Alaska Native villages and an environmental group have sued the Trump administration for clearing the way for construction of a road through a federal wildlife refuge.
The lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court in Alaska argues that the Army Corps of Engineers and Fish and Wildlife Service violated federal laws when they approved a Clean Water Act permit earlier this month for the road in the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.
The water permit allows the state of Alaska to fill nearly 9 acres of wetlands with gravel and other debris during construction of the route, which would link the towns of King Cove and Cold Bay.
The Center for Biological Diversity, as well as the Native villages of Hooper Bay, Paimiut and Chevak, filed the lawsuit, which is the latest disagreement in a yearslong debate over whether to allow the single-lane gravel road. Proponents say the road would improve rural access to health care, but environmentalists, and some Alaska Natives, have argued it would defile pristine wetlands that protect abundant wild species and support Alaska Native subsistence hunting.
