The Issue
There are two major problems with this proposal: the 211 mile access road, and the permanent water contamination likely to occur at the mines.
Check out the documentary Paving Tundra for an overview of the situation.
The road would be over 200 miles long, starting roughly at Prospect Creek (MP 161) along the Dalton Highway and ending somewhere within the Ambler Mining district — most likely near Bornite, north of the village of Kobuk. It would cross Gates of the Arctic National Park — the second largest national park in the United States. As currently studied, it would cross 161 rivers and streams, including the federally designated Wild River, John River, Alatna River and Kobuk River. All designated Wild and Scenic Rivers. The road would require a total of over 40 gravel mines with a quarry every 10 miles or less to provide the material needed to build the road — much of which may contain asbestos, a carcinogen that Alaska recently legalized for use — as well as numerous maintenance stations, camps, runways and communication towers.
This would not be a narrow and tidy road in the boreal forest with an occasional wooden bridge across a stream, but a massive piece of infrastructure where single span steel bridges support dozens of ore trucks rumbling by 24 hours a day.
The rocks within the main deposit of the mining district — the Arctic Deposit near the village of Kobuk — have among the highest risk of Acid Mine Drainage, or AMD, of any type of ore. In many cases, copper mining has severely impacted fish populations as a result of AMD, which doesn’t simply go away over time, and will require millions of dollars to control and contain in perpetuity. As soon as the revenue from the mining company disappears, so do the responsible parties.
It remains to be seen how migrating caribou will react to the fragmentation of their habitat by roads, and whether Kobuk, Koyukuk and Alatna River salmon will ever return to spawn if acid drainage becomes problematic, as it has in so many other places. This road proposal needs to be stopped now.
To date, approximately $28 million from the state Capital Budget has been spent studying route options, conducting survey work, and beginning biological, hydrological, and geotechnical field studies. The funding to do so was approved by the Alaska Legislature and signed into effect by Governor Parnell. In 2012 it became obvious that none of the routes that would access the sea coast would be studied further, and field crews began concentrating only on the road to the Dalton Highway — the Brooks East Corridor.
The federal Right of Way was approved in 2020 but the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was deemed deficient in 2022 and is now under a supplemental review. When an EIS process begins or is completed, it doesn’t mean that money for construction exists — that decision would need separate legislative approval. As part of the EIS process, agencies are required to gather formal public comments which will help determine if the state will move forward with construction — assuming it can afford to do so when the time comes.
Unlike past public meetings conducted by DOT, NANA, AIDEA and NovaCopper (then Trilogy Metals and now Ambler Metals) to promote the road and mine projects, EIS scoping meetings and a public comment period are mandated by the law and should not include industry presentations promoting mine plans.