State takes comments through Oct. 29 on water quality review of AIDEA's West Susitna road

The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation opened public comment Friday on AIDEA's request for state water quality certification of its 78.5-mile West Susitna Access Project. Comments or hearing requests are due Oct. 29, according to the DEC public notice.

The review is tied to a federal wetlands permit the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority is seeking from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. DEC can certify the road, certify it with conditions, deny certification or waive its review, and its review covers water quality only.

The Corps' own comment period closes sooner, on Tuesday, Oct. 13. The Corps is using emergency procedures under the president's national energy emergency order and has named the road a critical mineral project. Gov. Mike Dunleavy asked the Army's assistant secretary for civil works to assist with the review.

The road

The gravel road would start about 1.4 miles west of Alexander Creek, where a separate, proposed 22.3-mile road from the West Susitna Parkway near Big Lake would end. The state transportation department has not filed a Corps permit application for that connecting road.

AIDEA's road would run northwest up the Skwentna River valley to the Whiskey Bravo airstrip. It would include 10 bridges, about 138 culverts, 17 material sites, nine water extraction sites, a maintenance station and a 5,000-foot airstrip able to take a C-130 aircraft. Its footprint includes 26 documented anadromous streams, and AIDEA counts 951 private parcels within 5 miles of the centerline.

AIDEA says the road would provide year-round public access and surface access to antimony, copper and gold deposits, funded through public-private partnerships with tolling similar to its Red Dog Mine road.

AIDEA's certification request says it "proposes no compensatory mitigation for the 3.18 acres of unavoidable impacts" to regulated wetlands and waters. AIDEA calls the effects small and spread across four watersheds, and says it would develop a mitigation plan if the Corps requires one. The Corps says it has not completed an approved jurisdictional determination, but estimates fewer than 66 acres are likely jurisdictional.

Construction dates vary across the filings. "The construction schedule has not been defined," the Corps notice says, adding that work could start as early as 2027 and take two to five years.

Testimony was divided when the House Finance Committee took up $95 million for the project in April, Alaska News reported. Pamela Nolsini, an Alexander Creek resident, said the road threatens subsistence resources her family has depended on for generations. Andrew Traxler, chairman of a local road service area board, said the road was essential for jobs and recreation.

Alaska News has also reported on the committee's $95 million cut to the project in May and the AIDEA board's commitment of up to $25 million for drilling along the route in August.