[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 95 (Thursday, June 21, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4420-S4421]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. MURKOWSKI (for herself and Mr. Begich):
  S. 3330. A bill to authorize the establishment of a Niblack mining 
area road corridor in the State of Alaska, and for other purposes; to 
the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce legislation 
that would potentially help in solving a significant unemployment 
problem in my home state of Alaska. Today, joined by my colleague, 
Senator Mark Begich, I introduce the Niblack Mining Area Road 
Authorization Act to permit road access to proposed multi-mineral mines 
on southeast Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska.
  Prince of Wales Island, formerly the main area for timber activity in 
Southeast Alaska, has fallen on hard times during the past decade. In 
1990, when Alaska's timber industry in total harvested more than 1.1 
billion board feet of timber, Prince of Wales was the center of 
activity. In 1994, for example, timber jobs accounted for 32.8 percent 
of all wages on the island. Six years later, with total regional 
harvests having fallen to about 350 million board feet, timber 
accounted for less than 19.8 percent of wages on the island, according 
to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Today, 
with total harvests of timber being just above 100 million board feet a 
year in the region--just 35 million board feet being harvested from 
federal lands in 2011--and timber jobs statewide having fallen from 
about 4,000 to just over 400, Prince of Wales has been particularly 
hard hit. According to the State, timber jobs have fallen by more than 
1,700 positions on the island.
  As of April, the unemployment rate on the island was ``down'' to 15 
percent, compared to 18.1 percent in March. The rate in the Hoonah-
Angoon census area, which covers the other potentially significant 
timber area in Southeast, stood at 20 percent in April, compared to 
25.6 percent in March, 2012. Those rates are nearly 8 percent to 12 
percent higher than the national average and higher than traditional 
rates, even after out migration from the island over the past decade.
  While the Viking Lumber Co. of Klawock remains the largest private-
sector timber employer on the island, the island, the third largest in 
the United States, is badly in need of new employment opportunities. 
Fortunately today's high metal prices are encouraging a resurgence of 
mineral development on the 2,231 square-mile island.
  Currently, Heatherdale Minerals of Canada is considering reopening 
the Niblack Mine, a gold, copper, zinc and silver deposit. The company 
is in advanced exploration and development study of the estimated 9 
million-ton mine, forecast to cost $150 million to $200 million to 
reopen. The mine, likely to last at least 12 years, is forecast to 
produce 1,500 tons of ore per day and require 130 workers at the mine 
site, and another 60 at a processing mill, which could be located near 
the site, or in Ketchikan, AK, 40 vessel miles away.
  The Niblack property is also close to another mineral deposit that is 
in the advanced stages of economic feasibility review, the Bokan 
Mountain Rare Earth Elements, REE, mine. Bokan Mountain, being 
considered for opening by Ucore Inc. of Canada, likely will employ 200 
workers. It, too, will involve an investment of between $150 million to 
$200 million for the mine and a preliminary tailings processing plant 
to process the heavy rare earths, REEs, located at the site of a former 
uranium mine. Both mines currently estimate they could be open within 
three to four years, depending on final economic reviews and current 
permit approval timeframes. Bokan Mountain is located about 28 miles 
south of Niblack and can be accessed by boat by traveling down the 
relatively protected Moira Sound to the end of South Arm.
  The two mines could produce substantial numbers of high-paying jobs 
for the residents of southern Southeast Alaska. Niblack, for example, 
predicts the average salary for mine workers at its facility will be 
$80,000 a year. The problem of getting those jobs to people who need 
them is one of logistics.
  There currently is no road access to reach either mine site, both 
likely to be supplied by boat from Ketchikan, Alaska. That means that 
potential workers on Prince of Wales will need to travel by boat or 
more likely by plane to Ketchikan, in order to turn around and take a 
mine boat back to the island to report for work--a costly, time-
consuming, often unpleasant and, sometimes, dangerous process given sea 
conditions in Southeast Alaska. Or they will need to pilot their own 
small boats to the mine site, a hazardous process given that reaching 
Niblack from the community of Thorne Bay to the north--a site that is 
located on the island's road system--will require a daily 60-mile one-
way boat trip down perilous Clarence Strait, a difficult water body 
during fall, winter, and spring storms when seas can easily top 20 feet 
waves.
  But the problem could be solved, if a road could be extended the 
roughly 26.3 miles to connect the Niblack mine, by means of existing 
logging roads, to the State highway system on the island. Such a road 
will involve at least 2.5 miles of logging road reconstruction and the 
construction of 26.3 miles of new road. Those roads, if built to 
existing logging road standards, are estimated to cost $7.075 million--
the cost

[[Page S4421]]

certainly rising if the roads are built to Federal Aid Urban Highway 
standards. The issue is that 18.3 miles of that new construction is 
across federal lands in the Tongass National Forest and, more 
importantly, across areas classified as inventoried roadless under the 
2001 U.S. Forest Service roadless rule, as it was reimposed on the 
Tongass in 2009.
  Looking at the topography of the area, located inside the Eudora 
inventoried roadless area, the road would begin at the Haida, Hydaburg, 
Native village corporation's West, Cholmondeley, Arm sort yard and head 
Southeast through the Big Creek Valley and climb to a mountain pass at 
the roughly 1,400-foot elevation. From there it will drop onto land 
owned by the Kootznoowoo Native village corporation of Angoon and 
follow existing logging roads that lie on the western side of the South 
Arm. The route then runs south and parallels South Arm on the west side 
until the southern end of the bay is reached. Then the route follows 
the shoreline of the south end of the South Arm until the far southeast 
corner of the bay is reached--the location of existing cabins and a 
State of Alaska Department of Fish and Game fish weir. From this point, 
there are two potential route alternatives: the 1A route continues to 
run in a southerly direction through a mountain pass of slightly more 
than 500-feet elevation passing two unnamed lakes. Once it reaches the 
shoreline of Dickman Bay, the road turns in a more easterly direction 
and runs across the south end of Kugel Lake and Luelia Lake, and the 
north end of Kegan Lake. From the 900-foot elevation pass on the west 
side of Luelia Lake, the route continues to run in an easterly fashion 
and must cross 1,200- and 1,400-foot passes before the route turns 
north to reach the Niblack mine at tidewater. That total route is 26.3 
miles of new construction and a total distance of 28.8 miles. There is 
an alternative, Route 1B, early in the route corridor to reduce the 
elevation and add switchbacks required to reach the first pass--an 
alternative that would add 1.9 miles to the road.
  There is another alternative route, Route 2A, that leaves from the 
same location and runs on the same route until the south end of South 
Arm. The second route then turns in a northerly direction and continues 
to follow the eastern shoreline of South Arm, Cholmondeley, for roughly 
1.5 miles. The route then turns in an eastern direction and climbs 
through a mountain pass of about 900-feet elevation. From this pass, 
the route descends into the existing road system on Kootznoowoo lands 
near the south shores of Miller Lake. At the eastern terminus of these 
existing roads, the new route picks up again and continues in a 
southeast direction along the south end of Clarno Cove and Cannery Cove 
until Cannery Point is reached. From there the route turns into a 
southerly direction and climbs to another mountain pass of roughly 
1,000-feet elevation. The route then follows the hillside to the west 
of Niblack Lake and meets another mountain pass of the same elevation 
and then descends in a southerly direction along the west side of 
Myrtle Lake to reach the Niblack Mine and tidewater. That route 
involves 24.6 miles of new construction, 6.1 miles of road 
reconstruction and involves a total length of 30.7 miles, thus costing 
more. It involves, however, constructing only one pass higher than 
1,200 feet, compared to 3 on the first route, but may have more 
environmental impacts given its route along Cannery Cove and Niblack 
Lake.
  I mention the two detailed routes only to indicate that substantial 
work has been done to select a potential road corridor to the Niblack 
mine and to make clear that I am not prejudging the route with the 
fewest environmental impacts. I am leaving that to the Forest Service 
to decide after an environmental assessment or impact statement is 
undertaken. The legislation I am introducing simply says that the 
Forest Service should permit development of a road along one of the two 
routes, picking the route that both minimizes the costs, while also 
minimizing the effects on surface resources, prevents unnecessary 
surface disturbances and that complies with all environmental laws and 
regulations.
  This road, I need to point out, will not set a precedent in any way 
weakening the inventoried roadless rule's implementation in Alaska, 
regardless of how I feel about that rule. Under the original 
regulations governing roadless areas in Alaska issued by the Clinton 
Administration in January 2001, Section 294.12(b)(7) permits roads to 
be built across inventoried roadless areas if needed ``in conjunction 
with the continuation, extension or renewal of a mineral lease on lands 
that are under lease by the Secretary of the Interior. . . . Such road 
construction or reconstruction must be conducted in a manner that 
minimizes effects on surface resources, prevents unnecessary or 
unreasonable surface disturbance, and complies with all applicable 
lease requirements.''
  The patents on the Niblack property certainly predate the creation of 
the roadless rule. The mine was discovered in the late 19th century, 
according to the U.S. Forest Service. Modest copper production occurred 
between 1902 and 1908 and modern exploration on the 2,000-acre site 
began in 1974, some 150 patented claims being in place at the mine.
  The point is that Niblack is certainly a real prospect that offers 
the likelihood of real employment for many who are unemployed on Prince 
of Wales Island, if they simply can access the site from their homes in 
Craig, Klawock, Hydaburg, Thorne Bay, Kasaan, Whale Pass and even 
Coffman Cove, located on the northeast end of the island. The need for 
these jobs has prompted the City Council of Craig to formally request 
Congress to accelerate the approval of a road corridor to the mine 
site. Such a road could be built by the mine, but more likely funded 
and built by the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public 
Facilities at state expense. Workers could then access jobs at the 
Bokan Mountain facility by workboat, should a route to that mine never 
be approved.
  It makes no sense in a state that already contains 58 million acres 
of formal wilderness, and in the Tongass National Forest, that already 
contains nearly 6.4 million acres of parks and wilderness areas, to bar 
construction of a road that does not cross any wilderness areas, but 
could provide a good income to a third of all of the people, 363 
people, unemployed on the island as of April 2012, according to the 
Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
  I would hope that this Congress would look favorably on allowing a 
road to this mining area, so that residents on the island can get the 
jobs they so desperately need in the years ahead.
                                 ______