Alaska News

North Slope communities celebrate as proposed Umiat Road falls to budget ax

The plan for the proposed 100-mile road to the remote area of Umiat has been axed by the state, leaving many North Slope residents breathing a sigh of relief.

The road would have stretched from the Dalton Highway to the foothills of the Brooks Range to oil and gas reserves with access to the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. But last week, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released official word that it has terminated its intent to prepare an environmental impact study, a first step in the construction of the road.

The plan had been on hold for over a year, with North Slope residents wondering what the future held.

North Slope communities spoke out against the road repeatedly -- on local, state and federal levels -- citing a disruption in the caribou migration and an overall blow to their subsistence way of life.

The road, a 30-foot gravel route that was to cross six major rivers, would have stretched from the Dalton Highway to remote Umiat, just 80 miles from Anaktuvuk Pass.

The planned EIS was announced in spring of 2011, but in the summer of 2013, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities decided to re-evaluate plans for future EIS work, and in response the Corps suspended work and closed the EIS project file, according to the Corps.

"After confirming on October 21, 2014 that the DOT&PF has no future plans to proceed with the project, the Corps officially determined that it is appropriate to terminate the EIS," it said in a statement.

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The state had already invested about $35 million to study the proposed road, which had an estimated price of around $350 million or more. The recent termination does not mean that the state couldn't pick up the project at a later date, but for now, North Slope residents opposed to the project are celebrating a win.

"It's amazing," said Anaktuvuk Pass resident Lillian Stone, who was active in the education and lobbying against the road as a tribal board member of Naqsragmiut Tribal Council.

"Everyone is really happy, especially the elders. It feels good to be heard. We were speaking from the heart to help people understand caribou and subsistence and everything else this road would affect.

"This makes us feel like we're on the map. It is huge for our culture and our way of life; a real victory."

Umiat has been drilled and studied as a potential site for oil and gas development for decades, but access to the remote swath has prevented major development from moving forward.

Linc Energy, the company that acquired the Umiat leases in 2011, reported in late March 2014 that they had drilled a test well and announced with a successful flow of oil that they were moving ahead.

While Linc did not return a request for comment, spokesperson Paul Ludwig told the Alaska Journal of Commerce this week that the company believes it is able develop the field as a "roadless" project with access via a winter ice road.

The company could move ahead on the road project, without state backing, though the cost is most likely prohibitive.

Opposition for the road garnered support statewide and beyond.

Back in 2012, Sen. Donny Olson, D-Golovin, spoke out against plans for the road to the State Finance Committee.

"In my 12 years that I've been down here I have not seen such passionate opposition to any kind of Roads to Resources issues that have been out there," Olson told the Legislature. "… There's unanimous agreement across the North Slope that this road to resources is going to severely interfere and inhibit the subsistence lifestyle."

Not all on the Slope, however, are applauding the decision to pull the plug on the road to Umiat.

"I'm disappointed because from what the governor said … before the inauguration was that it was important to get the state's financial house in order and I don't know how we're going to do that when we're not going to be able to encourage people who are wanting to develop the resources that we have," said Rep. Ben Nageak, D-Barrow, on Friday.

"There's more need for development, but there's (also) a need for access to those resources."

Nageak said with the high cost of living in rural Alaska, they need more access to enable development, which would create jobs and also lower the cost of living.

"When the state government and the federal government say we have all these resources … they're all talking and then it comes out the other ear and then they forget it. But it's time we don't forget rural Alaska because there is so much potential there."

This story first appeared in The Arctic Sounder and is republished here with permission.

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