U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason has thrown out the Interior Department’s land exchange agreement for the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, a deal intended to allow for a road to connect King Cove to Cold Bay.
“This is big,” said Bridget Psarianos, one of the attorneys at Trustees for Alaska, the law firm representing nine environmental groups that oppose the road. “She basically, for all intents and purposes, wiped (the land exchange) off the books.”
The environmental groups say a road would damage vital habitat for migrating birds and other animals.
But the community of King Cove has for decades wanted a road to reach Cold Bay, which has an all-weather airport. King Cove community leader Della Trumble said the judge’s ruling is another in a long series of disappointments.
“We’ve been in this battle for 40 years,” Trumble said. “We’re going to continue to fight.”
Trumble calls the road a matter of life or death for her and her neighbors. Cold Bay is only 18 air miles away, but an overland route would have to go through the refuge. So when a medical emergency strikes, instead of driving to Cold Bay’s big runway, King Cove residents wait for a medivac flight at their airport, where only small planes can land. Bad weather is common. Sometimes the only option is a Coast Guard helicopter.
The Obama administration refused a land exchange offer, concluding a road would degrade “irreplaceable ecological resources.”
But President Trump’s first Interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, announced he would approve a land exchange for the road.
“Our priority was making sure a local voice was heard,” then-Secretary Zinke said last year.
Judge Gleason wrote that Zinke “ignored” the Obama administration’s findings about environmental impacts “without providing any reasoned explanation for this change.” She called Zinke’s change of policy arbitrary and capricious, a violation of the Administrative Procedures Act.
Gleason’s ruling seems to leave open the possibility that the land exchange could move forward if the Interior secretary explains his reasons.
Assistant Interior Secretary Joe Balash said the department is studying the decision and considering its next move.
“This obviously is a disappointing outcome,” Balash said. “Making good on this particular effort remains a priority for the department.”
The road is also a big priority for Alaska’s congressional delegation, particularly Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
Liz Ruskin is the Washington, D.C., correspondent at Alaska Public Media. Reach her at lruskin@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Liz here.
