King Cove residents are guardedly optimistic that a hearing in the House Resource Committee in Washington, D.C., Oct. 31, will be a step toward linking the villages of King Cove and Cold Bay on the Alaska Peninsula by road.

For more than two decades, the people of isolated King Cove have sought a solution to the access problem imposed by the creation of the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.

“We didn’t expect to have to fight for a road until it was turned into wilderness,” King Cove Mayor Ernest Weiss said.

Most of the refuge, 300,000 acres, was designated as wilderness in 1980 under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.

Land surrounding the community was designated wilderness without consulting King Cove residents, Weiss said. The community has been isolated from the third largest airstrip in Alaska 25 miles away in Cold Bay.

The Izembek Enhancement Act of 2007 seeks to increase the size of the refuge by more than 61,000 acres, with Sitkinak Island and possibly Chirikof Island thrown in to sweeten the deal in exchange for a 206-acre easement to build a one-lane, 27-mile gravel road to Cold Bay. Nine of those miles cross the refuge.

“King Cove is isolated. But if you get to Cold Bay, you can get anywhere in the world,” Weiss said. “It’s a major land trade proposal where the King Cove Corp. and the State of Alaska together are putting 61,000 acres on the table in exchange for a 208-acre easement through the wilderness for a one-lane gravel road.”

In the late 1980s, a road between the two communities was recommended in a regional transportation plan and the idea gained momentum as an important step for economic infrastructure and safe travel between the two villages.  

By 1998, the Alaska delegation convinced Congress to consider the road through Izembek. The federal government rejected the road, but forged what was thought to be a solution to the access problem at that time. If U.S. taxpayers floated a $37 million transportation and hovercraft proposal, no road would pass through the Congressionally designated Wilderness of Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. 

The deal was accepted and the funds were used to purchase a hovercraft, establish a partial road and upgrade King Cove’s medical clinic.

The hovercraft began operations in August of this year. It is the largest ever built in the United States, with a capacity of 49 passengers. In reasonable weather, fully loaded, cruise speed is around 35 knots. It can operate at a reduced speed in strong winds and waves.

Before August, the craft made a few medical emergency runs, but Weiss said it had some major problems. When it arrived in King Cove, one of the first things it did was break down.

“They had problems with the shafts. There is a sister craft just like it that travels in the U.K. from Edinburgh. We had a problem and they had the same problem. Now they’re ahead of us with passengers, so when they have a problem, we know we’re going to have a problem,” he said.

The hovercraft is owned and operated by the Aleutians East Borough, which consists of six small villages. Weiss said it is not making a profit.

“My understanding of the situation is it is going to take $1,800 in income every day just to break even,” he said. “You have to price the tickets so people will buy them. If it costs too much more than an airplane ticket, then they won’t buy them.”

Wilderness Society associate regional director Nicole Whittington-Evans said owners of the hovercraft are aiming to make it a break-even operation.

“The situation right now is they have not given the hovercraft a chance and they really don’t know fully what the costs associated with it are going to be and how those will balance out with what they are charging for ferry rides, etc.,” she said.

The Wilderness Society remains opposed to a road through the refuge.

“We believe the health and safety issues for the community of King Cove were taken care of when Congress appropriated $37.5 million through the King Cove Health and Safety Act to work on transportation needs and health clinic needs of the community,” Whittington-Evans said.

King Cove spent $2 million for upgrades to their medical clinic, including a state-of-the-art telemedicine facility for life-threatening emergencies, she said.

Potential road problems

In 2004, work began on a 17-mile road to the northeast corner of Cold Bay to what was allocated as the hovercraft terminal. A section of road is complete, but the road remains unfinished because construction workers hit unstable volcanic soils and mountainous terrain. The road would be the beginning of the long-hoped-for access to Cold Bay.

“The cost of putting it through there became over their budget,” Whittington-Evans said. “They spent a lot of money on this portion of the road, in fact more than they originally were thinking they would.”

She estimates more than $25 million has already been spent and millions more will be spent finishing the road.

“It would go through one of the premier wetland areas of not only the nation, but of the Western Hemisphere. Building roads in wetlands is just extremely costly and difficult to do,” she said.

The completed section of the road does not traverse through wetlands, but if a road were to be built to Cold Bay it would cut through wetlands.

The road would incur high maintenance costs in the winter. It would require snowplows to keep it open during harsh weather. King Cove is known for high winds, blowing snow and ice. In an emergency, it would likely take two snowplows to create access.

“It is going to take them a long time just to try to get somebody around to Cold Bay,” Whittington-Evans said.

She said the road would provide access not only for individual vehicles, but a cannery operated by Peter Pan Seafoods in King Cove would be able to operate semi-tractor-trailers transporting fish during the summer.

The Wilderness Society opposes the road because they believe it would be built through a sensitive, and therefore protected, area. A road would potentially fragment animal habitat and alter the wetlands.

The Izembek National Wildlife Refuge is an important area for nesting swans, bears, salmon and spring and fall migrations of caribou herds.

Other risks of creating the road include accidents and avalanches, she said.

She added that a study by a leading company determined a hovercraft would be able to operate 95 to 98 percent of the time.

“If the hovercraft is given a chance, it will serve that community pretty darn well,” she said.

Will persistence pay?

Weiss believes there is a good chance Fish and Wildlife will officially approve the land swap.

“We’ve always known that the common-sense solution to our access problem is a road,” he said.

Senate Bill 1680 is in the first step of the legislative process. Weiss hopes the process can conclude before the end of 2008.

“If we don’t do that, we see our window of time getting shorter,” he said. “We’re excited, but we don’t want to get too excited.”

Mirror writer Deanna Cooper can be reached via e-mail at dcooper@kodiakdailymirror.com.