HomeMy WebLinkAboutLetter of Concern Nushagak Cooperative_BBEDCO`a,N� OPPoRr r-
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Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation it
P O Box 1464 Dillingham, Alaska 99576 (907) 842-4370 Fax (907) 842-4336 1-800-478-4370 • '} 4 r� '' •
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May 20th, 2020
Dear Mr. Himschoot,
I would like to thank you and your Board for the opportunity for Michael Link and
myself, representing Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation and Bristol Bay
Science and Research Institute to share our concerns. As I conveyed to you on Friday,
and to your Board last night, BBEDC is opposed to the Nuyakuk power project
proceeding as proposed in recent filings of documents with the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC; Docket # P-14873). The Proposed Study Plan (PSP) from
March 20, 2020, and a hastily revised version of April 16, fall well short of the type of
work needed to assess the impacts of the proposed project on our fisheries. Therefore,
we have no choice but to oppose the project until a study plan can be developed that
will provide a rigorous assessment of the potential impacts of the project.
BBEDC amongst others has numerous responsibilities for the health and economic well-
being of Bristol Bay residents and the natural environment we all depend upon.
Fundamental to this is the long-term viability of our fish populations. We support
responsible and sustainable development and we believe that Nuyakuk power project
offers the potential for a supply of clean and sustainable energy for generations of
Bristol Bay residents. Therefore, we do not oppose the Nuyakuk hydroelectric project,
but we do believe that the impact assessment and design of the project must be done
with much more rigor and thoroughness than is being proposed.
We ask that you temporarily stand -down from FERC's Integrated License Process (ILP)
on the order of 12 months, during which time regional entities can work with the
Cooperative to develop a more thorough and rigorous plan to study. The FERC-
mandated ILP timeline is simply way too short to get from the current PSP to a Revised
Study Plan (RSP) that will allow us to understand whether, and by how much, the
proposed project might impact our fisheries resources. We see it as simply impossible
to get from the current plan to a final plan (RSP) in the next 2-3 months, even if we were
not in the middle of a pandemic, and on the eve of our region's annual salmon fishery.
Our freshwater and salmon fisheries resources are the greatest of any region in Alaska
and in our country, and we insist that we in the region work together to match the
quality and quantity of the science with the value of the fisheries resources. There is far
too much at stake to not get this done right.
Sincerel%�
Norman Van Vactor