly 190-mile natural gas pipeline that would stretch across the inlet in order to produce electricity for the Pebble Mine. The pipeline would start near Anchor Point along the Sterling Highway and run under Cook Inlet to Amakdedori in Kamishak Bay. It would then across Iliamna Lake on the Alaska Peninsula up to the mine site.
The other piece of infrastructure is a port facility at Amakdedori.
“Well it's mainly for us to be able to bring in the goods that we will need for the mine, a range of materials obviously to help us operate the mine,” Heatwole said. “So a port to receive those goods and then also for us to export.”
Heatwole estimates about 30 barge loads of goods will be brought into to the port facility from the northwest and roughly 24 loads of material would be shipped out to Asia per year.
But he couldn’t say whether Homer’s harbor would see more traffic as a result or what the potential impacts of increased barge traffic in the area might be.
“Hard to guesstimate although I think that would be a great issue that should be brought up during the scoping process is to evaluate that with greater detail in terms of the shipping traffic,” he said.
During the scoping process, the Corps decides what areas of concern to include in its environmental impact statement. This question of increased traffic is one of the many things that Cook Inletkeeper executive director Carly Weir said the environmentalist group wants to know more about.
“I think the process that the Corps has initiated has been very, very rushed, and there are not a lot of details available in their permit application. So we're trying to understand right now exactly what the scale of shipping increases would look like exactly—where shipping traffic and shipping lanes would likely occur,” she said.
Weir said more barges passing through Cook Inlet and increased activity in Homer’s harbor could have far-reaching implications for the economy and the environment.
“If we are faced with really turning the Homer harbor into a supply depot and really industrializing, I think that could potentially have a negative impact on the existing tourism businesses,” she said. “I mean, think of the kayaking operations that lead out of the Homer harbor. Think of all of the sightseeing planes that we've out of the Homer airport.”
Weir is also worried about the risk of diesel spills, the possible negative effects on wildlife and the large amount of proposed dredging for the port facility on the west side of Cook Inlet.
She is concerned too about the secondary effects of the additional infrastructure that some Homer residents might not even consider.
“So we would want to make sure that residents for example understand what this could potentially mean to their rates or their own security for natural gas supply. Because of course, natural gas is where most of our electricity is generated from the whole Railbelt region actually,” she said.
Residents in eight communities will have the opportunity to comment in person, although Gov. Bill Walker’s administration is asking for more time.
The Corps said Alaskans outside of those communities or those who can’t make the meetings can submit comments on its website. Residents attending some scoping meetings, including Homer, can expect to give their comments in written form rather than in a town-hall style forum.
The Corps said that’s in order to cut down on time, but that’s something that upsets Weir.
“Well public hearings are a really important part of the overall public process and it's not only because you get to share your own voice and your own concerns with the public agency but also so that you can hear what other concerns and what other people are saying and thinking about the project,” she said. “So we wanted to do that in advance of the hearing and make sure there is an opportunity for the community to learn from each other.”
Cook Inletkeeper is holding a community forum Friday in order to provide that public discourse. They will walk through the pebble permit as it stands now, talk about their concerns and listen to questions from the public. The Corps is hosting its scoping meeting at Homer High School on April 11 at 5:00 p.m.
