I know Alaskans like to talk about how big we are. It's a distinction -- the biggest state. I flew over the pass from Homer to Lake Clark this week. Yes, it was bumpy and I didn't like that, but the mountains just seemed to go on forever.
There was lots of smoke even those many miles away.
Many of our fellow Alaskans weren't headed out fishing, they were trying to save their homes, sled dogs, pictures, belongings -- or worse, trying to itemize all they had lost. So many of our challenges are local ones. It takes something like fire or flood for us to take up the mantle for each other.
Other than natural and manmade catastrophes, the last battle I can remember us coming together for was protecting the fish and communities of Bristol Bay. We did that in the ballot initiative last November. The vote to protect salmon brought something unprecedented here: majority support from every single precinct. Nothing like a threat to Alaska's iconic fish to get fishermen to stop squabbling over resource allocation and act together to protect salmon.
I'm hoping Alaskans can come together once again to fight to save another precious salmon habitat from destructive industrial mining. This should be a no-brainer. The Chuitna River, across Cook Inlet from the Kenai Peninsula, should not be mined for coal.
This project should be on every Alaskan's radar -- at least until we say no to this deliberate salmon killer. If we can show up for Bristol Bay, rallying to protect salmon in our backyard shouldn't be a stretch. The river is just 45 miles from Anchorage. The mine and its loading docks will be visible from here. If we're unlucky, the coal dust will be visible in town.
If those were the only issues, that would be enough for me to oppose it. In Seward, the fight to stop coal dust has raged for years without much support from other communities. Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from Alaska coal producers to a unanimous decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that the companies cannot discharge their stormwater into Resurrection Bay.
For decades the Seward export facility has been polluting the water and town with toxic coal dust and contaminated water. The owners considered it a cost of doing business: cheaper to pay fines than to fix the problem. It's not unusual to see "Coal Sucks" traced in the coal dust that's settled on boats in the Seward harbor.
The coal market has seen its day and is crashing. Goldman Sachs dumped its investments in coal. So has Norway. Peabody Energy, the world's biggest private-sector coal producer, announced this month it would eliminate 250 jobs (that's 25 percent of the total) and closing two offices.
Pac Rim, the company proposing a Chuitna coal mine, plans to "de-water" a fork of the river, one that has all five species of salmon spawning in it. The salmon runs will "removed and then restored."
How stupid do we look? Apparently Pac Rim thinks Alaskans look extremely stupid. The company proposes to dig up 11 miles of salmon habitat, excavate down 300 feet, mine it for 50 years, and then put the river back, complete with salmons runs. Do they think those salmon are going to rent rooms in the Inlet, or are they just going to keep their fins crossed for 50 years? Oh, that's right, they'll kill the natural runs and then, when they're done taking all the coal that'll turn a buck, they'll put in hatchery salmon.
"God complex" much?
The company isn't sure exactly how it'll manage to bring back the salmon because no one has ever tried such a cockamamie scheme. If the state of Alaska lets the company proceed with the project, it will create an absolutely insane precedent that rivers can be "de-watered" to benefit mining projects.
God help them when Pebble opponent Bob Gillam decides to weigh in on that as public policy.
Without getting into the weeds of global markets and carbon standards, which I Googled and you can too, how about we just reiterate our Bristol Bay message: we don't want to trade our salmon for a few bucks, dirty air and water and a handful of jobs. We said no to copper and gold for salmon, apparently we now have to say no to coal for salmon.
How many times must Alaskans answer the same question from Outside industrial miners: Will you trade salmon for a hole in the ground?
No.
No Chuitna coal mine.
Shannyn Moore is a radio broadcaster.
The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com.