The Shepard Point Port and Road Project application is essentially on hold.
Suddenly, on March 18, the Native Village of Eyak directed the Army Corps to suspend processing of their permit application for the Shepard Point road and deep water port. So the project is essentially on hold.
The Army Corps was planning on coming to Cordova on April 14 and 15. That meeting was canceled as unnecessary at this time. The Colonel of the Alaska Corps and a small entourage of Army Corps personnel were going to come to Cordova and meet with the Native Village of Eyak and representatives from the Chugach Alaska Corporation and the Eyak Corporation. They were going to take a boat trip out to Shepard Point (and see the avalanche chutes along the road easement themselves), and then meet with representatives with Alyeska Pipeline Service Company's Ship Escort/Response Vessel System (SERVS) contacts, and finally with EPC and others individuals and local business representatives who are opposed to the Shepard Point location as an oil spill response facility. The final meeting was to take place at Orca Cannery, which EPC presents as a much more logical, environmentally sensitive, available and practicable place for the long-overdue Cordova oil spill response facility.
Needless to say, we are thrilled, and wish this suspension was because of sane reasoning and acknowledgement that this project is not about oil spill response, and is really about large scale development in Prince William Sound. EPC will continue to endeavor for using the public monies put aside for oil spill response to, after 18 years, manifest in a logical place for improved oil spill response in the region.
EPC is not against jobs and economic development for Cordova, Eastern Prince William Sound and the Copper River Delta. The heart and economy of the region is based on the wild salmon habitat that every day is more treasured and also threatened around the planet. EPC endeavors to present economic solutions that preserve and expand our precious wild salmon-way-of-life.
Listen to Dune on the radio as he explains why the Shepard Point Project is not about oil spill recovery and why Orca Cannery is a better site for the Cordova area Oil Spill Response Facility.
Click here to listen.
Look here: Cordova District Fishermen United (CDFU) resolution against the Shepard Point location. Click here to view.
To download resolution: 68291264469471Resolution2010-0120AShepardPointOSRF12.pdf
In Summary: Shepard Point Road and Deep Water Port -
Oil Spill response, YES ~ Shepard Point, NO
The proposed Shepard Point project, a deep-water port of extraction masquerading as an oil spill response facility, has been an on-going campaign for the Eyak Preservation Council (EPC) since 1992.
Although the stated purpose of the Shepard Point Project is to improve oil spill response in the Cordova area of Prince William Sound, project records and statements by Native Village of Eyak clearly indicate the true motivation behind this project is the construction of a deep water port to facilitate extractive resource development in the region, including resource extraction on the eastern Delta.
The Shepard Point project will facilitate a web of threats across the entire Copper River Delta and Chugach National Forest including industrial road building, logging, coal mining via mountain top removal, large-scale tourism, and unrestricted residential development. The result of these threats will be irrevocable destruction of a pristine terrestrial and aquatic habitat for fish, wildlife, and Native culture.
The Eyak Preservation Council, Cascadia Wildlands Project, and other national and local conservation organizations strongly support enhanced oil spill response in Prince William Sound. However, the Shepard Point Project as proposed would not improve spill response and other options are much less environmentally damaging. We are in communication with several government agencies that also oppose this particular site. We will continue to establish partnerships and collaborate with organizations, individuals and state and federal agencies (including the Army Corps of Engineers), to promote preferred locations.
EPC will continue to raise community awareness regarding the true scope of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) proposal, advocate for the viable alternatives, and, in partnership with Cascadia Wildlands Project, litigate if necessary to stop the Shepard Point alternative from being constructed. We have identified at least six other port sites located closer to Cordova with less-severe environmental impacts and which make much more economic sense.
