Editor’s Note: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has begun the scoping process for the Donlin Gold project Environmental Impact Statement. RDC members John and Judy Binkley submitted comments on the project and they are reprinted here.
John and Judy Binkley with their children on the Kuskokwim River in 1983.
My wife and I built and operated a tug and barge business on the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers and Delta starting in 1977. We lived in Bethel from 1979 until 1990.
During those years I had the privilege of serving on the Bethel City Council, in the Alaska House of Representatives and the Alaska State Senate. My Senate District included 74 villages from the Canadian Border to the Bearing Sea.
As an employer, as an elected official, as a parent with four children in local schools and as a member of the community I came to know and understand both the social and economic conditions of the region.
Our barge business served the people of the Yukon/Kuskokwim (Y/K) Delta and the Kuskokwim River from its mouth, past Crooked Creek, past McGrath to Nikolai and even up to Telida on occasion. We employed local people who ran our various tugs delivering fuel, freight and supplies along the river.
In my capacity as an elected official I had the responsibility to find ways that government could ultimately help people to have better lives.
As Chairman of a special committee to look at giving local communities more law enforcement tools to deal with the devastation of alcohol abuse, I listened through 18 hearings on the subject in rural Alaska. There was gripping testimony from hundreds of people about countless tragedies resulting from alcohol abuse.
The very first hearing took place in Aniak. One of the people who testified said that the solution to the health and social problems of alcohol was not additional laws; it was for people to find a job; that the self worth that is found in supporting one’s family through meaningful work is far more eff ective than any law that tells someone they can’t drink.
I also sat on a Senate Special Committee on Suicide Prevention in which we heard testimony throughout village Alaska. People poured their hearts out to us in an attempt to make any sense of the devastation that results when young people take their own lives.
Of all that I have learned about laws; about social programs; about our desire to do good…the testimony in Aniak was the most poignant. Allow people to earn the self respect that comes with a job.
In our desire to help people improve their lives; the most important action the government can take is to help create economic opportunity.
My wife and I were both born in Fairbanks and have resided here since we moved back from Bethel. Neither of us or our families are directly employed in the mining business. However we have seen how both large and small scale mining have contributed to our local economy.
Fort Knox and Pogo mines are excellent examples of how large scale mines can be operated with very little environmental impact yet huge economic and social benefits.
Our community is a better place to live and raise a family because of the mines we have in our area.
The same will happen for the Yukon Kuskokwim area if Donlin Gold Project is allowed to proceed. The social and economic benefi ts for the 20,000 people in the region will be historic and will lead to improving the quality of life for an area that has struggled.
The associated natural gas pipeline from tidewater to the region will bring an opportunity for reasonable energy prices to an area that sees some of the highest costs of living in the nation.
The people we worked with in the Y/K region are some of the hardest working, most productive, responsible and caring people we have known. Please give them the opportunity to prosper and to thrive.
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