In Charlie Chaplin’s 1936 silent film Modern Times, he is sucked through the conveyor belt and giant gears of industry. 25 years later Republican President Eisenhower issued the same warning about the military-industrial complex. Today in Haines, public funds still feed gigantic gears of private extractive industry — the Haines Highway, Porcupine/Constantine Road upgrades, Palmer Project bridge, Lutak Dock.
Our new assembly could slow the gears and provide transparency, but with Lutak Dock, their voice is continually silenced. The manager acts unilaterally without informing her assembly supervisors, and resists public requests for a smaller dock to serve community needs rather than the mining industry. Mega-dock promoters use unfounded fear-mongering: “There’s no time for an alternative! We’ll lose the grant money! We won’t get our freight or fuel. . .”
NEPA requires a range of alternatives on federal projects. But only two designs were offered, both mega-docks facilitating toxic ore transport. Lack of true design alternatives actually threaten dock funding. Removing unnecessary high-cost features including the steel sheet pile bulkhead, dredging for handymax ships, excessive weight-bearing limits in uplands, and mega-sized mooring dolphins from the approved R&M design provides a cheaper, low-maintenance alternative while still providing secure moorage for fuel and freight barges. CIV supports a smaller dock and can assist financially in detoxification during demolition. Please ask the assembly and mayor to immediately provide a smaller, cheaper, low-maintenance alternative that eliminates toxic ore transfer. There is still time!
Eric Holle