5 Egregious Aspects of BLMs Final Supplemental Environmental
Impact Statement for the Ambler Road
5. The SEIS was a voluntary remand and not court-ordered.(aka agency opportunism and political manipulation)
4. The Final SEIS claimed that there could be impacts on 66 subsistence communities that are within the Western Arctic Caribou Herd (WACH) range. The WACH range is over 100 million acres which is almost the size of California at 105 million acres. For perspective, if this project were in California, the project would be the size of Hearst Castle at 640 acres and BLM is analyzing the impact of the entire State of California.
3. BLM does not have jurisdiction over the entire road. They only have jurisdiction over approximately 12% (only approximately 25 miles or 640 acres of federal-managed lands) of the project.
2. ANILCA Section 201 (4)(b) “(b) Congress finds that there is a need for access for surface transportation purposes across the Western (Kobuk River) unit of the Gates of the Arctic National Preserve (from the Ambler Mining District to the Alaska Pipeline Haul Road) and the Secretary shall permit such access in accordance with the provisions of this subsection.” A “No Action” decision violates this Congressional law.
And the winner is:
1.BLM does NOT have the discretion to deny access! ANILCA states the Secretary of the Interior “shall” grant access to the State of Alaska and private landowners holding claims to minerals surface transportation access across federal land. Sections 1110(b) and 1323(b) guarantee reasonable access rights.
