Water reservation applications typically received 15 or 20 responses, but the Department of Natural Resources has received 5,000 responses for a proposed water reservation for Middle River. Middle River is a tributary of the Chuitna River and the water reservation would stalemate the proposed Chuitna Coal Mine.
The Chuitna Citizens Coalition has been rallying support against the proposed mine and filed three reservation applications in 2009. The applications stalled until 2013 when a Superior Court judge ordered progress. The public comment period closed last Thursday.
Cook Inletkeeper’s Bob Shavelson has been vocally opposed to any talk of mining in Chuitna…
Shavelson: “It would be the first time in Alaska’s state history that we would allow an Outside corporation to mine completely through a salmon stream. And the purpose is to ship coal to China. There would be no domestic use for this coal. And it’s really a very dangerous precedent because if they can do it here in Cook Inlet they will be able to do it anywhere in the state.”
But the Coalition wasn’t the only one to file for water rights; PacRim Coal made a similar petition to divert water in order to access the coal below the riverbed.
DNR waters resources Chief Dave Schade said that the competing water rights applications are precedent setting, and that it comes down to “saying yes to one applicant, and no to the other;” a decision the state has never had to make before.
