ABOUT CHUITNA COAL PROJECT SEIS |
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| + SEIS Process and Documents | + Schedule | + SEIS Contacts | + Contact Webmaster | ||||
| + Scoping Responsiveness Summary | + Project Support Documents | + Links | Copyright 2011 | ||||
| + Draft SEIS | + Newsletter | +Comment Form | |||||
| + Final SEIS |
+ Permit Applications | ||||||
| + Record of Decision | |||||||
Welcome to the Chuitna Coal Project SEIS
- April 2011 Newsletter
- Movement and abundance of freshwater fish in the Chuit River, Alaska, May through July, 2010
- Recent developments related to design changes in the proposed project and the transfer of lead agency role from EPA to USACE are discussed in the content below. Current Project Description
- Important Dates - Estimated
- Lead Agency Transition: November 2010
- Interagency Review of Preliminary Draft SEIS: Mid 2011
- Publication of Draft SEIS for Public Review: Early 2012
- Public Review of Draft SEIS: Mid 2012
The Chuitna Coal Project is a proposed surface mining and export development located in the Beluga Coal Field of Southcentral Alaska, approximately 12 miles northwest of the Native Village of Tyonek and 45 miles west of Anchorage. The proposed project is based on the development of a 300 million ton, ultra-low sulfur, subbituminous coal resource, the center of which is approximatedly 12 miles from the coast of Cook Inlet.
The project area is largely undeveloped except for a system of primitive roadways that remain as a result of past oil and gas exploration and production and logging activities. Land ownership in the project area consists of a combination of public (State of Alaska, Mental Health Lands Trust, and Kenai Peninsula Borough) and private entities (Tyonek Native Corporation, Cook Inlet Region, Inc. and individuals). The Alaska District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is serving as the lead federal agency for preparation of the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for the proposed Chuitna Coal Project to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) and serve as a basis for the USACE permit decision regarding the project.
Project History
The proposed project design was evaluated in an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and permitted by most of the applicable state and federal regulatory programs in the early 1990s, but the project did not proceed to development. There have been substantive changes in the project design and in the regulatory requirements since this project went through the first permitting and EIS process. Therefore, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) commenced activities in 2006 for a comprehensive, stand-alone SEIS to be prepared for the new proposal. On October 31, 2010, the EPA's authority to issue and enforce National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits in Alaska was transferred to the State of Alaska. Consequently, the EPA discontinued their role as lead federal agency and the USACE accepted the role to continue the SEIS development process.