Alaska possesses approximately half the United States' coal resources, amounting to roughly 1/8th of world reserves. Growing demand for low cost energy has spurred multiple proposals for the development of devastating coal mines throughout Alaska for foreign export and domestic use. Coal extraction jeopardizes clean air and water, animals, and human health at every stage of the development cycle -- mining, transportation, combustion, and disposal.
In addition to the direct environmental and human health harm from mining, coal combustion releases toxics into the environment which travel to the Arctic from around the world. Coal-fired power plants are the largest single source mercury emissions attributed to human activity, and the most significant source of mercury entering into the Arctic via long-range transport on wind and water currents. Mercury in the Arctic enters the food web and biomagnifies where it can reach harmful levels at the higher tropic levels. This presents specific concern for Indigenous Peoples in the Arctic, who rely heavily on a traditional diet for cultural and physical well-being. Developing children are especially vulnerable to mercury, which is a neurotoxin linked to learning and developmental disorders and other adverse health effects.
- "Why is Mercury a Concern in the Arctic" by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme working group of the Arctic Council
- "Coal's Assault on Human Health" by Physicians for Social Responsibility
- Chickaloon Native Village's letter to the United Nations Independent Expert on the Human Right to Water and Sanitation
Alaska's western Arctic is thought to contain the largest coal deposits in the United States, with some estimates approaching 3.5 trillion tons of coal. The western Arctic coal deposit is located in an ecologically sensitive area adjacent to the Chukchi Sea where there are no roads, railroads, ports, or other supporting infrastructure. The Inupiat communities of Point Lay and Point Hope, which depend on marine mammals, fish, birds, land mammals, and edible plants for subsistence, would be directly impacted by coal exploration and development. In 2006, BHP Billiton Energy Coal signed an agreement with the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation to conduct a five-year exploration program. In 2009, BHP terminated exploration after determining that the project was not economically feasible. However, in 2010 BHP applied for a renewal of their leases and to maintain facilities used for exploration activities. The threat continues and Pacific Environment is determined to make sure that the Arctic doesn't suffer the same fate as many coal-mining communities battling effects such as:
- Release of methane, a greenhouse gas causing climate change
- Exposure to waste products including uranium, thorium, and other radioactive and heavy metal contaminants
- Acid mine drainage (AMD)
- Interference with groundwater and water table levels
- Impact of water use on flows of rivers and consequential impact on other land-uses
- Dust nuisance
- Tunnels, sometimes damaging infrastructure
- Rendering land unfit for the other uses
In 1997, Usibelli Coal Mine Company purchased coal leases in south central Alaska in what is known as the proposed Wishbone Hill coal strip mine. The lease area contains an approximate 14 million tons of bituminous coal, which will be sold and shipped to the Japanese company J-Power. The Wishbone Hill permit area is adjacent to private property, near hundreds of families, just five miles from the community of Sutton, Alaska and ten miles from Palmer, Alaska, and located on the traditional territory of the Chickaloon Native Village, a federally-recognized Athabascan Tribal Government. Regular blasting and up to 100 double-bedded coal trucks a day will have negative impacts on the neighboring communities and water and air quality.
In 2011, the Chickaloon Native Village filed a communication to the United Nations Independent Expert on the Human Right to Water and Sanitation in conjunction with her first official visit to the United States. The submission outlined concerns over the new open-pit coal strip mine in their traditional territory proposed by the Usibelli Corporation, including contamination of local drinking water sources as well as rivers, streams and groundwater that support salmon, moose and other animals and plants vital for subsistence, religious and cultural practices. The right to water for Chickaloon and other Indigenous Peoples is not solely access to safe drinking water and sanitation, but coupled with a range of other rights including Self-determination, subsistence, health, land and resources, cultural and religious practice and free, prior and informed consent. The Chickaloon Native Village filed the initial communication after receiving no response from the United States government or from the State of Alaska over the tribe's opposition to the mine.