Brant fly over Izembek Lagoon at Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.on Sept. 28, 2016. The refuge is used as a migratory stop for nearly the entire global population of Pacific black brant. a type of goose. Two new lawsuits are challenging a federal permit for a road that would cross Izembek habitat used by the brant and other migratory birds. (Photo by Kristine Sowl/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
Two weeks before construction could begin on a controversial road that would cut through Izembek National Wildlife Refuge wetlands, three Western Alaska tribal governments and several environmental groups have filed new lawsuits seeking to block the project.
Both complaints, filed in U.S. District Court in Anchorage, are seeking to overturn a key permit issued earlier this month by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a 19-mile road that would pass through what had previously been protected as designated wilderness within the refuge.
Plaintiffs in one of the lawsuits, filed Thursday, are the Native Village of Hooper Bay, the Native Village of Paimiut and the Chevak Native Village, tribal governments with Yup’ik members and the Center for Biological Diversity, whose attorneys are handling the lawsuit. Plaintiffs in the other lawsuit, filed Wednesday, are Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges, the Alaska Wilderness League, the National Wildlife Refuge Association, the Sierra Club and Wilderness Watch. The environmental groups are represented by Trustees for Alaska, an Anchorage-based environmental law firm.
Defendants in both cases are the Corps, and the tribal lawsuit also names the Alaska director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the Izembek refuge, and U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum as defendants.
Plaintiffs say the Corps’ wetlands-fill permit, issued to the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, is illegal because the federal agency failed to fully consider the impacts to the wetlands and wildlife.
the environmentalists’ lawsuit described the importance of the area that they said would be damaged by the road: “Izembek is one of the world’s most important migratory bird staging and wintering habitats, supporting millions of migratory waterfowl and shorebirds in its coastal lagoons and freshwater wetlands complex.”
The tribes’ lawsuit said harm from the road to the migrating geese that use the refuge, “including poor body condition, diminished reproductive success, and reduced survival rates” would have serious consequences for tribal residents who depend on those birds for their subsistence hunts and culture.
The Interior Department declined to comment on the lawsuits challenging the Corps permit, and the Corps did not respond to an emailed query.
A land trade necessary for the road construction, which swapped land owned by the King Cove Corp., an Alaska Native Village Corporation, for some designated wilderness land within the refuge, got the Trump administration’s final approval in October.
That land trade is also being challenged in federal court by the same plaintiffs, along with Defenders of Wildlife. Those lawsuits have been consolidated, and they remain pending. U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason has said she will issue a decision in that matter soon.
The Department of Transportation plans to start building the first section of the road, to stretch almost 3 miles, as early as Aug. 8, according to a notice filed in U.S. District Court by the Alaska Department of Law.
The road plan has been promoted for decades by residents of the isolated Aleut village of King Cove, which has about 750 residents, according to the city. It would connect the village to a military-quality airstrip at Cold Bay, a community of only about 50 people but previously the site of military operations that began in World War II. A legacy of those operations is the still-used Cold Bay airport, which features a runway over 10,000 feet in length.
To King Cove residents and their supporters, the road is a crucial link needed for emergency evacuations in a part of Alaska frequently beset by bad weather. King Cove’s tiny airport is frequently unusable, but the Cold Bay airport, which is only a few miles away, can handle big aircraft flying in bad weather, making access to it critical.
“The road is not just about transportation, it is a matter of human rights, Indigenous self-determination, and environmental justice,” said a statement issued by the Aleut Corp., the regional Native-owned corporation that includes King Cove. The statement followed completion of the land trade in October.
When the Corps permit was issued on July 10 to the Department of Transportation, Alaska political leaders celebrated, including with praise for President Donald Trump.
“This is a historic day for the people of King Cove and the people of Alaska,” Gov. Mike Dunleavy said in a statement issued that day. “I want to thank President Trump and his administration for putting the people of Alaska first and allowing this road to become a reality.”
U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, used the occasion to bash former President Joe Biden.
“For Alaskans, the decades-long King Cove Road impasse has been a symbol of an uncaring, out-of-touch, faraway federal government that prioritizes the lives of birds over people,” Sullivan said in a statement released by the three-member Alaska congressional delegation. “The great residents of King Cove time and again have kept hope alive, despite setbacks, most recently when the Biden administration disregarded the voices of the community and withdrew the previously approved land exchange.”
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