Peltola pledges to finish the Izembek road, a goal Sullivan shares

U.S. Senate candidate Mary Peltola pledged to "ensure completion of the Izembek road" after a campaign stop in King Cove on Saturday, Oct. 3, according to a statement from her campaign.

Peltola, a Democrat and former U.S. representative, is challenging Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, who also supports the road. Sullivan called an August court ruling against it "another shameful betrayal of the people of King Cove," in a statement.

The road is intended to give King Cove residents ground access to Cold Bay's all-weather airport for emergency medical evacuations. "Our local airport is inaccessible due to weather conditions for roughly 120 days each year," King Cove Mayor Warren Wilson said in a state transportation department release.

The department said in September that work continues on the first 2.8 miles of the planned 18.9-mile gravel road, on King Cove Corporation land, after a federal appeals court denied a motion to halt it. In August, U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason vacated the land exchange that gave the corporation 490 acres of Izembek National Wildlife Refuge for the road corridor. The Interior Department and the state appealed Sept. 29; the corporation followed Oct. 1.

The department is developing the road with the corporation and The Aleut Corporation, with support from the King Cove Tribe, the City of King Cove and the Aleutians East Borough. Three tribes and conservation groups sued to overturn the exchange. Audubon Alaska opposes the route through the refuge, saying a road would have serious impacts there, and cites estimates of $127 million to build it and $975,000 a year to maintain it.

After stops in Dillingham on Friday and Naknek on Sunday, Peltola's campaign statements said she would "always stand against the Pebble Mine." Sullivan has said he opposes the mine as well. He has also said the EPA "does not have the authority to subvert the permitting process and pre-emptively veto this, or any, project in Alaska," referring to its 2023 Clean Water Act determination restricting mine-related disposal in waters near the Pebble deposit.

Pebble's developers, the State of Alaska and Iliamna Natives Ltd. are challenging that determination, with the Justice Department defending it, in a case that awaits a ruling from Gleason.