By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune
A lawsuit against the Gov. Sean Parnell administration will be the next step if a legal process for protesting the Chuitna coal development continues to go unanswered.
Under hard-rock mining laws, Unsuitable Lands Petitions cannot be filed, such as in the case of the Pebble Project. But under soft-rock mining for coal, a provision exists for citizens and groups to petition the government arguing that a particular area should be deemed unsuitable, said Cook InletKeeper Executive Director Bob Shavelson.
“There is a section specifically written that states if an area is unsuitable for mining and cannot be reclaimed to its pre-mining values, then petitioners can ask to have it removed from the mining plan,” he said.
This legal right for interjecting public input is outlined in the Alaska Surface Coal Mining Control and Reclamation Act.
The proposed coal project would run through 11 miles of salmon stream. Though PacRim Coal has said it can rebuild the habitat that supports wild salmon, biologists have disagreed.
Shavelson fired off a letter Monday to the governor reminding him that the Unsuitable Lands Petition response deadline has come and gone. Under law, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources had a legal duty to respond to the petition by April 19. Four months later, the administration has failed to act, Shavelson wrote in the letter.
The original ULP was filed in January 2010 by the Trustees for Alaska on behalf of Cook InletKeeper and the Chuitna Citizens’ Coalition. Periodically, Shavelson and others signing onto the petition inquired of DNR’s progress toward a response to the petition. The ULP has legal deadlines to follow, outlined in the Alaska Surface Coal Mining Control and Reclamation Act. It gives up to seven months to hold a public hearing. DNR had asked for an additional five months for field surveys, which carried them to a new deadline of January 2010 for conducting the public meeting.
“That’s when they held the meeting — in Kenai, during a snowstorm last January,” said Bobbie Burnett, the secretary-treasurer of the Chuitna Citizens’ Coalition. People from Tyonek and some from Beluga, both closest to the mine site, could not make the meeting. The next month, DNR held a meeting in Tyonek.
“The state has issued four water usage permits in the past 19 months for PacRim, but they are overdue on our requests,” Burnett said.
The letter written by Shavelson is arguing the governor has a “legal and moral duty” to respond to this petition.
If there is no response, the next level is to seek legal recourse for deadlines that have come and gone, amounting to a violation of laws on behalf of the state, Shavelson said.
Parnell’s record dealing with environmentally sensitive issues is fast becoming one of the worst in state history, Shavelson said.
“This administration has lost all semblance of balance in debates. Frank Murkowski was the worst in terms of responsible management of resources. But Parnell is catching up quickly as his pace surpasses the Murkowski administration,” he added.
The Department of Natural Resources coal regulatory control division did not respond to calls seeking comment.
