Umiat road facing local opposition

Scoping process reveals concern about route on subsistence resources, state adding a proposed alternative down from Meltwater

Eric Lidji

For Petroleum News

As it studies a potential road to Umiat, the state is adding a route to its proposed alternatives to accommodate concern from local residents about subsistence resources.

The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities is asking for $10 million to complete the environmental impact statement an all-season road to Umiat.

The Alaska District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced last May that it would prepare a draft environmental impact statement for an all-season gravel road connecting the Dalton Highway to the foothills of the Brooks Range, a project outlined last year by the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities.

DOT&PF spent the summer of 2009 studying potential corridors and chose a $357 million route running 116.5 miles northwest from Galbraith Lake at milepost 278 on the Dalton Highway. The EIS process, though, must consider all reasonable alternate routes and through the scoping process, the Corps added two routes based on public comments.

The proposed Meltwater route would use the Dalton Highway and existing spine roads and winter roads to the Meltwater production area and would build a new 95-mile road down to the Anaktuvuk River in the foothills of the Brooks Range and west to Umiat.

The proposed Pump Station 2 route would run 95 miles from the trans-Alaska oil pipeline to Umiat. DOT&PF considered the route in its original survey, but ranked it fourth out of five potential corridors. Only one commenter suggested adding the alternative.

Galbraith route unpopular

But the Galbraith route is unpopular locally, according to Sen. Donny Olson, D-Nome.

Olson asked why Kemp didn’t acknowledge local opposition when he came before the committee last year to request funds for the project. Kemp said he wasn’t aware of any opposition at the time, having only been on the job a month when hearings began, but “since that time, we have heard a lot of information about opposition to the project.”

Olson said that he has heard more opposition to the road to Umiat than to any transportation project in his 12 years on the Senate Finance Committee, and he suggested to Kemp that the Parnell administration wasn’t listening to those local concerns.

“There’s quite a difference between the phrase ‘they aren’t listening’ and the phrase ‘they aren’t doing what I want them to do,’” Kemp said, noting that DOT&PF held numerous formal meetings in Anaktuvuk Pass, hired locals for field studies and recently published a 234-page scoping document that includes all the public comments received to date and adds the Meltwater route alternative to the study to accommodate concerns.

The scoping report is only an early stage in the long National Environmental Policy Act process, Kemp noted. “We know there’s a lot of emotions involved in the process, but there’s always safety in following the process,” he said. He said that he believes it is becoming standard practice for opposition to disrupt projects as early in the process as possible and, “It is our job to be strong and stay within the bounds of that process.”

During the scoping process, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers received nearly 1,700 comments from 149 submissions, primarily concerning the economics of the road, but requesting that a more roundabout route be added to the alternatives out of concern for the impact of the road, especially if it is open to the public, on subsistence resources.

In addition to alternate routes, two comments proposed using snow and ice roads out of Umiat instead of an all-season gravel road. Others said the state shouldn’t pay for a road to help industry, or should at least wait until oil and gas deposits in the region are proven to be economic. Others said the EIS should be delayed until the U.S. Bureau of Land Management completes its integrated activity plan for the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska in late 2012 to get a better understanding of the need for development in the area.

Because of those comments, the Corps pushed back the date it expects to have a record of decision for a final EIS to late 2014, although the actual date could be sooner or later.

Corporate welfare?

Although acknowledging the economic benefits of increased access to resources and the obligations to build a transportation system, Ellis asked Kemp, “if this is benefitting a corporation and their shareholders, mostly, where is the private money to help fund these enormously expensive projects and the enormously expensive upkeep of these roads?”

The road would immediately improve the economics of two projects.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. is exploring for natural gas in the Gubik Complex. After drilling four wells in 2008 and 2009, the company didn’t return to the region in 2010 or 2011, but is planning to test one of its previous wells at the prospect this winter.

Meanwhile, Linc Energy Inc. said it “plans to commence an aggressive delineation drilling, well testing and deep exploration program” next winter at the Umiat oil field.

Kemp said the state could actually save money by building to $200 million to $300 million road. Under the current system of tax credits, the state pays around 40 percent of the cost of most snow and ice roads on the North Slope, millions of dollars each year.

“In that view, we are in essence paying for the roads,” Kemp said.

Additionally, he said, the final funding mechanism isn’t decided.

The current $10 million funding request is only to complete preliminary permitting that could be handed over to a public-private partnership for final design and construction.

The debate, though, could be largely hypothetical for the time being.

Asked how long the NEPA process usually takes for major road projects, Kemp said he had never permitted a project through the Corps but that Federal Highway Administration projects often took around 13 years to complete, once accounting for lawsuits and additional studies. Considering the history of road projects in his district in southeastern Alaska, Chair Sen. Burt Stedman, R-Sitka, said “13 years might be optimistic.”