ANCHORAGE, AK—Corporate interest groups filed appeals Monday seeking to overturn a DNR decision that reserved water for wild salmon in a stream in Upper Cook Inlet.

The appeals came in response to an October 7 decision by DNR to grant a water reservation on Middle Creek – a tributary to the Chuitna River – to the Chuitna Citizens Coalition (CCC), a local group of Alaskans working to protect their hunting and fishing grounds. In the same decision, DNR also denied two additional water reservation applications further upstream, which would have reserved water for salmon and wildlife in reaches slated for large-scale coal strip mining.

“The Alaska Constitution says all Alaskans have a right to our fish and water resources,” said Judy Heilman, President of the Chuitna Citizens Coalition. “The big mining, oil and gas corporations are more than happy to take our resources, but judging by all these appeals, they sure don’t like to see Alaskans trying to protect them.”

DNR issued the October 7 decision dedicating a portion of water reserved for fish habitat after a state court found in October 2013 the agency had violated the Alaska Constitution by failing to adjudicate the CCC’s water reservation applications.

“I cannot believe how hard it is to protect wild salmon in Alaska,” said CCC’s Ron Burnett. “We’ve spent a lot of time and money just to keep water in a salmon stream, but the industry groups and the Mental Health Trust just want to mine through the streams so they can send cheap coal to China.”

The granted water right is outside the proposed mine area and outside all existing coal leases; nonetheless, industry groups oppose any process that provides protection for fish or provides citizens a role in seeking balance between habitat protection and development.

“If we listen to the corporations, we’ll turn years of Alaska water law on its head, and embrace the backwards thinking Alaskans rejected last year in House Bill 77.”

The CCC will participate in the industry appeals process.[xyz-ihs snippet=”Adsense-responsive”]

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