The EPA now takes water samples from Alaska mines with a SWAT Team

The EPA is now part of an Alaska Environmental Crimes Task Force that is armed to the hilt to investigate "environmental crimes" by Alaska miners. Apparently, a dirty water discharge has now risen to the level of the use of deadly force against the offending miner.

Miners in Chicken were surprised during late August by groups comprising four to eight armed EPA agents carrying Glock .40 S&W cal side arms in full battle rattle with signs in big letters loudly proclaiming POLICE who stormed into several mines near Chicken in a full out assault to . . . take water samples. The EPA gestapo, and that’s all one can term such a heavy handed goon squad were there to take water samples to see if the miners were in compliance with Section 404 of the Clean Water Act. Something in past years that was done by one or two unarmed State of Alaska DEC personnel along with a representative of the EPA without rancor.

If the situation were not so serious, and the threat to the miners so real, this could almost be laughed off as a joke. However, armed goons with .40 cal Glocks in full battle rattle are not a joke. This event marks a new level of federal oversight on Alaska’s federal lands. Lands which the management of were supposed to be the responsibility of the State of Alaska under the terms of Alaska’s Statehood Compact. This event is an outrage and sets an extremely dangerous precedent for future regulation activities by the various federal agencies in Alaska.

Why were they there?

In a conference call with State officials including members of Alaska’s congressional delegation, the EPA stated that they had received information from the Alaska State Troopers that there was rampant drug and human trafficking in . . . Chicken, Alaska. Now, that is funny.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski opined that the situation was made up to allow the EPA (and DEC) to act as they did.

The AST’s spokesperson Megan Peters basically denied the EPA’s allegations as to receiving any information from the Troopers regarding anything at Chicken.

Why was there no court involved to protect the miners, if the EPA felt armed force was justified?

A member of the Alaska DEC was along to intimidate the locals at Chicken. The DEC agent was also armed. Now, DEC personnel are armed?!

What is going on here, Governor Sean Parnell?

The only police agency that should have had any armed presence was the Alaska State Troopers. They have jurisdiction statewide. Why were no Troopers part of that armed affront to Alaska’s sovereignty?

Chicken, Alaska is a historic mining town off the Taylor Highway has a resident population of 17 that grows to several dozen seasonally with the mining season. The mines are accessible by road, making it easy for the federal wanna be cold stone killer infantry wanna be Gestapo goon squad. Had this been a "raid" conducted at off the road, remote mines, there is a likelihood that they would have been met with armed resistance, as many mines maintain arms for self-defense and predators–both two legged and four.

The Alaska Environmental Crimes Task Force is made up of members of the Alaska State Troopers, the EPA, the FBI, the Coast Guard, the Department of Defense, and the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.

Only one mine checked had a water sample that "looked" over the particulate limit.

Where is Governor Parnell on this issue?

As with the Jim Wilde incident on the Yukon River in 2010, silent.

What next, armored personnel carriers and machine guns to make certain your garbage sack is tied?

Better watch out for the Apache gun ships and Predator drones with Hellfire missiles if your car is running a bit rich and there is any smoke out the tail pipe.

We need a governor who will stand up for Alaskans and Alaska against the heavy hand of the Obama Administration.

Sen. Begich certainly will certainly not act to curtail this danger to the citizens of Alaska.

Bill Walker is running for governor, and Mead Treadwell is running for the U.S. Senate. Maybe, they will work to protect Alaska’s sovereignty and Alaskans from a DC mentality that clearly believes in armed force rather than a rule of law and due process.

For more information:

http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20130903/gold-miners-near-chicken-cry-foul-over-heavy-handed-epa-raids

Are we really closer to a natural gas pipeline? Nah.

http://www.examiner.com/article/closer-to-a-natural-gas-pipeline

In an Anchorage Daily News op-ed piece on May 11, 2012, Governor Sean Parnell extolled that his Administration was closer than ever to a large diameter natural gas pipeline being built, because of the settlement with Exxon over the Pt. Thompson development. One has to wonder just what this guy is on in terms of meds? He must be on the same psychotropic, hallucinogenic medications that the Legislature is on.


Otherwise, how could one reconcile the Legislature’s seemingly mindless following of Rep. Mike Hawker’s and House Speaker’s Mike Chennault’s incredible determination to wipe the 2002 vote and mandate of 138,000 Alaskans off the record, to remove same from State Statute, and to prove that the State will expend hundreds of millions to demonstrate that LNG from Russia can be imported cheaper to south central than their pipedream. This in the face of $14/tcf-$17/tcf LNG delivered in Japan.

What is it about the all-Alaska natural gas pipeline option that causes it to never be spoken of by our Governor and by our Legislature, never considered as a viable option, never mentioned by the Press, yet, demonstrated by the market as being incredibly prescient, given that this option was voted on and passed—you know, mandated—by the vote of 138,000 Alaskans way back in 2002? The only Republican candidate to champion this option was Bill Walker with his run for Governor in 2010.

Governor Parnell has asked nicely for TransCanada and the Producers to consider the LNG option to Valdez under AGIA. TransCanada and Exxon said sure, and now, studies will be made to determine the viability of that option through December of this year, and beyond. Is that not all that Governor Frank Murkowski’s so called contract achieved? A promise to “study”?

In the meantime, prices in Japan are $14/tcf-$17/tcf for LNG delivered to Japan. The cost of Alaska LNG delivered to Japan estimated by the Wood-Mac report for AGPA was $8.50/tcf. The proposed all-Alaska natural gas pipeline to Valdez championed by Bill Walker’s run for governor in 2010 called for a 3bcf per day pipeline from the North Slope to Valdez with 250mcf being taken off at Glennallen and delivered by a spur line to the Enstar Hub at Palmer. That left 2.75bcf per day for delivery to world markets. Under Walker’s proposal, the gas liquids would have been retained in Alaska for use to build a petrochemical industry and to provide alternative fuels for the Bush.

Every day, the governor has his head up his posterior, the Legislature is entranced by Hawker’s and Chennault’s Pied Piper routine, the State denies itself $15,125,000 at a sale price of $14/tcf delivered. Over the course of a year that is $5.52billion. Kiss another $5.52B good-bye by December 31 of this year.

The oil companies down south are moving, developing, and continuing to explore based upon $2.02/tcf of methane. Methane that may be exported, which will compete with Alaska gas and may even displace our gas in Asian markets, given our governor’s and our Legislature’s inability to see the handwriting on the proverbial wall.

Japan is shutting down its nukes, and Alaska has a market for our natural gas, if we want it. Two delegations from Japan have come to talk with the State, the first rebuffed by our Governor just after the 2011 earthquake.

Our DNR Commissioner met with the most recent Japanese delegation, our Lt. Gov. had dinner with them, but . . . nothing. Our DNR Commissioner goes to the PRC to investigate the LNG market, but not to Japan. After 41+ years of trade in LNG to Japan, Alaska is unwilling to discuss the potential with the Japanese.

Unlike our governor and his administration, Senator Lisa Murkowski is trying to do just that with her recent meetings with the Japanese Prime Minister and members of the Japanese Diet. Murkowski is trying to sell Japan on Alaska LNG, but is wasting her time in the face of a hostile Parnell Administration.

What's wrong with this picture, Alaska?

The Legislature with CB9 and CS9 have told the people to stick it with our 2002 vote, that our vote meant nothing. We have been proven right in the market, but our State leaders have shown their contempt for our will by completely ignoring what we mandated.

This governor and our Legislature have ignored us, when we were right all along.

Yet, now, Governor Sean Parnell extols that Alaska is closer than ever before to getting a pipeline??!!!!