A lawsuit was filed Tuesday to stop a 211-mile-long industrial road to be build through Alaskan wilderness. This map shows routes considered for the road through Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve.

A lawsuit was filed Tuesday to stop the Trump administration from building a 211-mile-long industrial road that would cross Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve and the Kobuk Wild and Scenic River in Alaska.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management last week granted a right-of-way for construction of the road, which would be used primarily to access a mining district. The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority had been pushing the road as part of the proposed Ambler Mining District Industrial Access Project.

The road is to be built from the Dalton Highway to reach a mine site near Ambler, a tiny village believed to sit near one of the world's richest copper deposits. Trilogy Metals, a main stakeholder of the road, believes the road and mine will bring high-paying jobs, training, and educational opportunities to a region suffering from high unemployment and lack of economic opportunity.

The area encompassing the mining district serves as habitat for salmon, whitefish and sheefish as well as a crucial migration corridor for Alaska's largest caribou herd, the Western Arctic. Approximately 20 miles of the proposed road would cross Park Service lands in the Kobuk River unit of Gates of the Arctic National Preserve. The remainder of the route traverses Bureau of Land Management, state, and Native Corporation lands. 

In a 66-page filing Tuesday, opponents said the land-management agencies that approved the road failed to do their due diligence in safeguarding the environment. They said the road "would cross roughly 2,900 streams and 11 major rivers, including the Kobuk — a designated Wild and Scenic River — and would permanently fill over 2,000 acres of wetland."

The lawsuit described a litany of issues, noting that the road's construction would require gravel pits to be mined every ten miles to provide roadbed, that "maintenance stations and camps" would be built along the way to support vehicles and crews, and that the path goes through permafrost as well as "areas with sulfide minerals that have the potential to cause acid rock drainage."

In addition, the governing agencies failed to adequately consider the impacts of the mining district itself, the lawsuit stated.

“We remain committed to defending the Brooks Range, and preventing this destructive, unwanted, and unnecessary road from cutting through the heart of one of the largest intact ecosystems remaining in North America,” said Solaris Gillispie, the clean water and mining manager for the Northern Alaska Environmental Center. “The harm this project would cause to the lives and livelihoods of those who depend on the clean water, wild foods, cultural, spiritual, and recreational opportunities this place provides would be irreparable. Additionally, the road is a completely unacceptable use of public funds. Our state must commit to supporting Alaskans through challenging times, not subsidizing Outside mining companies. All Alaskans should be outraged at this waste of state money and dismissal of local wishes.”

Local communities, including Allakaket, Ambler, Bettles, Evansville, Huslia, Kobuk, Kotzebue, Koyukuk, Louden, Rampart, Ruby, and White Mountain have voiced opposition to the road, according to the plaintiffs, who said the road would fragment caribou habitat, and diminish food security, water quality and access to hunting, fishing and traditional activities.

During the public comment phase "(G)roups extensively critiqued the shortcomings of this cumulative effects analysis, including but not limited to the: failure to describe impacts of surface disturbance associated with the mines; failure to consider direct, indirect and cumulative hydrological, wetlands, water quality, and air quality effects of proposed mining projects; failure to analyze impacts of foreseeable access roads associated with mining; failure to include any estimate of gravel needs for mining activities; and failure to adequately consider impacts from releases of hazardous substances," said the filing.

“Amid a global pandemic and economic crisis, the Trump administration has fast-tracked planning and disregarded the severe impacts that this billion-dollar private industrial mining road will have on national parklands, Alaska Native communities and one of our planet’s last ecologically intact landscapes,” said Alex Johnson, Alaska program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association. “The National Parks Conservation Association rejects the administration’s attempt to push through this industrial road that would slice through Gates of the Arctic National Preserve, cross the Kobuk Wild River, and interfere with one of Earth’s greatest land migrations, of the Western Arctic Caribou Herd.”

Joining NPCA in filing the lawsuit were the Northern Alaska Environmental Center, the Alaska Wildlife Alliance, the Center for Biological Diversity, Earthworks, the National Audubon Society, the Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society, and Winter Wildlands Alliance.

In the lawsuit (attached below) that seeks to reverse the Trump administration's decision to push through the road, the groups argue that the BLM, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the National Park Service "failed to comply with numerous federal statutes and regulations that impose important protections for the lands, wildlife, communities, and aquatic resources of the region. These laws require thorough, transparent, and careful analysis of the significant impacts of the agencies’ decisions and mandate that the agencies protect public resources and values within the project area."

The landscape the road would bisect is matchless in its wild beauty, they said.

"The wilderness values of the southern Brooks Range and Gates of the Arctic are incomparable. The area provides unique opportunities to study and understand ecosystems and functions on a landscape scale," the lawsuit reads. "The undeveloped and undisturbed character of the area offers world-class wilderness recreation opportunities. The integrity of the area’s ecosystems provides unique habitat to numerous wildlife species. In short, the ecological, cultural, and wilderness values of the area are extraordinary."

The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act requires that right-of-way access be permitted across Park Service lands for this project. However, the plaintiffs allege that guidelines set down by ANILCA for such projects were not adhered to. The lawsuit also notes that under Section 206 of ANILCA, all Park Service lands in Alaska created by the act were withdrawn from "all forms of appropriation or disposal under the public land laws, including location, entry, and patent under the United States mining laws, disposition under the mineral leasing laws."

"No other provision of ANILCA overrides this withdrawal for purposes of the Ambler Road," the lawsuit said.