Advocates for Safe Alaska Highways (ASAH) was founded in 2022 in Fairbanks to address the increased risk to the traveling public and accelerated degradation of Interior Alaska’s transportation infrastructure, due to the proposed Kinross Gold ore transportation project. The project involves an open-pit gold mine, Manh Choh, or “big lake,” and the 80-ton fully-loaded, 95-foot tractor trailers that will haul the rock roughly 250 miles on the Alaska Highway and other roads to a processing mill just north of Fairbanks. As well, the group opposes processing ore on site at Manh Choh or on an adjacent mining claim on state-owned land. ASAH works to convince state and local governments to deny approval of the existing ore haul plan and encourage the project’s owner, Kinross Alaska, to develop alternative proposals. Besides traffic risks, mining and accompanying tailings could pollute air and water in the region, and to date, no environmental impact statements have been made.
About 15 long-time residents of the interior of Alaska are the nucleus of Advocates for Safe Alaska Highways (ASAH). They are calling on Kinross Gold and the state and federal governments to protect their safety, health, air, water, and food sources. ASAH’s concern is the planned transport of gold ore, by huge diesel trucks, over 250 miles of state roads also used by school buses and residential vehicles.
ASAH has brought its concerns to Department of Transportation meetings. Through public meetings and its website, it has alerted the public to the many significant problems with the ore-hauling plan, such as bridges along the route that will not support the weight of the trucks. It has collected signatures on petitions and urged residents to use public comment periods to object to the plan proposals. Through this community engagement and political impact, ASAH works to encourage and support the public in a fight for its rights and to obtain the safest outcome of the ore transport plan.
For more information:
Alaska is facing a massive mineral boom, but at what cost? – Grist, July 2023
Avoiding a Highway Disaster – Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman, July 2023
Kinross to launch “trial runs” of ore-hauling trucks this summer – KUAC, June 2023
Contact
Barbara Schuhmann
Website
Social Media
Climate Impacts
Air Pollution, Erosion-Subsidence
Environmental Justice Concerns
Groundwater Contamination, Mining, Noise/Light Pollution, Port/Transit/Highway Contamination/Noise
Strategies
Legal/permit challenges to development, contamination, pollution, etc, Policy Reform, Political activism, including protests, petitions, and lobbying
501c3 Tax Deductible
No
Accepting Donations
No