Is there anything not for sale in Alaska?

Spectrum/Mike Sparks

I do not agree with the governor's proposal to take over the monitoring of the discharge of waste-water permitting inspections, and the streamlining of the process for mining and the timber industries from the federal government.

I do not believe the laws and processes he upheld while being senator should be set aside to stimulate growth at any cost in our state. It may take longer with the federal government, but I believe the time provides for a more objective and thorough examination, and a higher level of expertise.

If my history serves me right, the state has from time to time missed the mark, and has been tied too closely to industry, for example: coal-bed methane in the Valley tied to Valley legislators.

I think if we pull up old headlines, we will reacquaint ourselves with the various slips of the past. Just lately, for example, the state oil commissioner's conflict-of-interest situation with the Prudhoe Bay producers and then our attorney general's coal deal.

The pressure from the petroleum, mining and tourism industry lobbyists has an extraordinary amount of influence in our political process. I believe this group has tremendous influence on who gets elected in the state and the agenda the governor and Legislature have taken for the last 30 years. It is possible that is why the state capital has stayed so far from the majority of its citizens.

Look at some of the results of our state decisions in short-cutting and streamlining the inspection processes - the Exxon Valdez, a late cleanup, not a final payoff on a year of record profits; the Red Dog Mine pollution, and what long-term effects to expect; the trans-Alaska oil pipeline and Prudhoe Bay, with whistleblowers galore and the ever-broadening access restrictions due to national security.

What about the new pipelines of the future, will they close off more and more public access to the land? The years of cruise ships discharging solid waste all along the coasts of Alaska will eventually leave our part of ocean with unclean, unsafe fisheries.

Now the governor wants oil wells in the Bristol Bay region, and a huge gold mine at the headwaters of Bristol Bay's rivers. Incidentally, why haven't the additional surrounding mining claims that have been added to the original mine been mentioned in the news? This gold mine could end up being three or four times as large as the original plans show.

Of course this is progress, but at what price? It's easy for huge corporations to dictate a plan from their offices that can affect generations of people in the race for profits, and they always tell you that they are responsible for your dividends, and all the good things that will happen for our state if we cooperate and work together, so they get what they want.

These same corporations are rich with their shareholders' money, and they are powerful due to the effect that money has on legislators, through the lobbyists.

Many of the local companies also get in on the action, and they love the paychecks, but if it creates another Love Canal or PG & E super-site cleanup, what then? The company that created Love Canal also promised lots of things to the local residents, as did the asbestos industry that invented the miracle cement that insulated, did everything and also killed. Now we have hundreds, if not thousands, of cleanup sites that started so simply as promising moneymakers.

This is the reason why the Environmental Protection Agency was started. After the project pollutes, companies are told to pay a modest fine, and make a promise to do better, but that does not undo what has been done. A few months in jail for one or two and the corporation moves on with its agenda.

We can't afford a mistake in Bristol Bay, and it should not be a decision left to politicians. This is where experienced scientists from many different fields should be brought in to find a balance with industry.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game and federal biologists should be working together to oversee the progress of any mine or project that could affect any fishery-related watersheds.

As a former construction surveyor on the pipeline and at Prudhoe Bay off and on for 33 years, mixed with many years of general construction and commercial fishing experience, I had the opportunity to witness projects from beginning to end, with accidents, oil spills, fuel spills and equipment malfunctions, many of which affected rivers, lakes streams, tundra and gravel pits. There were situations in which decisions were made quickly because an occurrence wasn't in the guidebook, and sometimes the decisions made things worse.

Engineering in the dark at 50 below zero with the wind blowing, and lots of equipment going different directions and a schedule to complete is not an exact science, and parts break and hydraulic fluid sprays quickly in the wind. Fuel tanks crack and leak, and it's no one's fault, but when spring comes, gallons of petroleum are in the drainage to interfere with the normal growth of the biology. Tipping over a heavy piece of construction equipment in a river while building a road can change that river forever.

If you take a chance with a natural wonder like Southwest Alaska, and a mistake is made, how can you repair hundreds of miles of river spawning beds? How can you help the rest of the food chain that is dependent on those rivers after they have lost their food supply? All of the animals in Southwest Alaska live out of the rivers, one way or another.

We have already affected the weather in Alaska, and change is coming. We can't afford to disrupt the natural balance in Southwest Alaska or it will become a wasteland. Southwest Alaska is not like the North Slope. It is more like 100 times the North Slope.

Even if the mining land belongs to the state, if it harms people downriver or the heavy metals are picked up by the very common high winds to contaminate the surrounding areas, what law dictates the rightness of that? Is it the law of progress? It seems heavy-construction projects are just a dirty lot. Prudhoe Bay now has smog on a regular basis. There is a gray layer over certain areas of the oil fields that was never there in the 1970s or 1980s.

No one anticipated this back when the project was on the drawing board, but it has happened. Is it affecting the surrounding areas?

I believe that the Selendang Ayu disaster is another example of the lack of pre-planning the state of Alaska missed in its streamlining processes. After all these years, I thought the job of being governor and a legislator was to think of ways to protect our state in the myriad infrastructures and connections with the world, in addition to progress.

If we are at the crossroads of the world, and we have all these ships and planes coming and going, then why hasn't there been a plan to be ready for the unexpected?

After the Exxon Valdez disaster, we would have thought our state would have confiscated some of those seized ships from the fisheries and turned them into a oil-response fleet. When the next major disaster hits, wouldn't it be great if we were prepared, for a change?

When will the companies that are making millions and billions of dollars off Alaska put a lot of it back to protect and preserve the great country they got it from? They got the rights to drill and mine public lands to make fortunes for themselves, for a song.

These companies all seem to come and go and leave a few dollars for us, but the real money and riches always end up in some bank in New York, or Texas, or around the world. I wonder how many states, cities and even countries have grown up on the back of Alaska, yet how many of these corporations have made real, positive, lasting contributions?

They make a modest donation to their favorite charity, or food drive, rub shoulders with a few of the local tycoons and lobby legislators. Alaska as a state is larger than many countries of the world, and the total population is about the size of a small city. In reality, we don't move a great deal of influence in Congress, but we could command much of what goes on in our own state.

I am not against improvement and growth for our state. I have been involved in the process ever since I came here. I do worry that haste and uncontrolled progress brings with it a price that can't be repaid. Prince William Sound is still not well after the oil spill, nor will the sea life affected by the Selendang Ayu oil spill be - for how long?

If the new gold mines go ahead unchecked, will the greatest salmon runs in the world, in Bristol Bay, become a legend? What will become of all the hunting and fishing businesses that have for generations been a part of scenic Southwest Alaska?

What about the people who live off the land, and what about their villages, which are downriver to the mining sites? In what way will they deal with contaminates interfering with their water and food supplies?

Governor Murkowski, I voted for you to get things going, but I also voted for you because of your experience, wisdom and good judgment. I also wanted you to think of our children's heritage and future, and really put Alaska first for a change.

I guess I wonder why America or the state of Alaska has hired a Canadian company to take our children's inheritance and give it to the Canadians.

This is one of the countries that has devastated our fisheries with its cheap farmed salmon, after it fished its rivers dry of its own native salmon.

Now it has released farmed salmon all over Southeast Alaska, and eventually the new introduced species will interfere with the wild fish.

Now these same people want to build their gold mine at the headwaters of our greatest fishery in North America.

The Canadian government stands against America in the fight against terrorism, and several political and moral ideals, and obviously they're not worried about our fish. They never worried about theirs.

I guess I wonder, is there anything not for sale in Alaska? When will Alaska come first?

These Outside companies should consider it a privilege to work and be a part of such a great land, not just to dictate what they want, leave the state a small share for the trouble, leave a mess and then hit the road. This looks to me like another scheme to get rich off Alaska.

Some were here long before this land was named Alaska, and some have come more recently and stayed, staked out their spot and contributed, and now their children and grandchildren will want the same stake.

I hope you help preserve it for them, because after all the gold is gone, my friends and my grandchildren and great-grandchildren will still want to go fishing and camping in places like Bristol Bay. We will want to drink the water, eat the berries, perhaps have a salmon or a caribou steak for dinner and breathe the clean fresh air that God has provided for us in safety.

Mike Sparks is a Wasilla resident.