Susitna dam threatens river’s future

To the editor:

The proposed Susitna dam continues to be a potential large black cloud over the Susitna River’s future. The Alaska Energy Authority (AEA) is on a state-funded $500,000 public relations campaign to sell the project to the public.

Public opinion from Susitna River communities, town and Bush, has been overwhelmingly anti-dam from the start.

Comments from the National Marine Fisheries Service, AEA staff and contractors tell us that at the very least water temperatures will rise several degrees and water flows will be higher in the winter when natural flows should be low; lower flows in the summer when the natural flows should be high; the sediment load will be drastically changed; and the nutrient content of the water may well be changed and reduced. These factors are all negatives for salmon streams.

According to Cook Inletkeeper studies in the late 2000s, stream temperatures in 11 Susitna River tributaries were already too high for optimum spawning conditions. Yet AEA continues to claim the dam will help salmon and river fish runs. All Cook Inlet salmon are under increasing stresses from fishing and environmental/climactic causes. This project could well be the beginning of the end for Susitna salmon.

Workable alternatives with far fewer risks exist: natural gas, geothermal, tidal, solar. Impractical you say? Give true alternative energy industries $5.2 billion, the proposed cost of the dam, and success will be a lot closer.

Denis Ransy

Talkeetna