DNR OKs coal leases

MAT-SU — The state Department of Natural Resources has decided to go ahead with plans to sell coal leases near Skwentna.

“The final decision of this best-interest finding is to hold a competitive coal lease sale for approximately 13,160 acres of land in the Canyon Creek area, south of the Skwentna River,” reads an official announcement from the department dated July 5.

The plan had been to sell 13,175 acres of coal leases, but state law requires leases be sold in multiples of 40 acres. In 1977, according to DNR documents, the land was leased to Mobil Oil Corp. for coal. The company drilled 104 test holes for coal from 1977 to 1989.

Bill Cole, with DNR’s mining section, told the Alaska Public Radio Network that the decisions authorizes a lease sale, not any kind of exploration or other on-site work.

The announcement says all of that comes later.

“The ASCMCRA (Alaska Surface Coal Mining Control and Reclamation Act) mandates that coal exploration and mining activities are subject to public notice and comment, review and written decision by the commissioner of Natural Resources. The resultant permits will carry the appropriate operational stipulations,” the announcement says.

Things like how to transport the coal out of there, how it will be mined and how it will be mitigated were only discussed, if at all, in a sort of theoretical way in the 180-page report accompanying Friday’s final decision.

Appendices to that main report contain a lot of what the public had to say about the plan. A good portion of those public comments concern salmon habitat. An example:

“Question: What impact will this project have on anadromous fish streams: What data, baseline data, have been collected by your agency for this area?”

“Response: Coal leasing in itself will have no impact on anadromous fish streams. Depending on the extent of coal mining there may be impacts to fish streams. The ASCMCRA and other state and federal statutes and regulations are designed to avoid, minimize, and/or mitigate effects of mining. However, they do not guarantee that coal development will have no effects on the environment.”

DNR has said that it began the process of deciding whether to sell the leases after receiving a request for leases from Alaska Energy Corp., which is a subsidiary of CanAm Coal Corp. of Calgary. That company, according to its website, has three mines operating in Alabama and rights to some coal in Colorado.

The company also paid for the state to hire a consultant, the URS Corp. Anchorage office, to do some of the work needed to find if the leases would be in the state’s best interest.

“Alaska Energy Corp. played no role in supervising URS or editing and approving their work,” DNR states.

The next step is the appeals process, which can sometimes take awhile. Cole said in an interview last October that a years-old plan to sell coal leases on the Brooks Range was still being appealed.

After the appeals process is complete the lease goes out to bid.

“The qualified bidder offering the highest cash bonus will be offered the lease,” DNR states.

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