Fairbanks companies seek a year-round water right for the pool at Circle Hot Springs

Two Fairbanks companies have asked the state for a year-round water right for the hot springs pool at Circle Hot Springs: up to 9,678 acre-feet of water a year from the spring near Central. That works out to roughly 8.6 million gallons a day averaged across the year.

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources published notice of the application on Tuesday. BLB Enterprises, LLC and RFB Enterprises, LLC, both listed at 1433 Birchwood Dr in Fairbanks, are seeking the right "for the purpose of hot springs pool and infrastructure operation," according to the notice. The source is a hot spring in Tract G of the Arctic Circle Hot Springs Subdivision, in the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area about eight miles from Central.

The application is not new. State land records show it was filed September 11, 2020, and transferred five days later from Arctic Circle Hot Springs to the two companies under a Fairbanks deed. The department postponed the case in October 2021 for data collection, and the file still carries that suspended status. Coordinates for the spring were added on September 3.

That 2020 filing date is the application's priority date. Alaska water law follows prior appropriation, so a right issued on this application would rank ahead of claims established after that date. Land records for the section show six earlier water cases on this ground, all of them closed.

The notice gives no daily figure. It also does not say how much of the withdrawal would be consumed and how much would return to the source.

Written comments are due by 5 p.m. on September 30. They go to the Water Resources Section at 3700 Airport Way in Fairbanks, which takes questions at (907) 451-2790.

Formal objections run on a separate track: under AS 46.15.133(a), they must reach the DNR Commissioner's Office in Anchorage within 15 days of publication. Because the notice was published September 15, that window also lands on or about September 30. What differs is the filing standard and the recipient, since an objection must state facts showing the objector's rights or the public interest would be adversely affected, while a comment carries no such requirement. Objections may be mailed or hand-delivered to 550 W. 7th Avenue, Suite 1400, faxed to (907) 269-8918, or emailed to [email protected].

If a permit is issued, it may be extended for good cause "without additional public notice." The notice itself comes off the state's online portal on September 30, the day comments close.