Assembly supports Wishbone project

MAT-SU— After listening to three hours of testimony from Borough residents Tuesday night, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly voted 5 to 1 to adopt a resolution of support for Usibelli Coal Mine Inc.'s effort to renew a state permit for its Wishbone Hill project.

The meeting was moved to the Palmer Railroad Depot to accommodate the crowd of more than a 100 residents. Many of them wore orange t-shirts with a figure of a lung, bearing the message: Coal Dust Blows, while others wore plastic mining hats with the slogan: Mining Rocks Alaska!

Emotions ran strong, but the mood was civil. At the end of the night, the majority of Assembly Members amended the Mayor's resolution and expressed why they wanted to support renewed coal mining near Sutton.

Assembly Member Vern Halter, of District 7, said it was a very tough decision and he would have worded the resolution differently.

"I think we should have another Be it Resolved, if this is going to pass. That we respectfully ask the State of Alaska to monitor this permit, monitor it stridently for zero tolerance on the water permit and on the air quality permit, so on that pollution of coal dust I think it should be monitored very strictly to meet the standards that they say they can meet."

Listen to Assembly Member Halter here. on the upper right.

Assembly Member Mark Ewing, of Wasilla, said the MAT-SU was open for business.

"I'm going to support this resolution tonight to show that not just the Matanuska Valley but the State of Alaska is now OFB, Open for Business. And you know what, the Moe Udall approach and the Jimmy Carter restrictions imposed upon the state has denied us Alaskan jobs for the last 20-some years, also denied this country needed energy to bring back an economic recovery. So vote yes is for open for business, a vote no keeps the doors closed. Thank you."

Listen to Assembly Member Mark Ewing on the upper right.

Assembly Member Noel Woods, of the Palmer area, highlighted the past positive effect of the old Jonesville Mine on the local economy.

"Just before Jonesville closed down why they paid their miners with silver dollars. And it's remarkable because I was here, I was fire chief in the City of Palmer at that time. That the economic impact realization that occurred when that flood of silver dollars hit the monetary change in Palmer, grocery stores, Koslosky's was a department store, and the gas and oil companies, it was very interesting. That impact at that time made me realize that the only position that this argument does not cover is: what are we going to do to replace the development, monetary improvement, job improvement in our area."

Listen to Assembly Member Noel Woods on the upper right.

Assembly Member Ron Arvin, of District 3, said it's not the industry of the 1900s.

"Today is a different day, today is a new day. And I would hope that people can sit back and rest comfortably knowing that atrocities that happened at the turn of the century and up until the early 1970s until the environmental movement really gained a strong foothold and there were until strict federal laws and local laws put in place, things are different today. i have full faith and confidence that any mining operation, any resource extraction operation of any resource, done today, is done on a completely different platform. And with that I'll be supporting this."

Listen to Assembly Member Arvin on the upper right.

Assembly Member Cindy Bettine, of Big Lake/Knik Goose Bay area, said the decision on the resolution was very difficult and she wanted to help people on both sides of the issue. Bettine wanted to protect tourism by adding an amendment. "The MAT-SU Borough, what we should be concerned about is and what I am concerned about is economic development. And i just am not willing to trade tourism jobs for mining jobs, and I believe that we can have both. And that we should strive for both industries. And it isn't like tourism isn't economic development. I don't understand why we can't support both and let DNR know that it is of the interest of the MAT-SU Borough to have diversified economic development."

Listen to Assembly Member Bettine on the upper right.

Assembly Member Warren Keogh, who represents the area, voted against the resolution.

"A month ago, I wrote a letter to the mining section chief for the Dept. of Natural Resources in response to a letter that they wrote to us, the Assembly, several months ago. They said: the State is wiling to work with the Assembly, the community, and the developer in adopting additional standards that will minimize and mitigate the potential adverse environmental impacts of mining to the local citizenry. I hand delivered that letter four weeks ago, but unfortunately DNR has been unresponsive. But this is my small effort to explore what it is that they're saying, and is there is some common ground. If the Assembly, the Manager, DNR, Usibelli said, what do we have in common, what can we agree on to make this mining permit better in the prospect that this mine will not only possibly but will probably go forward?"

Listen to Member Keogh's quote on the upper right.

Listen to the Mayor's quotes from the meeting on The Mayor's Minute this week

http://bit.ly/MayorMinoncoalpermit

An Amendment added language that "encourages" Usibelli to export coal through Port MacKenzie. Another amendment by Assembly Member Cindy Bettine was adopted to add language that protects the tourism industry up the Glenn Highway, a National Scenic Byway. An amendment by Member Vern Halter adds protection language from the permit for air and water. Another amendment adds the support of the Sutton Community Council was added.

Read the Wishbone Resolution as amended.

For more information, call Public Affairs Director Patty Sullivan at 355-0103 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.