The Anchorage Assembly Democrat majority has prioritized the removal of the hydro dam and associated Anchorage electricity and drinking water from the Eklutna River and will meet with the leaders of the village of Eklutna on Sept. 5 to advance those goals with a formal joint resolution.
The Democrats controlling the Anchorage Assembly want to delay a decision that Gov. Mike Dunleavy must make soon on whether to remove the dam; members hope to wait until a Democrat governor is in office — one who will take action to dismantle the dam, originally built in 1929, and rebuilt twice after that, which powers more than 24,600 residential homes for an entire year.
Eklutna hydroelectric power is the lowest cost renewable energy in Southcentral Alaska; it also provides power to areas of the MatSu Valley and nearly all of the water or Anchorage.
The governor needs to make a decision by October on the 1991 reauthorization of the dam. There has been a public comment period that now ended, and there is no legal language to delay the process, which is what the Assembly majority wants; it is asking for a two-year delay.
As much as it is trying to assert authority, the Assembly doesn’t have legal standing in the decision-making process, as the municipality has no member or voting rights on the ownership committee, which is made up of Chugach Electric Association and Matanuska Electric Association.
The Assembly has sent up every smoke signal possible to indicate it is likely to sue the governor and other related entities, such as the Regulatory Commission of Alaska, if it doesn’t get its way.
Rick Whitbeck, Alaska state director of Power the Future, said that it’s time for rational voices to prevail.
“Like petulant children crying over a toy at the supermarket, the Anchorage municipality leadership continues to whine over a process they have no legal standing in. Their continued tactics will only lead to taxpayer and ratepayer expenditures on a cause they have no hope of winning legally.”
Whitbeck called for the reauthorization and its five-year process to be approved “and for Eklutna to continue to provide always-on, always available, low-cost power and water to Anchorage”
The village of Eklutna is reported to have around 70 members, although the exact tribal roll is hard to determine. Most, if not all of the members live throughout the municipality and depend on the power and water from the Eklutna project. The municipality has lifted the village to a government-to-government status and now meets with village leaders on a formal basis, which is what the Aug. 5 meeting is scheduled as.
On the agenda for the joint meeting on Sept. 5:
“Resolution AR No. AR 2024-276, a resolution of the Anchorage Municipal Assembly authorizing the Anchorage Assembly Chair to sign a Joint Resolution of the Anchorage Assembly and the Native Village of Eklutna in support of exploration of alternative solutions to attain our shared policy goals for full restoration of the Eklutna River.”
• Motion from Tribal Council authorizing President Leggett to sign Joint Resolution AR 2024-276
• Briefing re Gathering Place
• Eklutna River Restoration
• Update from Anchorage Hydropower Utility
• Placenames – changing the names of places around Anchorage to Native names
• Property Taxes
• Education
• Public Safety
• Boarding School Investigation
• Use of Alcohol Tax Funds for Culturally Relevant Programming for Youth Prevention Activities – Municipal Employee Training
• FY2025 Budget
• Cultural Tourism/Moose Loop Increase
• Other items
The tribe has been working “behind the scenes” with Anchorage, it says in a recent newsletter: “The Land and Environment Department has been working hard on the Eklutna River project – doing the behind the scenes work that is needed to work with our partners.”
Thus, it appears the Anchorage Assembly and/or the mayor have been having consultations and possible meetings “behind the scenes” with the tribe that the public has not been made aware of.
Meeting details:
Assembly Chambers
September 5, 2024
Regular Meeting – Loussac Library, 3600 Denali Street, Room 108, 5 p.m. business meeting, 5:30 p.m. appearance requests
Live Streaming and Archived meetings/Podcasts at http://www.muni.org/watchnow
Live on Yukon TV streaming service; Rebroadcast Wednesday/Friday at 5 p.m.
As one of the formerly greatest cities in America continues to commit and ugly suicide.
17-20% voter turnout. You did it to yourselves.
Enjoy burning wood for warmth until that gets outlawed, too.
Good point Avenger. Most non-voters will tell you they don’t bother because, no matter who gets elected, things never get better. What they fail to realize is, not voting is a the same as voting for whoever gets elected; and, things will get far worse.
How dumb can they get? Send them all back to where they came from whenever they come up for election!
I want to know who is the one behind this.
Why would Dunleavy spend even 5 minutes contemplating this? He should have the national guard up there putting out razorwire and stopping vehicles at checkpoints to protect our critical infrastructure from the ecoterrorists on the assembly.
Because he has no spine.
Seconded.
This sort of comment by Mr McDonald is not one that can be used in solving problems.
With an issue as profound as this one for the folks on the peninsula, it should be made clear as to all the particulars for those that live in the area.
1. Why is this an issue with the dam in the first place –isn’t hydropower something that is beneficial for inhabitants when considering the issue of climate change over, let’s say, installing wind-turbines in Cook Inlet?
2. Who is behind the dismantling of the dam? Who is the main decision-maker? Who has whom over a barrel on this?
3. What are the reasons why this is economically feasible for all involved parties (is there an entity that is attempting to blackmail the City of Anchorage, or the municipality, or use this as leverage for some purpose? Eklutna Village ‘rented’ their land for use by the borough for Chugiak High School since it was built back in the early 1960s at one penny per year, which, to my mind is a lot better use of the land than a money-making venture like a casino –are the Eklutna villagers hurting for income?
4. What is the intended outcome of any proposed decisions if the main consideration is restoration of salmon spawning grounds –what has happened with salmon spawning all over the State –like, is it meant as an elaborate retaliation example for the various wrongs done to indigenous children since the 1884 Organic Act resulting in English-Only boarding, industrial schools and orphanages as reparation for Eklutna Vocational boarding school, Mount Edgecumbe, Ft Wrangell, Wrangell Institute, Holy Cross Mission, Jesse Lee and the children sent to boarding schools in WA, OR, NM, AS, Chilocco OK, etc, or to counter the indiscriminate decision-making for certain Alaskan politicians wanting to sell Bristol Bay to the highest Canadian bidder backed up by the Saudis?
5. How would transitioning to another comparable source of power for the folks in the Valley and Anchorage be implemented with least amount of disruption to the existing power grid? Like … Ship Creek isn’t going to be able to handle the needs for water power as well as the salmon spawning that is already there at the oceanfront, and already (as noted above) wind turbines in the Inlet seems like pie in the sky considering it experiences the highest neap tides outside of some place in Canada.
IF IT AIN’T BROKE…
Ohhhh, wait a minute!
It’s the woke democrat’s agenda working here. They destroy EVERYTHING they get their grubby hands on.
What is the assembly’s vision and plan for power and water after the dam is removed? Is there one at all, or does this initiative follow their standard MO, which can be characterized as radical socialist agenda with no foresight and no consideration given to economics.
Ya know, maybe the Muni voters will finally wake up from their slumber and start paying attention to politics and start voting when they don’t have water at their spigot. Leftists, especially radical ones always find ways to cost the commoners more and more money. If you think your AWWU bill is high now, just wait till that dam is gone.
Act now, Governor Dunleavy, and put an end to the Assembly’s petulance -on this issue, at least.
Ignorance in its finest form.
Another none thinking idea by the folks that brought you an unused bike lane downtown. There is not a lot of brain power in that assembly. They raised their own salaries to justify a full time position from what was always a part time position. People need to wake up and get these idiots out of state.
Trevor. One supposes that you don’t bike, but that bike lane took me from Chugiak to Laundry Workers union meetings, UAA when I was a student, and for others to jobs at McDonalds, Fish & Game, Hewitt’s Drug Store, Blaine’s Paints, etc. Any day of the week, there are plenty of folks that use that for walking, as well. The bike path is one of the best things that the borough constructed in the 70s. Admittedly the make-up of the Assembly is different, but at least they’re elected, not appointed.
Notice that there is NO mention of how the power production for those 24,600 will be replaced, if these tantrum throwing toddlers get their way and destroy the dam…
You voted for the assembly you get Portland.
Follow the money! If the dam is removed, who will gain the most green for coming up with another source of power?
More power plants is a whole bunch easier than producing water, especially on that scale. There’s no way more wells will fill that loss, and the only way to replace that water will be to build another dam somewhere. Good luck with that.
This has to be political warfare. Rebuilding a minor coho fish run in the Eklutna River cannot possibly justify this kind of infrastructure upheaval.
Current Anchorage Assembly motto: “If it isn’t broke, then it will be when we force it to go WOKE”…”
The city government is run by lunatics.
Last January we were within minutes of rolling blackouts and the nimrods are considered this.
I say rip it out. A good frozen up winter will eliminate a bunch of morons and bring the limp no show voters wide awake.
Population up power production down. Makes perfect sense. Especially clean hydro power.
The assembly is fine with Bums camped on 5th avenue. Gateway to Anchorage after your long drive up the Alcan, welcome to filth, drugs, booze, and rape.
All American City.
Oh wait there are more important issues, destroying the cleanest electricity available. With no solution to replace the clean electricity.
What a bunch of losers.
For the 70 Eklutna Village residents, the smart ones left Eklutna Village long ago. Reasons are obvious have you been there? I know I went to school with smart and not so smart Ekultnaites.
This is a great way to start a war within our own state.
Water and electricity? Luxuries they can do without.
Let’s get rid of a fresh water source for anchorage. Ok let’s get rid of a great fishing hole the tail race ok. Let’s take out the power plant of cheaper energy. Ok. Take out the dam to bring in salmon to the creek / not really a river. in my thoughts one of the most amazing engineering projects that I have seen! Very conservative and well planned out. Win win situation! Ok let’s rip it out! Ok. Tell me I am wrong please!
The electric utilities should shut down the power to pro-dam-removal people as a preview of what they are asking for.
Does Anyone realize that the Anchorage Assembly sold the Eklutna Hydro project to the utilities?
What call someone who sells something, you pay for it, and now they want it back so they can destroy it?
This is plain stupidity on the part of the assembly. Good luck Anchorage. Have you checked the price of bottled water lately? Don’t forget you also need water for cleaning dishes and laundry. Maybe you can take all the melt off from the snow piles around Anchorage I saw this summer.
All I can say is…they need to be stopped. They are going to do something on a Germany-idiocy level, but maybe even greater because they’ll be affecting electric and water at the same time. How can the Anchorage Assembly have so much power when it really does not?
They shouldn’t. Agree. It is mind boggling residents of Anchorage have kept these people in office. Cheat by mail…..
I believe it is quite rational to delay a decision until Anchorage taxpayers can review all of the options and life cycle costs. The resolution that was sent to the Governor did not follow a prescribed lawful process, or evaluate all of the practical alternatives.
They say “You can’t teach common sense”. Well this proves it!