April 25, 2016 Patricia K. Yaska PO Box CHU

April 25, 2016
Patricia K. Yaska
P.O. Box CHU
Chuathbaluk, AK 99557-8999
patriciayaska@yahoo.com
US Army Corps of Engineers, Alaska District
PO Box 6898
JBER, Alaska 99506-0898
POA.donlingoldeis@usace.army.mil
Re: Comments on Donlin draft Environmental Impact Statement
To Whom It May Concern:
My name is Patricia Yaska and I live in Chuathbaluk, AK. I am commenting on 3 sections of the draft EIS.
Barging and shallow areas
The increase in barge traffic where we will now see double hulled barges pushing four containers is a big
concern. We have seen the river change in just the last two years. Just downriver from Chuathbaluk we
have seen shallow areas and sandbars develop where there weren’t any before. There is one fellow
that ran the Kuskokwim River for 50 years and never had a problem between Aniak and Chuathbaluk,
and he hit bottom last year because it was so shallow. There will be times in the summer when it will be
too shallow for the Donlin barges – which need 7.5 feet of water – to go through some areas. The
barges will have to stop. The traffic will increase if barges have to uncouple and push containers
through one at a time.
There are lots of shallow areas between Lower Kalskag and Aniak, so both Alternative 2 and Alternative
4 would still mean barges would get stuck.
Will these areas be dredged? Dredging will be a major impact on the fish, due to both removing the
river bed and as the sediment settles downstream.
Barging and fishing
Barging will have major impacts on smelt. This is a resource that we cannot replace. I suggest that
Donlin Barges should stop going up river when the smelt are spawning (May), until the spawn is over. I
understand that barges have been coming up the Kuskokwim as soon as the river ice breaks for years.
But that is about one barge a week or possibly every 2 weeks for the upriver villages (Chuathbaluk,
Napaimute, Crooked Creek). That would have little effect on the smelt. Donlin is proposing at least 3
barges a day, in the average 110 day barging season. That amount of barging would almost definitely
impact the smelt eggs. There are little studies that show where smelt spawn, and how deep the water
needs to be. I believe that if the donlin barges do not wait for the smelt to spawn, they could possibly
eliminate the entire species from the Kuskokwim River.
Barging and recreation
The draft EIS says that not many people use the river for recreation. That is not true. We use the river
all summer for recreation, to go to areas for camping or fishing or berry picking or just to be on the river.
The draft EIS says that people can just go to other places to recreate. How can we do that? To go from
Chuathbaluk up past Jungjuk where the barges stop is a very long trip (45 miles). There aren’t other
places we can go. This should not be classified as a low impact; it will be a major impact on our way of
life and an impact on the reason we choose to live in this place.
(Chapter 3: Environmental Analysis, 3.16 Recreation, Section 3.16.3.2.2, page 3.16-16)
The maps below are maps of Chuathbaluk, which shows the ways we use the river during the summer,
to go swimming and drift net fishing.
Barging and recreation cont’d.
The uses that aren’t shown in the map are: cutting fish on the beach using fish rafts, and rod and reel
fishing.
I would like more studies done to show how many people are actually on the river every day during the
summer, rain or shine, who would be affected by the 3 barges a day that would pass Chuathbaluk, and
other villages on the Kuskokwim.
Airplanes
There will be airplane flights in and out of the Donlin camp every day when the mine is operating. We
know that areas around airports in towns are less desirable because of the noise and emissions. No one
has looked at the effects of those airplanes and their fumes and noise on people at the mine or on
vegetation or on wildlife. The section on climate change (3.26.4.2) did not consider the increased
emissions from the airplanes. The section on noise did not consider the impacts of airplane noise (Table
3.9-14 and 3.9-15 and 3.9-18).
This is a data gap. Studies need to be done to determine the human health and noise effects of the
airplanes. Direct health effects and indirect effects due to putting out emissions that worsen climate
change. Studies also need to look at the impacts of airplane emissions and greenhouse gases to
vegetation too.
Summary
Barging will have major impacts on our fish, our fishing, and our recreation. The draft EIS says that there
will be major impacts to our smelt – and they haven’t even studied other fish like lush and whitefish that
we require. The draft EIS says that there will be low impacts on recreation, but it will have a major
impact on recreation throughout the Central Kuskokwim. This mine should not go through because of
the major impacts that will definitely happen due to barging on the river.
I do not support Alternative 2. I support Alternative 1, the no mine alternative.
Sincerely,
/S/
Patricia K. Yaska