About 40 people showed up for the Haines Borough Assembly meeting Thursday night, most of them seeking the same thing. They wanted to slow down the process of modifying the permit for mining exploration at the Palmer Project.
Residents felt the permit amendment was so different from the original project that it should be considered an entirely new project.
The meeting was moved from its regular Tuesday date to accommodate high school graduation. Despite many residents speaking in opposition, for about two hours, the vote failed, 2-4.
Haines resident Russell Kennedy was the first of about 32 speakers. He read into the record a letter signed by “170 and counting” Haines residents, addressed to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources and the Haines Borough Assembly.
“We Haines Borough residents are writing this letter to express our deep concerns regarding … the Hardrock application amendment within the Juneau Mining District, Glacier Creek, and the lack of time provided to evaluate the application and its implications to our community.”
The letter noted that the amendment seeks to extend the current mining footprint in Glacier Creek 3 miles downstream from the current project site. This will have “significant impact” on the community, the letter stated.
“Given the critical habitat and cultural importance of the area included in the permit amendment and the significant extent of proposed construction, seismic drilling and other exploratory hard rock mining activity included in the proposed amendment to the permit, we are requesting … a 90-day comment period, including public hearings in both Haines and Klukwan on this permit.”
This would ensure transparency and allow ample time for the public to weigh in, the letter stated. Also, the letter called on asking that Constantine submit a new permit request entirely.
“Not just an amendment, because the amendments proposed are significant changes to the project,” the letter stated.
The letter also noted that the amendment would call on driving equipment across Glacier Creek and Plateau Creek, which contain salmon habitat. This could destroy a vital source of food and income for many people in the area, including fishing and tourism, Kennedy said as he read the letter.
And the blasting would harm wildlife, many of which are raising their young during the summer.
“Many of us are here for the subsistence lifestyle. As members of the community, we have a vested interest in the health of our salmon, moose hunting, and our ability to recreate now that spring has arrived,” Kennedy read.
He ended by saying the two weeks given to comment on the application was not sufficient to go through a 100-page document, and called on the Assembly to support the request for an extension period.
Vanessa Caldarelli said she had lived in an area where coho salmon once were prevalent. Now they’re extinct at that location.
“I’m concerned about seismic blasting on the Klehini. I’m concerned about heavy drilling. I’m concerned about roads being built in areas where coho are spawning, and I’m concerned about the time frame that we were given to actually review this as a community,” she said.
Calderelli requested that the borough assembly call on the DNR to give more time. She also noted that two borough members, Jerry Lapp and Margarette Jones, work for Constantine and called on them to consider recusing themselves from the vote.
Lindsay Johnson said she works as a salmon troller. She urged the council to tread lightly on a proposal that would affect her lifestyle and 2,000 other people in the area.
“Please don’t let them tread on us,” she said.
Laurie Dadourian worried about the $13 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to repair a road to the mine. The road was allegedly damaged during the 2020 floods. She noted that the road gets flooded every year.
“The $13 million is a matching grant. Who will pay? Us? The state? Access for locals is sufficient. Mining access is not,” she said.
Russ Lyman mocked the new plan.
“They’re calling it an amendment, clearing approximately 20 acres, 5 and a half miles of road building, blasting, and then it’s up to 4,000 gallons of wastewater that they’re going to have to process. Oh, yeah, and then there’s this ammonium nitrate fuel mixture that could be in that wastewater, although it’s not going to be in or near water. We can trust them on that,” he said. “It seems ridiculous that this would be considered just an amendment.”
Lyman added that the Minto mine in the Yukon shut down unexpectedly, leaving the Canadian government holding the bag.
“Often, they take the spoils, take off, and we’re left to clean up the mess and whatever it does to our environment, too. Mining companies are not good stewards of the land,” he said.
Lyman joined with everyone else in calling on the DNR to request that Constantine submit a new permit.
Joe Ordonez, with the company Rainbow Glacier Adventures, has been here since 1987 and said the terms of the permit expansion would harm his business.
“I was out on the Klehini River this morning. I was floating along, and I said, ‘Listen! You can hear the warblers. Singing.’” He sells that silence and is able to employ 20 people at his eco-tourism business.
“Dynamite doesn’t really help with that quiet,” he said.
Jones Hotch. Jr., vice president of Chilkat Indian Village, also called for additional public hearings, citing the significant damage to cultural sites, food sources, and wildlife habitat he said it would cause.
“This will cause large scale disturbances, and irreversible development, including permanent road building and the disruption of coho salmon spawning habitat,” Hotch said.
Hotch added that the 5.6 miles of road are called for in the new permit. But they are labeled as trails in the permit, even though they are 25 feet wide.
“This permit also includes drilling, seismic line installation and blasting, which will harm the local wildlife,” he said.
The plan also calls for new roads in areas where subsistence hunting takes place, Hotch said.
Liz Cornejo, vice president of Dowa Metals and Mining, also represents Constantine. The Assembly called on her to provide additional information about the permit. She also spoke at the meeting, saying that she and the three people who were with her at the meeting were listening to all the comments people had made.
“So that is all being heard. We invite you to certainly give all that to DNR during this open, active comment period to the state. Every comment helps the project be better; it helps us learn more,” she said. “There’s lots to learn.”
Cornejo also said that Constantine has been meeting with various agencies throughout the state.
“We did meet with Greg Palmieri and had several meetings with him, as the state forester, to say, ‘Tell us more about this area of the forest,’ the different users, who we should be talking to. We also talked with Fish and Game, with DNR, with all the agencies,” she said.
After a question from assembly member Ben Altman-Moore, she conceded that a possible use for the land under the expansion could be a tailing storage facility.
In the end, only two people in the assembly supported contacting the state DNR — Altman-Moore and Debra Schnabel. Meanwhile, Jones, Lapp, Cheryl Stickler and Gabe Thomas all cited their belief that the process for amendments has already been established, and it would not be proper to jump in after the fact. Mayor Douglas Olerud was not at the meeting, with an excused absence.
Lapp said at the meeting that the fact that he worked for Constantine had nothing to do with the vote. He would have voted no even if he were not employed by the company.
The deadline for comments is currently 5 p.m. Saturday, June 3. Written comments must be received by the Division of Mining, Land and Water at the Fairbanks Mine Permitting Office, 3700 Airport Way, Fairbanks, AK 99709. Written comments, questions concerning this activity or requests to view the full application packet should be directed to Sara Church at (907) 458-6896, or faxed to (907) 451-2703 or e-mailed to dnr. [email protected].
Assembly rejects call to extend comment period
By Lee Zion
About 40 people showed up for the Haines Borough Assembly meeting Thursday night, most of them seeking the same thing. They wanted to slow down the process of modifying the permit for mining exploration at the Palmer Project.
Residents felt the permit amendment was so different from the original project that it should be considered an entirely new project.
The meeting was moved from its regular Tuesday date to accommodate high school graduation. Despite many residents speaking in opposition, for about two hours, the vote failed, 2-4.
Haines resident Russell Kennedy was the first of about 32 speakers. He read into the record a letter signed by “170 and counting” Haines residents, addressed to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources and the Haines Borough Assembly.
“We Haines Borough residents are writing this letter to express our deep concerns regarding … the Hardrock application amendment within the Juneau Mining District, Glacier Creek, and the lack of time provided to evaluate the application and its implications to our community.”
The letter noted that the amendment seeks to extend the current mining footprint in Glacier Creek 3 miles downstream from the current project site. This will have “significant impact” on the community, the letter stated.
“Given the critical habitat and cultural importance of the area included in the permit amendment and the significant extent of proposed construction, seismic drilling and other exploratory hard rock mining activity included in the proposed amendment to the permit, we are requesting … a 90-day comment period, including public hearings in both Haines and Klukwan on this permit.”
This would ensure transparency and allow ample time for the public to weigh in, the letter stated. Also, the letter called on asking that Constantine submit a new permit request entirely.
“Not just an amendment, because the amendments proposed are significant changes to the project,” the letter stated.
The letter also noted that the amendment would call on driving equipment across Glacier Creek and Plateau Creek, which contain salmon habitat. This could destroy a vital source of food and income for many people in the area, including fishing and tourism, Kennedy said as he read the letter.
And the blasting would harm wildlife, many of which are raising their young during the summer.
“Many of us are here for the subsistence lifestyle. As members of the community, we have a vested interest in the health of our salmon, moose hunting, and our ability to recreate now that spring has arrived,” Kennedy read.
He ended by saying the two weeks given to comment on the application was not sufficient to go through a 100-page document, and called on the Assembly to support the request for an extension period.
Vanessa Caldarelli said she had lived in an area where coho salmon once were prevalent. Now they’re extinct at that location.
“I’m concerned about seismic blasting on the Klehini. I’m concerned about heavy drilling. I’m concerned about roads being built in areas where coho are spawning, and I’m concerned about the time frame that we were given to actually review this as a community,” she said.
Calderelli requested that the borough assembly call on the DNR to give more time. She also noted that two borough members, Jerry Lapp and Margarette Jones, work for Constantine and called on them to consider recusing themselves from the vote.
Lindsay Johnson said she works as a salmon troller. She urged the council to tread lightly on a proposal that would affect her lifestyle and 2,000 other people in the area.
“Please don’t let them tread on us,” she said.
Laurie Dadourian worried about the $13 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to repair a road to the mine. The road was allegedly damaged during the 2020 floods. She noted that the road gets flooded every year.
“The $13 million is a matching grant. Who will pay? Us? The state? Access for locals is sufficient. Mining access is not,” she said.
Russ Lyman mocked the new plan.
“They’re calling it an amendment, clearing approximately 20 acres, 5 and a half miles of road building, blasting, and then it’s up to 4,000 gallons of wastewater that they’re going to have to process. Oh, yeah, and then there’s this ammonium nitrate fuel mixture that could be in that wastewater, although it’s not going to be in or near water. We can trust them on that,” he said. “It seems ridiculous that this would be considered just an amendment.”
Lyman added that the Minto mine in the Yukon shut down unexpectedly, leaving the Canadian government holding the bag.
“Often, they take the spoils, take off, and we’re left to clean up the mess and whatever it does to our environment, too. Mining companies are not good stewards of the land,” he said.
Lyman joined with everyone else in calling on the DNR to request that Constantine submit a new permit.
Joe Ordonez, with the company Rainbow Glacier Adventures, has been here since 1987 and said the terms of the permit expansion would harm his business.
“I was out on the Klehini River this morning. I was floating along, and I said, ‘Listen! You can hear the warblers. Singing.’” He sells that silence and is able to employ 20 people at his eco-tourism business.
“Dynamite doesn’t really help with that quiet,” he said.
Jones Hotch. Jr., vice president of Chilkat Indian Village, also called for additional public hearings, citing the significant damage to cultural sites, food sources, and wildlife habitat he said it would cause.
“This will cause large scale disturbances, and irreversible development, including permanent road building and the disruption of coho salmon spawning habitat,” Hotch said.
Hotch added that the 5.6 miles of road are called for in the new permit. But they are labeled as trails in the permit, even though they are 25 feet wide.
“This permit also includes drilling, seismic line installation and blasting, which will harm the local wildlife,” he said.
The plan also calls for new roads in areas where subsistence hunting takes place, Hotch said.
Liz Cornejo, vice president of Dowa Metals and Mining, also represents Constantine. The Assembly called on her to provide additional information about the permit. She also spoke at the meeting, saying that she and the three people who were with her at the meeting were listening to all the comments people had made.
“So that is all being heard. We invite you to certainly give all that to DNR during this open, active comment period to the state. Every comment helps the project be better; it helps us learn more,” she said. “There’s lots to learn.”
Cornejo also said that Constantine has been meeting with various agencies throughout the state.
“We did meet with Greg Palmieri and had several meetings with him, as the state forester, to say, ‘Tell us more about this area of the forest,’ the different users, who we should be talking to. We also talked with Fish and Game, with DNR, with all the agencies,” she said.
After a question from assembly member Ben Altman-Moore, she conceded that a possible use for the land under the expansion could be a tailing storage facility.
In the end, only two people in the assembly supported contacting the state DNR — Altman-Moore and Debra Schnabel. Meanwhile, Jones, Lapp, Cheryl Stickler and Gabe Thomas all cited their belief that the process for amendments has already been established, and it would not be proper to jump in after the fact. Mayor Douglas Olerud was not at the meeting, with an excused absence.
Lapp said at the meeting that the fact that he worked for Constantine had nothing to do with the vote. He would have voted no even if he were not employed by the company.
The deadline for comments is currently 5 p.m. Saturday, June 3. Written comments must be received by the Division of Mining, Land and Water at the Fairbanks Mine Permitting Office, 3700 Airport Way, Fairbanks, AK 99709. Written comments, questions concerning this activity or requests to view the full application packet should be directed to Sara Church at (907) 458-6896, or faxed to (907) 451-2703 or e-mailed to dnr. [email protected].