Innovative appeal is ‘Hail Mary’ plea

Chickaloon Native Village is an important community vital to the continued health and growth of the Mat-Su. And the village’s most recent approach to a perceived problem is nothing if not innovative.

Village Tribal Chief Gary Harrison and other village leaders have made an appeal to the United Nations, asking for help from the international body’s independent expert on the human right to water and sanitation. Feeling there has been no movement on the village’s cries for help from state and federal government agencies, Harrison says Chickaloon is asking the U.N. to intervene.

The problem? Usibelli Coal Mine Inc.’s plans to develop the Wishbone Hill Mine. The mine is planned for land leased near Buffalo Mine Road and has sparked debate over coal development since the first exploration began in the Wishbone Hill area in 1983. Usibelli acquired the permits in the mid-1990s and, every five years has renewed the state-issued permit.

Now that the mine appears to be nearing production, opponents are turning up the heat on efforts to stop what they claim will be devastating damage to the ecosystem and local residents.

In its appeal to the U.N., Chickaloon Village cites concerns for water quality, particularly in Moose Creek.

“The tribes’ long years of effort to restore its culture, subsistence, language, health and ecosystems, including its waterways, will be severely undercut — if not nullified — by the proposed new mining,” the village says in a press release explaining its U.N. appeal.

It’s a novel, innovative approach, but in truth, it seems to be a Hail Mary pass of epic proportions. Though it is worth noting that sometimes Hail Mary passes do win games.

But the United Nations doesn’t have a dog in this fight and seems unlikely to join the fray.

Though we do share some of the concerns raised by the village and other environmentalists. We question claims that if the Wishbone Hill Mine is operational, it will produce “clean” coal. How clean can it be, really? While it’s proven that coalmining practices, especially those proposed by Usibelli, have improved greatly over the decades, coal mining is still a dirty business. It still produces dust, it still disrupts the landscape, negatively impacts property values, can pollute waterways and still impacts public infrastructure like roads.

That said, Usibelli — whatever your moral, political or environmental objections — has played by the rules and deserves to move forward with legal, legitimate practices on the land.

The Mat-Su Borough last year granted a renewal of a land lease that allowed the company to put in an exploration trail, which will become a road if the mine is developed. The state has to decide every five years whether to renew the Wishbone Hill Project permit, and the next round is this year. By the end of the summer, we will likely know what the immediate and long-term future is for Wishbone Hill coal.

That future, unfortunately for Chickaloon Village, most likely won’t include the United Nations. In fact, many of the environmental concerns over water quality are already addressed in Usibelli’s state lease. Any activity at the site must comply fully with the letter and spirit of the lease, and those who object, like the village, should appeal to the state Department of Natural Resources.

As for the “clean” coal we’re told will come out of Wishbone Hill, we remain cynical.

Research shows that the oxymoron clean coal is nothing so much as a marketing concept contrived by the coal industry. Something akin to say fat-free lard. Coal is dirty when you mine it. Dirty when you burn it. Dirty when you dispose of the waste — just ask the communities of Fairbanks and Seward.