The contentious plan to build a road across Alaska’s Izembek National Wildlife Refuge is continuing to advance despite three federal lawsuits that aim to block it.
The Army Corps of Engineers is evaluating a federal permit that would allow the state of Alaska to fill as much as almost 9 acres of wetlands within the refuge with gravel and other debris during construction of a roughly 10-mile road linking the towns of King Cove and Cold Bay.
The permit that the state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities applied for last month follows Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s approval of a land exchange agreement with an Alaska Native corporation that would pave the way for a road across the refuge.
Residents of King Cove for decades have advocated for a single-lane, gravel road that will allow them in harsh winter months to get to an all-weather airport in Cold Bay, from which sick or injured people can be flown to hospitals hundreds of miles away.
