Colberg joins mayors in beluga discussion

WASILLA — Mat-Su Borough Mayor Talis Colberg has teamed up with Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan and Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Dave Carey to talk about whales.

Cook Inlet belugas seem poised to get the Cook Inlet listed as critical habitat under the federal Endangered Species Act. But what that means for the regional economy has the trio of mayors worried. All of them represent communities with crucial economic interest in the Inlet.

“When you get an endangered species act designation it means there has to be an extra layer of procedure for anything that relates to the ocean where they live,” Colberg said.

And you don’t have to have been paying terribly close attention to the borough lately to know it has big plans for the Inlet, in particular the borough’s fledgling Port MacKenzie.

Colberg said the port doesn’t seem to be immediately threatened. The dock, for instance, appears to have all the proper permits in place. But a critical habitat designation throws up barriers to further development. The obstacles aren’t insurmountable, he said, but having to halt work if the whales are nearby is an obstacle all the same.

At this early stage, the debate seems to mainly contain a whole lot of unknowns.

“The problem is we don’t really know what the total impact is,” he said.

For instance, if the Inlet is critical habitat for the belugas, aren’t fish to be considered critical to their survival as well? And what does that mean for fishing in the Inlet?

Another unknown — one that Palmer City Manager Bill Allen brought up at a borough assembly meeting recently — concerns septic tanks. Neither Palmer nor Wasilla accept sewage from septic pumpers. All that septage goes into Anchorage and eventually winds up in the Inlet. Allen said it’s not jumping to conclusions to think Anchorage might rethink that arrangement.

Colberg declined to discuss that issue, saying he’s not sure if more publicity on that topic would really be beneficial to the borough.

He did say that Anchorage has been more than gracious in involving the Valley in discussions, as the current work on the beluga issue has proven.

“Mayor Sullivan has gone out of his way several times to involve me and the Valley in things,” he said. “He wants to make possible a landing for the ferry for example.”

As for what’s next, Colberg said he’s planning to ask the borough assembly to approve a resolution asking for more time to comment on the issue. The federal government is accepting comments until February.

“What is probably more controversial, which I haven’t weighed in on directly, is asking for funds for further scientific study,” he said.

Anchorage and Kenai have already pledged to seek that funding, Colberg said, but he’s not sure his assembly will see that as a priority. And, at least on one issue, the science is already pretty solid — there are fewer belugas in the Inlet than there used to be.

“I don’t think anyone can quarrel with the count,” he said.

But he said he’s not sure that a critical habitat designation is the right thing to do here, or even that the Endangered Species Act is being used the way it was intended.

“More and more it seems like it’s becoming a tool that’s used to stop development than to protect species,” he said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.