New coal battle heats up in Sutton

WASILLA — Environmentalists and mining advocates clashed sharply this week over whether state officials should approve a lease for a road leading to a potential coal mine in the Sutton area.

Usibelli Coal Mining has long sought to turn the Wishbone Hill mine — twin coal deposits north of Sutton — into a productive source of bituminous coal. Together, the two deposits account for potentially as much as 14.4 million tons of coal, according to company figures. Using that amount and the most recently published price for Central Appalachian coal ($43.50 per ton, according to economic data published on Quandl, a Toronto-based data services company), that puts the value of those deposits at about $600 million.

The project would likely be developed in phases, Simon said.

Bituminous coal is a mid-grade coal used for industrial purposes, including power generation.

To get that coal out of the ground and to the market, the company needs roads. The area the company is permitted to mine contains land owned by several different groups, including the Mat-Su Borough and the Alaska Mental Health Trust, according to company-provided maps.

One such property is making the transition from DNR management to Mental Health Trust Land office management, and the establishment of the new lease requires a public hearing, several people involved with the debate said.

Company officials see the lease as mundane, said company spokeswoman Lorali Simon. The company has already been leasing the road portion of the land for 25 years.

“This isn’t a new lease for us,” she said. “This is more of a paperwork renewal.”

However, at least one environmental group opposed to the mine also sees an opportunity to fight for the environment. The Castle Mountain Coalition, which fights coal development in the Matanuska Valley, has come out against the project. While the rights and use of the property would remain the same, the management change also presents a double standard, Castle Mountain president Kirby Spangler said.

“The Trust is ostensibly an organization that’s supposed to promote health, yet they’re in the business of leasing out their lands for coal development,” he said. “There’s lots of studies that have been done that have linked coal in all phases of its extraction to health problems and in communities that are proximate.”

At the same time, declining coal prices (American coal prices are experiencing a decades-long slump since at least 1980, according to the Quandl data) mean the Trust’s land office, which is tasked with managing the Trust’s land portfolio, won’t recoup its investment, Spangler said.

“Our point has always been that not only is this contradicting their mission, but it’s also a bad investment to them, because our society is moving away from coal,” he said.

The group has pushed for local residents to offer written or e-mailed comments in response to a public comment period that expires at 4:30 p.m. on Jan. 19. Several letters to the editor opposing coal have also been sent to the Frontiersman in recent days.

The agreement will earn the Trust $325,000 for the entire 25-year period ($13,000 per year), said John Morrison, the land office’s executive director.

“What this arrangement allows them (Usibelli) to do is cross the property,” he said. “It’s effectively an easement.”

The trust uses the earnings from its land holdings to provide millions of dollars in grants to help treat a variety of mental illnesses, ranging from drug and alcohol addictions to Alzheimer’s Disease to depression.

Apart from the lease’s potential value, some residents are eager to see coal start to rumble down local roads on its way to China, said Claudia Dolfi. Her 272-member group Mat-Su Valley Coalition supports the mine said Dolfi, who also serves as the secretary for the Sutton Community Council.

“It’s a coal mining town,” she said. “And we support that and we want that mine open.”

The divide in Sutton over coal mining is one of the area’s most contentious topics, one that can be seen in roadside signs both for and against development in the sprawling Matanuska Valley community north of Palmer. The area was a booming coal-mining hub in the 1920s, and the Alpine Historical Society still proudly displays old mining equipment in the heart of town.

Beyond the possible economic boost the mine could provide, local mining supporters had hoped that the mine could offer a possible source of local energy via coal-burning stoves. Residents are also upset with delays caused by lawsuits designed to delay development of the local coal fields, Dolfi said.

“This is coal country,” she said.

Written comments on the lease can be submitted via mail to 2600 Cordova Street, Suite 100, Anchorage, Alaska 99503, via fax to (907) 269-8905, or via email to mhtlo@alaska.gov.

Contact reporter Brian O’Connor at 352-2270, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.