Over the past 40 years, beluga whale migrations along the northern Alaska coast at Kivalina have moved far offshore. Beluga meat, once a mainstay for the Inupiat Eskimo village, has become a too-rare treat. Everyone agrees about that.
But a dispute about why the migrations have moved away could affect plans to develop a major regional port for the Red Dog mine and perhaps other future mining ventures.
Kivalina villagers say the beluga have moved because of noise and activity at the existing shallow-water barge dock 17 miles south of the village. They blame the decline in beluga harvests on the lead-zinc ore shipments from the Red Dog mine, Northwest Alaska's only major industrial development.
But at an economic development conference in Barrow last month, an official with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers pointed to the Kivalina hunters as a likely cause of the shift in beluga migration patterns. The official cited recent changes such as increased hunting pressure.
Kivalina angrily responded with a statement faxed to news media around the state, saying the local tribal and city governments "vigorously challenge the conclusions that have been made about their hunters." Kivalina residents say the beluga used to pass right by the village on their migration. Recently, though, they say they have seen northbound belugas turn and head to sea when they get near the Red Dog port.
"Our people have been, in their words, putting hunting pressure on the marine mammals for years before the port facilities were constructed," said village tribal administrator Colleen Swan.
The Army Corps now says there was a "misunderstanding" at the Barrow conference. Environmental studies are continuing, the Corps said, and officials don't have enough information to make conclusions about why marine mammal and bird populations have changed in recent years. But changes in hunting activities by coastal people remains one possible factor, the Corps said.
The dispute over belugas and subsistence presages a larger discussion likely to follow the release later this year of the Corps' draft environmental impact statement and feasibility study for the Delong Mountain Harbor, an improvement of the Red Dog marine facility that could cost as much as $250 million.
The $8 million, multiyear study has been undertaken with funding from Congress and the state's development agency, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority. AIDEA helped get the Red Dog mine up and running in 1990 by selling bonds to build the original port and 52-mile haul road to the mine.
The shallow coastline currently requires a two-stage shipping process, with barges carrying ore in summer months out to ships waiting in deeper water. The Corps is looking at dredging a three-mile channel to reach an improved conveyer system. Several less expensive alternatives are being considered as well.
"The idea is to improve ore loading and delivery of fuel," said Corps spokeswoman Pat Richardson. Bringing in a few ships rather than many barges "would improve the efficiency and reduce traffic to the dock."
But is the improvement worth the cost, both in money and potential changes to the environment?
Teck Cominco, the company that operates the Red Dog mine, is waiting to see what the numbers show, said Red Dog general manager Rob Scott. The best argument for a new port may be that it would bring regional benefits by helping open other mineral deposits, said Scott.
But Richardson said the feasibility study is looking narrowly at the potential benefits to the existing mine at Red Dog.
Kivalina has taken no official stance on the new port proposal, said tribal administrator Swan. But most people are against it because they feel the existing port has driven away not only belugas but bowheads and bearded seals, she said.
"It would be too devastating," Swan said. She objected especially to a plan to dump dredged material in deeper water, saying the whales would be affected.
Kivalina has had disputes with Red Dog through the years over allegations of air pollution, spills of toxic ore and interruption of caribou migration routes. The mineral deposit is owned by NANA, the regional Native corporation, and the mine is the major taxpayer for the Northwest Arctic Borough.
A score of residents in the village of 370 have had good-paying jobs at Red Dog, she said. But many of them have moved away to Anchorage and now commute to work by jet, she said.
Speaking in early February at an Arctic Economic Development Summit in Barrow, Corps project manager Julie Anderson discussed the decline in subsistence beluga harvests at Kivalina and mentioned a number of factors, according to a review of her slide presentation. Among them were changes in ice conditions, mass beluga mortality reported in Siberian waters, and changes in local hunting effort, equipment and experience.
Belugas appear to be acclimating somewhat to the existing facility, Anderson said. She forecast "continued although possibly reduced" harvest by local hunters if the expanded port is built.
In its follow-up response, the Corps repeated those possible factors and also mentioned current activities at the port site as a reason for shifts in beluga routes. It said beluga hunters in the Northwest Arctic Borough were a source for information about changes in hunting pressure. The Corps would not pass along specific names, however, saying the environmental study was not complete.
Kivalina residents are not placated, Swan said. "We have not resolved anything with the Army Corps," she said.
