Alaska’s Aid Programs Sued Over Long Delays
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- Category: State News
- Created on Friday, 21 April 2023 15:36
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By CLAIRE STREMPLE
Alaska Beacon
An Anchorage resident filed a class action lawsuit this week seeking to force the state Division of Public Assistance to get cash assistance to vulnerable Alaskans in a timely manner.
Natilia Edwards filed her complaint with the Northern Justice Project, a civil rights firm.
This class action lawsuit comes on the heels of a lawsuit filed against the Department of Health earlier this year; 10 Alaskans sued the state because the division’s backlog caused an unlawfully long wait for food stamps.
The backlog in the Division of Public Assistance has most notably kept thousands of Alaskans waiting on food stamps and Medicaid, but it is affecting the other programs the division manages as well. Adult Public Assistance is a cash benefit for elderly, blind and disabled Alaskans that is intended to help them live independently.
“These are our most vulnerable neighbors,” said Northern Justice Project attorney Nick Feronti. “The blind, the disabled, and the elderly aren’t getting access to help they need.”
The state is legally required to process Adult Public Assistance applications in 30 days. Feronti said data shows that it’s taking more than twice that long. He said about 8,500 people have applied for cash assistance this fiscal year; the state has completed about a third of the applications on time.
“We aren’t asking for money. The state can’t make it up to them. People are literally going without food or gas money,” said Feronti. “We want a judge to order the state to drop everything and fix this.”
Department of Health spokesperson Shirley Young said in an email that the division has been making progress, but it isn’t processing applications within a desirable timeframe. She said the department has taken major steps to address the delays in all of its programs. It’s in the process of hiring and training 30 new application processing employees and has contracted workers to answer phone calls.
The state declined to comment on the litigation itself:
“The State of Alaska has recently become aware of this complaint and is waiting to be served with the court documents. The Department of Law cannot comment on the substance of the lawsuit until it is received,” wrote Communications Director Patty Sullivan.
https://alaskabeacon.com/claire-stremple
Two Rivers in SE On U.S. Endangered List
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- Category: State News
- Created on Friday, 21 April 2023 15:35
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By JAMES BROOKS
Alaska Beacon
A pair of connected Southeast Alaska waterways are on the 2023 list of America’s Most Endangered Rivers issued by a national environmental organization.
The Chilkat River and its biggest tributary, the Klehini River, are among the rivers cited as at risk by the organization American Rivers, which issued its annual list of top 10 threatened rivers on Tuesday.
The Chilkat and Klehini rivers flow through the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve, which holds the world’s largest congregation of eagles. The rivers also support salmon runs and a population of bears, and they are important to the traditional culture of the region’s Tlingit people.
But the rivers are threatened by a mine, the Palmer Project, that is located about 18 miles upstream from the Tlingit village of Klukwan, which is upstream from Haines.
The Palmer Project is a proposed underground copper and zinc mine currently in the exploratory phase. That phase includes digging a mile-long tunnel permitted by the state.
Even in exploration, the mine project threatens the rivers, the report said.
“The excavation will create huge waste storage piles and contaminated wastewater discharges in an area with extremely high levels of sulfide deposits, rainfall, snowfall, and seismic activity. The acidic wastewater, contaminated with heavy metals, hydrocarbons from vehicles and drilling muds, and explosive residues, will flow into the nearby creeks and the Chilkat and Klehini rivers. This development is extremely dangerous to the fragile ecosystem of the Chilkat Valley,” the American Rivers report said.
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation has issued a wastewater permit to the mine developers for the tunnel, which is planned to run beneath a glacier and be big enough to carry truck traffic.
However, the Chilkat Indian Village, the local tribal government, and several environmental organizations have challenged that permit. They are pushing for the federal government to intercede to ensure that Clean Water Act standards are met.
The mine is a major threat, the tribe’s president said in a statement.
“The natural riches of these lands and waters have allowed our people not only to survive, but to thrive, for untold generations. Endangering the Chilkat River ecosystem with a hard rock mine will have devastating effects on our Tribal people that rely on the Chilkat River and Chilkat Valley as our sustainable food source,” Chilkat Indian Village President Kimberley Strong said in the statement.
The Palmer Project is being developed as a joint venture of Vancouver-based American Pacific Mining Corp. and Dowa Metals and Mining of Japan. On its website, American Pacific Mining says the project is in the “advanced exploration” stage and will not require large capital expenditures. The website characterizes the project as a “low capex, low operating cost, high margin underground mining operation with attractive environmental attributes.”
Other rivers on the endangered list released Tuesday include the Colorado River section flowing through the Grand Canyon, the Ohio River, the Pearl River of Louisiana and Mississippi and the Pacific Northwest’s Snake River.
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https://alaskabeacon.com/james-brooks
Court Declines to Stop Work on Willow Road
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- Created on Thursday, 20 April 2023 14:57
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By YERETH ROSEN
Alaska Beacon
Planned construction of a gravel road for ConocoPhillips’ huge Willow project on Alaska’s North Slope is cleared to proceed, now that a federal appeals court has rejected petitions for a temporary injunction blocking that work.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday issued a one-page ruling rejecting requests from an Alaska Native organization and several environmental groups to delay ConocoPhillips’ construction work.
The appeals ruling came in a pair of lawsuits challenging the Biden administration’s March 13 approval of the Willow project. The project, which promises to be the biggest Alaska oil development in decades, would be the westernmost producing oil field on the North Slope. It is located within the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, and it would tap into reserves estimated at about 600 million barrels, producing a peak of 180,000 barrels per day.
The appeals ruling affirmed one made on April 3 by U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason that denied requests for an injunction. Gleason, in her 44-page ruling, said the economic harm caused by barring work in the remainder of the winter construction season outweighed whatever harm the plaintiffs argued would be inflicted if that work were to proceed. A factor tipping that balance toward rejection of an injunction, Gleason said, was “the strong legislative support at both the state and federal levels to proceed with the Winter 2023 Construction Activities,” referencing an amicus brief filed by the state’s congressional delegation and the Alaska Legislature.
ConocoPhillips, which started ice-road construction at Willow as soon as the Biden administration issued its favorable decision, welcomed Wednesday’s court news.
“ConocoPhillips is pleased with the Ninth Circuit’s decision. This allows the Willow project to continue moving forward during this already shortened work season,” company spokeswoman Rebecca Boys said by email.
The plaintiffs expressed disappointment.
“This ruling comes as more hard news and demonstrates again how the oil and gas industry exerts so much power over those whose health and food are most impacted and who will most experience the climate harm and disaster this project will fuel,” Siqiñiq Maupin, executive director of Sovereign Inupiat for a Living Arctic, one of the plaintiffs, said in a statement. “Corporate and political interests continue to sacrifice places like Teshekpuk Lake and communities like Nuiqsut for their profits. We will continue to fight this project and protect Teshekpuk Lake and do so every step of the way.”
Teshekpuk Lake is the largest body of freshwater on the North Slope and is the general region where oil development has occurred; Nuiqsut, an Inupiat village of about 500 people, is the community closest to Willow and other NPR-A development.
The underlying legal arguments challenging the Willow approval remain pending in court.
The 9th Circuit Court, which consolidated the two lawsuits into a single case in its ruling denying the injunction, called for the plaintiffs to submit opening briefs by May 2 and for the defendants to submit their responses by May 30.
The two lawsuits were filed in U.S. District Court on March 14, the day after the Biden administration approved a development plan that had been pared back from the plan approved by the Trump administration in 2020.
One lawsuit, represented by the Anchorage environmental law firm Trustees for Alaska, was filed by Sovereign Inupiat for a Living Arctic and five environmental groups. The other lawsuit was filed by six different environmental groups.
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https://alaskabeacon.com/yereth-rosen
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Thanks to the generosity and expertise of the the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska broadband department, Tidal Network ; Christopher Cropley, director of Tidal Network; and Luke Johnson, Tidal Network technician, SitkaSentinel.com is again being updated. Tidal Network has been working tirelessly to install Starlink satellite equipment for city and other critical institutions, including the Sentinel, following the sudden breakage of GCI's fiberoptic cable on August 29, which left most of Sitka without internet or phone connections. CCTHITA's public-spirited response to the emergency is inspiring.
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September 2004
Sheldon Jackson College’s Service Programs and Civic Engagement Project is teaming up with One Day’s Pay to provide volunteer service in remembrance of Sept. 11. ... To join the effort contact Chris Bryner.
50 YEARS AGO
September 1974
From On the Go by SAM: The Greater Sitka Arts Council has issued its first newsletter – congratulations! Included with the newsletter is an arts event calendar.
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