[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 138 (Tuesday, September 13, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5663-S5664]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
KING COVE, ALASKA
Ms. MURKOWSKI. As we consider their bill--and I am pleased we have
moved forward with this managers' amendment--I wish to speak to an
amendment that is not part of a managers' package, and it is not an
amendment I will call up and ask for consideration, but it is an issue
I have presented to Members on the floor in the past. I wanted to take
just a few minutes this evening to bring about, again, discussion about
another community, a community in Alaska, a community that is in
crisis.
We have heard a lot about communities in crisis--whether it is Flint,
MI, whether it is those communities that have suffered the flooding in
Louisiana, but I have a community in Alaska--a little, small community
of less than 1,000 people--by the name of King Cove.
King Cove remains at risk, not because of flooding, not because of a
failed water system but because of a decision that was made by our own
government, a heartless decision made by the Federal Government. King
Cove's problem is not contamination in its drinking water supply, it is
something far more fundamental, and it is something that virtually all
of our communities--whether you are in Colorado or California--take for
granted. What the people in King Cove are asking for is a very simple
road, a reliable access to medical emergency transportation. They
simply want to be able to reach proper care in time in the event of an
injury or an illness.
So for those who aren't familiar with the small community of King
Cove, it is a remote fishing community. It is about 625 air miles
southwest of Anchorage. It is near the Alaska Peninsula. Eighty-five
percent of the residents there are Alaska Natives. Many are Aleut and
members of the federally recognized Agdaagux Tribe. As we have so many
communities in the State of Alaska--in fact, 80 percent of our
communities are not connected by road, but King Cove can only be
reached by boat or by airplane. Often that is a challenge. The
community is kind of nestled in this spit of land and is surrounded on
one side by ocean and on the other by high volcanic oceans.
This is an area that isn't known for its weather. It is very high
winds, huge storms, and dense fog all the way down to the ground. King
Cove does have a gravel airstrip it can access, and the small planes
that fly in and out regularly grapple with low visibility and very
strong turbulence that comes down off the mountains, forces the planes
down. You have gale-force crosswinds. It is not a place for beginner
pilots. I shouldn't even say that because it makes it sound too light.
These are very serious flying conditions, but that is how you get in
and out.
I did mention it is accessible by boat, but if it is stormy in the
air, it is also stormy on the water. Local mariners are facing the same
conditions, plus you add in 12-foot to 14-foot seas to contend with.
Most of the time you are saying: I am not going to travel when the
weather is that foul, but there are times when you have to travel, when
a medical emergency occurs that is beyond the capacity or the
capability of the local clinic there. Keep in mind, this is a very
small clinic. You don't have a doctor that can just get in a car and
provide services. We don't have a doctor there. We have a physician's
assistant. We may have doctors come occasionally, but you don't have
the medical care you need. If you have severe trauma or if you are a
woman in labor, if you have any kind of a serious illness, King Cove
Clinic just simply cannot provide the level of service and care you
need.
So what do you do? The first step is to transport those who are sick
and injured to the nearby community of Cold Bay. Cold Bay is host to a
10,000-foot-long all-weather runway. It is one of the longest runways
we have in the State. It was built after World War II. It is almost
always open because they don't get the same weather conditions. Here is
the beauty of it. It is only 30 miles from where you are in King
Cove. So really, the challenge here, for people who need to get out
quickly, is not getting from Cold Bay to Anchorage--the 625 air miles--
but from King Cove to Cold Bay, 30 miles. That is the toughest part of
the journey there.
Having seen this firsthand, I know that for the people who live in
King Cove--the Natives who live there--the best answer, really the only
answer, is to do what virtually every other community would do, which
is build this short connector road.
Keep in mind, we are talking about a distance of 30 miles between the
two communities. But it is not even 30 miles I am talking about. What
we are seeking is a short--about 10 to 11 miles--gravel, one-lane,
noncommercial-use road. That is what we are talking about. That is all
that is needed to connect two existing roads. There is one that runs
out of King Cove and another that runs out of Cold Bay. We need to link
these two communities to finally and fully protect the health and
safety of nearly 1,000 Alaskans. What we need is a 10-mile, one-lane,
gravel, noncommercial-use road.
One might say: Well, do it. Why haven't you built the road? The
reason is we cannot secure permission from our own Federal Government
because--and here is the catch--it would cross a small sliver of the
Izembek National Wildlife Refuge that was designated back in the 1980s
as Federal wilderness. They failed to consult with the Native people
who were in King Cove at the time, but that designation was put in
place. So we have been working through this for a period of years--
actually, a period of decades.
We thought we had this resolved back in 2009. We overwhelmingly
passed a lands bill through this Chamber that was signed into law by
this President, and it gave the Department of the Interior the ability
to approve a road for King Cove. It was a land exchange. And, quite
honestly, it was an unbelievable deal. Alaskans offered a roughly 300-
to-1 land exchange--a 300-to-1 land exchange--in the Federal
Government's favor.
The people of King Cove said: We need 206 acres for a road corridor,
and we, along with the State of Alaska, are willing to exchange 61,000
acres of our State lands and of our Native lands. Let me repeat that.
They were willing to give back to the Federal Government the lands that
were conveyed to the Natives upon settlement of their Native land
claims so they could get a small 206-acre corridor. So between the
Native lands and the State lands, a 300-to-1 land exchange was offered
up--a pretty sweet deal.
Against all odds, the Secretary of the Interior rejected that offer.
She did this on the day before Christmas Eve back in 2013. I think she
was hoping that no one was going to pay attention. She decided against
cherry-stemming these 206 acres--which, keep in mind, is about 0.07
percent of the refuge--because she said that somebody needs to speak up
for the birds. Someone needs to speak up and represent the waterfowl.
And she decided that protecting the people of King Cove while expanding
the Izembek Refuge by tens of thousands of acres was somehow just not
worth it.
To this day, years later, I still struggle with how she could come to
that decision. It was a horrible decision. It was cruel. It was
coldhearted against the Alaskan Native people of King Cove who care
deeply about these lands and have stewarded them for thousands of
years.
It was baffling. It is not as if there are no roads in this area.
Since World War II, we have had roads in this area. The birds have
flown. They have used it as their feeding site. It is not as if this is
this protected, pristine area. The Fish and Wildlife Service brags on
its Web site that local waterfowl hunting is world famous and
spectacular. Come on out. If you want to be a sportsman, come out and
go hunt on the refuge here. But you can't have this 10-mile, one-lane,
gravel, noncommercial-use road there because someone has to watch out
for the birds.
The decision reflects a double standard when you think about refuges
in other parts of the country. We have roads through our refuges
throughout the country, whether in Florida, Maryland, Texas, Louisiana,
North Carolina, Arizona, Montana, Missouri, Illinois,
[[Page S5664]]
New Mexico, Nevada, or Washington State. So this would not be the first
time you would have a small, narrow road through a refuge area.
It is also ignorant. It is ignorant of the fact that human lives have
been lost in King Cove as medevacs were attempted in bad weather. We
have had a total of 19 people who have died since 1980, either in plane
crashes or because they didn't last before they could be taken out.
The decision of the Department of the Interior was cynical. It was
callous. It devastated the people of King Cove, who finally thought
help was on the way. It shattered the trust responsibility the Federal
Government is supposed to have to our Native people, and it has left
these people in the same situation they have been in for decades now.
They are at the mercy of the elements. They have the potential to
suffer needless pain, perhaps even death, if they should have a medical
emergency.
People have said to me: Well, Lisa, there are lots of places in
Alaska where it is really tough to get in and out of, where weather
shuts you down and you are not connected by a road. So why is King Cove
so different, so special? It is not that they are so different or so
special; it is that there is an easier answer that is right there. In
many of the communities, there is not an easier answer. Again, we are
talking about a small connector road that could be the answer here.
It has been nearly 1,000 days since Secretary Jewell decided just to
wash her hands of this issue. She promised the local residents she was
going to figure out a way to help them gain reliable transportation to
Cold Bay. Instead of working toward a real solution, she has decided to
run the clock out. We have seen no engagement with local residents, no
budget request, no administrative action, just one topical study of
alternatives. And this alternative is one that has been examined before
and rejected before as unworkable.
As chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, I held an
oversight hearing earlier this year, and the Presiding Officer had an
opportunity to hear from the residents of King Cove, to hear what they
have gone through, the anguish this has caused their community. We
heard about King Cove's decades-long fight for a lifesaving road from
its mayor and from its spokeswoman of the Agdaagux Tribe. We heard
strong support for the road from Alaska's Lieutenant Governor, a member
of the Democratic Party and an Alaskan Native. We also heard from a
representative of the National Congress of American Indians.
We also heard some really unsettling things. We heard about the
Valium dispenser at the local medical clinic, where many of the
residents who have such anxiety and stress about flying--because of the
hazards of flying out of this little strip--are given two pills out of
these dispensaries, one for the flight out of King Cove and one for
when they return.
We also heard from a retired Coast Guard commander who led a mission
to locate a plane crash that killed four individuals, including a
fisherman who was being medevaced out because of an amputated foot. The
commander told us about the horror of finding these bodies still
upright, belted into their seats, with limbs that were frozen and could
not be untangled--a memory you just don't ever forget.
King Cove has now had a total of 51 more medevacs--51 more medevacs--
since Secretary Jewell's decision in December of 2013 when she rejected
this road. Our U.S. Coast Guard has carried out 17 of those medevacs,
risking their own crews to rescue those in need. We thank them for
that, though that is not the Coast Guard's mission. But they are there
when you call them.
Those patients who have been medevaced have been individuals in
terrible pain and trauma. One man had dislocated both hips when a 600-
pound crab pot fell on him. We have had elderly residents with internal
bleeding or sepsis or apparent heart attacks. We had an infant baby boy
who was struggling to breathe.
Just this past month--we think: Oh, summertime, August, good weather.
This was a bad month for King Cove. No fewer than four medevacs have
been carried out. One was an elderly woman who arrived at the medical
clinic with a hip fracture. She needed to be medevaced to Anchorage but
had to wait for more than 40 hours because the heavy fog on the ground
would not lift.
So that is what is happening in King Cove without a lifesaving road.
And I know, Mr. President, that King Cove, AK, is a long way from where
we are here. Many in this Chamber--most in this Chamber--will never go
there. Most people in America will not ever go there. But as remote as
they are, as small as this community is, I would remind my colleagues
this is still an American community. These are Americans. These are
people who deserve to have our help, and it is our job to assist them.
They are not asking for much.
We should not let this continue. The people of King Cove are
suffering, and it is entirely within our power to protect them. My
amendment, and what I have offered in legislation and in amendments, is
an opportunity, after decades of waiting and delay and frustration and
pain, to finally authorize a short, one-lane, gravel, noncommercial-use
road.
As I mentioned, I am not going to be raising my amendment to a vote
on the WRDA bill, but I do want the Senate to understand it is well
past time to help the good people of King Cove. We need to ensure they
have reliable access to emergency medical transportation, and we need
to do it this year so that we can put an end to the dangers, an end to
the anxiety, an end to the suffering this community is enduring because
of a decision by our own Federal Government.
With that, Mr. President, I thank the Chair, and I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. GARDNER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Daines). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
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