Stop the madness

To the editor:

This is about lies and complete disregard for the health and safety of our community.

Here it is, more than four months already into coal exploration in Chickaloon, and at every stage, we the people continue to be assaulted by the corner-cutting tactics of foreign mining company Riversdale Resources.

First, they told us they wouldn’t fly helicopters over our homes while dangling mapping equipment, but they did.

Then they promised to follow the stormwater pollution prevention permits, but we had to call the authorities to get them to comply.

And of course, they said they wouldn’t use our restricted back-road access to the mine site, but the tracks in the first snow told the true story.

Next, they chose to blind us by shining massive floodlights down the privately maintained driveway that we use to get to our residences, nearly running us off the road in the process.

Recently, Riversdale has been using security guards to chase, intimidate and interrogate local residents.

And now, after repeatedly telling our community that they would only operate during daylight hours, our families are enduring the all-night drone of heavy equipment. Sunday night was literally all night long — a steady roar bombarding our otherwise silent and dark neighborhood. Last night, they only worked into the 1 o’clock hour, about six hours longer than what is acceptable.

How are we supposed to get our kids to sleep in the homes that we pay property taxes on when it sounds like the mountain might crumble beneath us?

It seems at every turn we have to rein in the coal mongers who make rosy, yet empty, promises.

All of this because the Alaska Mental Health Trust — that thinly veiled arm of the Department of Natural Resources that gets to exploit land resources without applying ethics — has leased our community out from under us.

How do we wake up the government bodies that are supposed to be serving to protect us? It’s obvious the coal company is not going to regulate itself.

And the big picture is that we’re not just talking about Riversdale running over Chickaloon. There are coal leases in Sutton, Palmer and now Skwentna.

Link it all together and things are seriously out of hand, with Alaska becoming Appalachia. Soon the quality of life that my family has lost at the hands of Riversdale will be the status quo all over the Valley.

Act now, while there is still a Valley left to save. Tell the Alaska Trust Land Office to stop killing our communities in the name of mental health. Tell the DNR to act like coal exploration actually does impact our families and our subsistence resources. Tell the Mat-Su Borough that we’re tired of providing infrastructure for foreign companies to destroy our neighborhoods. And tell the Alaska Legislature to stop the madness before it’s too late.

Lisa Stevenson

Chickaloon