Impacts on Water

The lifeblood of the Chuitna watershed is the 100cm (39.3 inches) of precipitation the area accumulates then filters before returning the water to Cook Inlet by way of the Chuitna River, its wetlands and tributaries. Strip mining for coal creates a direct conflict with the preservation ground water and ground water systems in any area. Strip mining for coal  necessitates the dewatering of coal seams. The water in the coal seams is highly mineralized and incompatible with aquatic life in the river and wetlands of the Chuitna watershed.

Interruption of water flow, by digging giant coal strip mine, will not only remove the water but essential nutrients that ensure the productivity survival of the entire web of life in watershed. By introducing highly mineralized water from the deawatering processes, the chemistry of the Chuitna River will be radically altered. In fact simply digging down the expected 350 feet to access the coal will liberate hydrocarbons and metals that will  alter pH levels, polluting the waters the life in the watershed depends on.

In 2007, the treat of the proposed Chuinta Coal strip mine lead American Rivers to list the Chuitna River as one of America’s Endangered Rivers. Learn more here.

Dewatering

Pac Rim Coal’s mine plans call for the de-watering of the mine pit and coal seams. The the proposed strip mine will dump an average of 7 million gallons a day of mine waste and runoff  in to the Chuitna River, polluting Cook Inlet with over 2.5 Billion gallons of mine waste each year. The massive tides of Cook Inlet will push and pull the contaminated waters in every direction. Migrating salmon fry, Beluga whales, ducks and geese and other species that may not have entered the Chuitna River will still travel through polluted waters at the mouth of Chuit River on their way to the mouth of the Susitna River and other darinages on the west side of Cook Inlet.

The removal of billions of gallons of water from the surrounding wetlands are predicted to lower the winter water levels in the Chuitna by 15%. Winter water  levels are crucial to the survival of salmon eggs and fry that spend the winter in fresh water upwells know as hyporheic zones, loss of ground water will alter the hyporheic flow, thus endangering eggs and fry.

Hyporheic flow is crucial to salmon egg winter survival.