Murkowski submits comments supporting Ambler Access Project

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) recently reiterated support for the Ambler Access Project, which would facilitate the development of a closed industrial surface transportation access road to the currently inaccessible mineral deposits in Alaska’s Ambler Mining District. 

“We write… to urge the Department of the Interior (DOI), through the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), to promptly complete its review on remand given the importance of this project to both Alaska and the nation,” wrote Sen. Murkowski and U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) in a Nov. 3 letter sent to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.

Their letter is in response to the DOI’s September request for public input as it scopes a supplemental environmental impact statement (EIS) for the project, which the BLM says includes construction of a new 211-mile roadway that would be open only to mining-related industrial use and closed to the public. The project will include bridges, material sites, maintenance stations, and related infrastructure and utilities.

Congress in 1980 first recognized the importance of the project and designated it for expedited treatment and guaranteed a right-of-way across certain federal lands to the Ambler Mining District, which sits on extensive mineral resources, including copper, silver, gold, lead, and zinc. 

“These minerals are necessary for the manufacturing of renewable energy infrastructure and are crucial to most modern defense systems,” wrote Sen. Murkowski and her colleague. 

Now, 40 years later, the DOI and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers most recently in March 2020 issued a final EIS for the project, which then was authorized in a Joint Record of Decision (JROD) in July 2020. 

“The final EIS and JROD were the culmination of an exhaustive, four-year, collective effort by the career staff of BLM, the National Park Service, and the Army Corps of Engineers, working in cooperation with the State of Alaska, AIDEA, and other stakeholders,” the senators wrote, adding that “these efforts more than satisfied the requirements of” federal law regarding the project. 

And given the delays to date and the strategic importance of the project, Sen. Murkowski and her colleague pointed out that it is essential that the DOI limit the scope of its supplemental EIS.

“Further setbacks for this project will ultimately benefit no one, while directly undermining the administration’s own policy goals,” they wrote.