Hilcorp wants a North Slope gravel mine with no wetland payback

Hilcorp wants to build a gravel mine across about 95 acres of North Slope tundra near Deadhorse without paying or restoring anything to offset the wetlands affected, arguing that Arctic wetlands can't be replaced.

Projects that affect wetlands usually owe something in return, either restoration work elsewhere or a payment into a mitigation fund. Hilcorp says none of that makes sense on the North Slope, because the wetlands there form through permafrost over hundreds of years and the growing season runs only about 60 days. Rebuilding them, the company argues, is not practical, so nothing should be required.

The project is a 64-acre gravel pit and a 1,000-foot access road off the route to Drillsite 15, about seven miles northwest of Deadhorse. Road work is set for October, with mining no sooner than 2027. Roughly 30 acres of the footprint would be temporary.

Instead of compensation, Hilcorp offers engineering. It would build insulating berms around the pit to keep the surrounding permafrost from thawing, and mine in phases. Its own drawing shows the pit eventually filling with meltwater and becoming 63.5 acres of open water.

No regulator has ruled on whether that is enough. The Army Corps of Engineers and the state Department of Environmental Conservation decide the wetland question, and both apply the same limit: compensation is required only where they find replacement work feasible. Hilcorp's whole case is that here, it isn't.

It is the same argument the company made a year ago, in its application for the Ugnu Mine Site E on the Slope.

The state is taking written comment through Sept. 28.