Village tired of rejecting bridge proposal
NONDALTON: Officials protested before; now residents must vote.

February 10, 2007
Anchorage Daily News (AK)
By Elizabeth Bluemink

How many times do people have to say no for it to stick?

In Nondalton, apparently, three times and counting.

The small community, located across the Inlet and over the mountains about 200 miles from Anchorage, weighed in twice last year -- at the city and tribal level -- to reject construction of a proposed bridge connecting the village to Iliamna. The one-lane bridge over the 600-foot-wide Newhalen River involves planting three large piers in the water, spaced about 100 feet apart.

Now Nondalton has to vote again. But this time, the Southwest Alaska village worries about being outweighed by six neighboring villages.

The Lake and Peninsula Borough Assembly, unhappy about the no votes, wants the other towns strung around Iliamna Lake to vote as well, towns whose residents aren't as affected by the proposed bridge, say Nondalton leaders.

They're infuriated by the new vote.

"We don't know how the borough can do this. It's pitting government against government," complained Nancy Delkittie, a Nondalton tribal council member.

"We had an election (and residents) opposed the bridge design. To our knowledge, that should have been the last say-so," said Nondalton city administrator Dawayne Constantine.

Borough officials say Nondalton voters last year only rejected the bridge design and failed to address the most important issue.

"Do they want any bridge at all? That's the question," said Jeff Currier, borough administrator.

The borough's ballot proposition includes five paragraphs describing the project and its value to the region: The borough has wanted the bridge for the past 10 years and Southwest Alaska will lose millions of dollars to another part of Alaska if the bridge proposal goes down, it warns voters.

The bridge and road upgrades on either side of the Newhalen River cost an estimated $13 million, state transportation department spokesman Mike Chambers said Friday.

Nondalton residents object to the bridge for a variety of reasons, town leaders said this week. Some voted no because they worry it will cause boat accidents, said tribal council president Jack Hobson. Many residents have their fish camps in the area where the bridge would cross the river, he said.

Some village officials said they'd support a suspension bridge that wouldn't require piers in the river. DOT says a suspension bridge would be too expensive. "It would be many millions more," Chambers said.

But there's more to this fight. The bridge has another opponent: Anchorage money manager Bob Gillam, who owns a private lodge near Nondalton. He and Trout Unlimited have sued in federal court to block the project, saying a more in-depth environmental impact study is needed.

Gillam and Nondalton residents worry the bridge is being built to facilitate development of the controversial Pebble Mine.

"We're afraid that it will become part of an industrial road to a mine," Hobson said.

The massive Pebble copper and gold exploration project is about 20 miles southwest of Nondalton. In 1995, the Lake and Peninsula Borough sent a letter to DOT listing Pebble as a top reason to build the bridge and upgrade the Iliamna-Nondalton Road.

The bridge and roads were needed to "transport the ore to tidewater and to allow local workers to make the daily commute from their homes in Iliamna, Newhalen and Nondalton," the letter stated.

Northern Dynasty Mines Ltd., the company exploring Pebble, now says it won't use the Nondalton bridge.

The one-lane bridge wouldn't be strong enough to support industrial vehicles, anyway, Currier said.

As designed, the bridge has a 44,000-pound weight limit, meaning it couldn't support a vehicle larger than a small dump truck or school bus, he said.

"There's no ulterior motive on the borough's part," he said.

Votes have to be postmarked by Feb. 27. The borough assembly will look at the results at its March 20 meeting, Currier said.

"They want to know once and for all whether they should pursue this project to completion or let it drop."

Date: 1/10/2007