Action Alert: Your Voice is Needed to Protect Kigluait Lands – CLOSED
COMMENT PERIOD HAS CLOSED
Your Voice is Needed to Protect Kigluait Lands, Waters, and Community Health: Submit Comments to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC) by February 2, 2026
Graphite One, a Canadian mining corporation, is proposing a large open-pit mine to extract graphite in the Kigluaik Mountains north of Nome. The proposed mine, mill complex, and waste management facility would cause devastating and permanent harm to vast expanses of wetlands, streams, and rivers that flow into Imuruk Basin, a rich estuary and one of the continent’s most biodiverse ecosystems. These lands and waters are vital to the food security, cultures, and health of the nearby communities of Brevig Mission, Teller, Mary’s Igloo, and Nome.
Please submit your comments to oppose the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation’s (ADEC) proposed decision to issue a Clean Water Act Water Quality Certification for the Graphite One project. The mine and associated milling, processing, waste management facilities, and road would result in:
- Permanent destruction of hundreds of acres of waters and wetlands.
- Blasting of an open pit mine approximately one-mile long, a half mile wide, and 1,000 feet deep.
- 17 miles of new road cutting across salmon streams and cultural sites.
- Harm to water quality and fish and wildlife habitat from mobilization of toxic metals, elevated turbidity and sedimentation, fuel spills, chronic road dust deposition.
- Contamination and loss of traditional food sources.
- Adverse effects to human health.
The proposed Graphite One mine would violate the sovereignty and human rights of the Indigenous Peoples of this region. It has been fast-tracked without free, prior informed consent of the Tribes. Both the Native Village of Brevig Mission and the Native Village of Teller have expressed strong opposition and deserve careful consideration in any project using their traditional land, air and waters that they rely on for cultural, spiritual and subsistence use.
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Here’s how you can support the protection of water quality, habitat, food security, and public health by submitting comments on the proposed Graphite One project:
Send your comments in opposition to the project to the emails below or fill out the form found at the bottom of the page:
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation
Email [email protected]
Please copy:
Jasmine Monroe, Alaska Community Action on Toxics’ Water Quality and Community Health Protection Coordinator
[email protected]
📅 Comments must be submitted by February 2.
Please share and submit a public comment below.
Sample Letter
Subject: Public Comment in Opposition to Permit POA-2018-00210: Graphite One Mine
I am writing to submit a public comment in opposition regarding Permit Application POA-2018-00210 v1.0. for the proposed Graphite One open-pit graphite mine in the Kigluaik Mountains of Alaska. This project will result in toxic contamination by releasing heavy metals into the environment and the Imuruk Basin. Metals released into the environment are persistent and accumulated in ecosystems, fish and other wildlife, and people. Even low levels of metal contamination, like cadmium, can threaten the health of aquatic ecosystems and the health of people who rely on fish and other games for survival. Mining processes which release metal-laded dust are a threat to workers in the area and another route by which metals can contaminate soil, waterways, wildlife, and people.
The mine and associated milling, processing, waste management facilities, and road would result in:
- Permanent destruction of hundreds of acres of waters and wetlands.
- Blasting of an open pit mine approximately one-mile long, a half mile wide, and 1,000 feet deep.
- 17 miles of new road cutting across salmon streams and cultural sites.
- Harm to water quality and fish and wildlife habitat from mobilization of toxic metals, elevated turbidity and sedimentation, fuel spills, chronic road dust deposition.
- Contamination and loss of traditional food sources.
- Adverse effects to human health.
Both the Native Village of Brevig Mission and the Native Village of Teller have expressed strong opposition and deserve careful consideration in any project using their traditional land, air and waters that they rely on for cultural, spiritual and subsistence use.