City proposes conditions for mine

Juneau officials hope to place 45 conditions on the proposed Kensington gold mine before granting Coeur Alaska approval to develop the project.

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The Juneau planning commission will hold a public hearing at 7 tonight on whether the city should grant Coeur Alaska an allowable use permit to develop the controversial mine, 45 miles northwest of Juneau.

The city's planned conditions on the mine address traffic, lighting, safety, dust, noise, visual impacts, erosion and other physical impacts from development of the project, said Peter Freer, planning supervisor for Juneau's community development department.

Tim Arnold, the Kensington project manager, said Coeur Alaska believes the city's 45 proposals to the commission are "reasonable."

Later, the planning commission will review building permits for the mine and the ferry terminals planned in Berners Bay, Freer said.

So far no final permits - state, federal, or local - have been approved yet. If certain parts of the proposed project changed, the planning commission would possibly need to revisit the proposal.

"The planning commission has a duty here to ensure that their review of the project will protect the borough's interests," said Kat Hall, a grassroots coordinator for the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council in Juneau.

Hall thinks the city's review of the project has left some unanswered questions. For example, the city's planning report on the mine, released last week, doesn't stipulate kinds of dust suppressants Coeur Alaska should use on the mine's haul road. "Will (the suppressants) be toxic?" she asked. "If so, do they plan water quality monitoring?"

Among the city's 45 recommendations to the commission:

• Kensington workers would ride a daily bus from a park-and-ride facility in Juneau to a marine terminal at Cascade Point, where they would pick up a ferry to Slate Creek Cove and the mine. The bus service would help prevent an increase in traffic accidents in the northern portion of Glacier Highway, according to the city.

• No work in stream beds would be allowed that could harm egg incubation or out-migration of salmon smolts.

• No marine construction could occur in Slate Creek Cove during the spring concentration of forage fish.

• Coeur would sponsor a Berners Bay working group to coordinate and promote communication between the mine, public agencies and residents.

Freer said the planning commission may or may not vote on the allowable use permit tonight. "It depends on how many people show up to testify," he said.

At a recent public hearing in Juneau sponsored by state and federal agencies reviewing environmental permits for the project, about 55 percent who spoke supported the mine. But about 45 percent of the speakers opposed the company's plans to use Berners Bay for marine transport of workers and a sub-alpine lake for mine tailings storage.