King Cove residents filed suit against U.S. Department of Interior in the federal district of court for denying the request to build a potentially life saving road.
The community has pressed for a road for decades, which Sen. Lisa Murkowski spoke about on the Senate Floor in April.
Murkowski: “I have been fighting now since I canme to the United States Senate and before I came my father took up this fight effort to get a small connector road, a small 10 mile, one lane, gravel non-commercial use road that will allow the people of King Cove access to an all weather airport so that they can get out in the event of medical emergencies.”
The people of King Cove waited 140 days for a response from the Interior Secretary Sally Jewell who rejected the original proposal to build the road and an additional 50 days after they provided her with further information.
Jewell reportedly refused to allow the construction of the road claiming that landing craft was a sufficient alternative, even though that entails crossing Cold Bay in dangerous weather.
Since the begining of the year 11 people have been evacuated due to medical emergencies while waiting for Jewell’s decision.
