Coal plan draws fire Feb. 6, 2007 By MATT TUNSETH Frontiersman MAT-SU - Chickaloon residents are unhappy with renewed mineral exploration plans for their coal-rich Matanuska Valley town. “We've been shafted,” Chickaloon's Lisa Stevenson said Monday. Stevenson is concerned about a plan by Canada's Full Metal Minerals to drill exploration holes on more than 20,000 acres of land north and south of town. Full Metal was the sole bidder on a lease sale held in August by the Alaska Mental Health Land Trust, and Stevenson said she is upset the land trust did not give local residents adequate opportunity to comment on the lease sale. “They don't want to listen to us,” she said. Stevenson said the test holes are the first step toward a mine that could endanger the Matanuska River watershed. The Alaska Department of Natural Resources has yet to issue a final permit for Full Metal to begin drilling test holes. The department has scheduled a public meeting for 7 p.m. Wednesday in Chickaloon to discuss the issue. According to the company's permit application, test holes could be drilled as soon as April. However, just because holes are being drilled doesn't mean a mine is imminent. In fact, even if economical deposits of coal were found, such a project still would be years down the road. “This is very preliminary,” said Mike Franger, project manager for the land trust. “They're just seeing what they can find.” Coal exploration is nothing new in the Chickaloon area. The town site was founded in 1917 around a failed plan to use coal from the area to fuel early railroad lines. Coal from the area also has been mined for use by the U.S. Navy, and a large commercial coal mine operated in the 1950s at Castle Mountain. The current lease area covers land both to the north and south of the town, and borders private property owned by a variety of landowners in Chickaloon. The Department of Natural Resources will be taking comments on the proposal through Feb. 12, after which it will make its final decision on whether to allow exploration to move forward. Stevenson, for one, said she hopes the mine plan will stop before test holes can be dug. She said the area is a rich moose habitat, and she is worried about what a large-scale coal mine would do the area's ecosystem. “Everybody in the Valley is going to be affected,” she said. Stevenson said those she's heard from in the town are overwhelmingly opposed to any new coal mining, and she expects a big turnout Wednesday at the Chickaloon Community Center. “It's going to be a full house,” she said. Public comments will be taken at the meeting, and can also be emailed to the state by those unable to attend. Anyone interested in commenting on the proposal can email DNR geologist Russell Kirkham at russell_kirkham@ dnr.state.ak.us. Contact Matt Tunseth at 352-2265 or matt.tunseth@ frontiersman.com. |