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‘Release the Miners’: Juneau pushes for local mining industry involvement to expedite enduring solution for glacial lake outburst floods
- Jasz Garrett
- 19 hours ago
- 11 min read
Hecla Greens Creek, CBJ and USACE set to meet Monday for tour of mine site with community members hoping to save cost and time on lake tap alternative
By Jasz Garrett and Ellie Ruel
Juneau Independent
Officials from Hecla Greens Creek Mining Co. and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are scheduled to meet Monday for a tour of the mine on Admiralty Island. The meeting comes after years of a community push for an expedited long-term solution to glacial lake outburst floods — a plea that has gained momentum in the last two weeks.
Brian Erickson, vice president of operations at Greens Creek, said the plan is to demonstrate the methodology the mine uses every day to tunnel — and how those with local mining expertise could apply it to Bullard Mountain.
“This stuff is not magic, it’s happening every day in the borough,” he told about 150 attendees of a meeting hosted by Juneau Flood Solution Advocates on Thursday at Chapel by the Lake. “There's two mines operating and doing exactly what's necessary to solve this.”
Suicide Basin is expected to release again in early August, according to Jason Amundson, a geophysics professor at the University of Alaska Southeast. The Mendenhall River has crested at record levels over the last three years.
Last year, the Mendenhall River crested at 16.65 feet on Aug. 13. On Thursday, Amundson said the basin’s capacity is similar to last year’s. Based on current data, he said the volume is correlated with crest height and severity, so this summer’s flood will likely be comparable to 2025.
A “lake tap” would bore a gravity drainage tunnel through Bullard Mountain so the basin’s water drains continuously into Mendenhall Lake. Currently, the Corps is proposing using a tunnel boring machine, with an estimated timeline of six to 10 years. Erickson said a conventional drill-and-blast used at local mines could get the job done faster.
“We have the technical skills, we get it, you know, we're doing it in difficult ground,” Erickson said. “If we started that tunnel today, I think at the advanced rates we see in the mine, it's probably two and a half years from start to finish.”
Part of that relies on his hopes for emergency expediting some of the permitting. Erickson said that bureaucratic delays put the whole project in jeopardy.
“It gives you latitude to do things faster,” he said in an interview after his presentation. “And you're starting five or six years in advance to try to get all the engineering and design and stuff done, to try to slow that first feedback process. These permitting processes are long and burdensome.”
In December, the City and Borough of Juneau, the U.S. Forest Service and the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska aligned on the lake tap for a long-term solution. In March, the Corps reaffirmed its assessment of the lake tap as the most viable option, but noted four alternatives are not being excluded from further consideration.
The city, Tlingit and Haida, Forest Service and the Corps have said the lake tap appears to be the most cost-effective and safest option presented, with early estimates ranging from $613 million to $1 billion.
Erickson called that too high.
He said he reviewed a December 2025 three-day charrette summary report the Corps commissioned AECOM to complete. In his personal cost estimation report, he claims a drill-and-blast method would cost half of what the Corps has proposed for a concrete tunnel through Bullard Mountain using a specialized tunnel-boring machine (TBM).
“TBM procurement involves a custom machine, factory acceptance testing, months-long lead time, and specialized transportation to a remote barge-access-only site,” Erickson’s report notes. “Drill and blast mobilization is dramatically simpler and faster, drawing on equipment and expertise that is commonly used in Juneau today with parts vendors and expertise in the community.”
His revised estimate reduced the cost to $220-323 million, which Erickson describes as a high-level estimate put together with numbers from the USACE charette report with the aid of an AI chatbot.
“The estimate included in the attached report are very high level and needs significant refinement and study to better estimate project costs, and of course, we won’t know the true project costs until the project is complete,” Erickson told the Independent.
The report also recommends skipping concrete-lining the tunnel. In his presentation at Chapel by the Lake, Erickson said he wasn’t sure that addition is necessary.
“If it produces sediment from some kind of erosion, the glacier is producing way more sediment than that already,” he said.
Erickson said “sticker shock” threatens to kill the project.
He said Monday’s meeting aims to develop a relationship with USACE and demonstrate the safety and responsibility Hecla uses in daily operations.
“I can tell you that there's no bad guys,” he said. “Everyone is working earnestly on a solution. The challenge we have is everyone is working independently on their own solutions, and we're not all together getting on the same page.”
He said since AECOM and the Corps do not have the same experience as the mining community, drill-and-blast tunneling would not have been considered as a primary option.
“Neither the USACE or AECOM are necessarily wrong in their assessment, there are simply other ways of accomplishing this task which is what I was trying to convey in the attached report,” he wrote in an email Friday.
Erickson has 30 years of experience in the production and maintenance of operating mines and as a geologist in the mining industry. He also lives in the Mendenhall Valley and said his home would be affected by a 21-foot crest.
He said he was presenting at both Juneau Flood Solution Advocate meetings — one on June 11 and one on Thursday — as a representative of his personal views and not on behalf of Hecla. His cost report also does not reflect the views of Hecla or Kensington.
However, he said the mining industry is supportive of the project and his involvement, as evident in company views submitted in a March 20 letter to Alaska’s congressional delegation by the Alaska Miners Association, Greens Creek and Kensington Mine Coeur Alaska Inc.
Company leaders of Kensington and Greens Creek also shared their support for a tunnel at a Greater Juneau Chamber of Commerce luncheon on May 28.
“I live right on the river,” said Steve Ball, the general manager of Kensington. “I've watched this over the years, I've watched the changes, I've watched the HESCO barriers go up, and I've watched community members and neighbors be affected by these floods. We have an opportunity in the mining industry to be a resource to lend our knowledge to the community and the local government, but also state government and federal government on what we feel could be done to protect the community.”
He said his biggest fear is “if nothing’s done and there was a catastrophic event that wiped out or forced people to leave the Valley, that would most likely spell the end of Juneau.”
Ball said avoidance of that worst-case scenario is why Kensington joined the letter in support of the lake tap.
“I want everybody to be aware that a lake tap is not a small cost, but in terms of the different options that are out there for long-term mitigation of this risk, we feel that that's a cost that is warranted,” he told Chamber attendees. “How that gets paid, that's not in our wheelhouse. How it gets built — again — that's not in our wheelhouse. We're running a business at Kensington, but we're more than happy to provide a resource to be able to share our knowledge and understanding of the local geology.”
Ball said the rock units mined at Kensington are no different from those 45 miles south at Bullard Mountain.
William Kloth, general manager of Greens Creek, said the company was happy to partner with Kensington and the Alaska Miners Association. He said Hecla has employees living in the flood zone, but outbursts are a community problem.
“We want to offer what we can to be part of solutions, and that's really what drives the desire to offer what the two mines know of tunneling,” Kloth said.
City Manager Katie Koester expressed interest in the mining companies’ involvement at a Chamber luncheon earlier this month, pledging to bring the topic to Washington, D.C. Two city engineers are expected to attend Monday’s mine tour, according to Denise Koch, director of Engineering and Public Works.
At the community meeting Thursday, Erickson and other residents living in the Mendenhall Valley expressed frustration at federal bureaucracy and the Corps’ cost estimation.
“It's our business. This solution is not really complicated,” Erickson said. “Quite frankly, for me, it's been really frustrating just watching the process.”
Juneau Flood Solution Advocates lobby for solution
As of Friday, the grassroots group Juneau Flood Solution Advocates has gathered more than 300 signatures as part of its campaign to ‘‘Release the Miners.” The group plans to present the signed banner to Alaska’s congressional delegation.
Supporters are asking USACE and the delegation to pursue the lake tap as an enduring solution for annual glacial lake outburst floods impacting the Mendenhall Valley — with the mining industry’s help.
“There's just a deafening cry starting up that we don't want to spend any more, no more wasting money,” said Debbie Penrose-Fischer, the leader of the neighborhood group. “Let's fund a solution, not the symptom, not the Band-Aid.”
She said her concerns were intensified after a Committee of the Whole meeting on May 4, where officials from the Army Corps presented to the Juneau Assembly. The possibility of mid-term solutions, such as sheet piling, was shared for the first time. The “medium-term” solutions, along with short and long-term mitigation measures, are expected to be reviewed by USACE headquarters this August.
Since the Army Corps has not been authorized to enter a feasibility study, there is not a public process for the August executive summary, according to John Rajek, the chief of the geotechnical and engineering services branch of USACE Alaska District.
“We have a condition that's moving faster than our feasibility studies can respond to, but it would happen sometime after the report is submitted in August,” he told the Independent at the May meeting. He added he didn’t know how long a headquarters review of the August report would take.
Penrose-Fischer said this information made her afraid the HESCO barriers, meant to be semi-permanent, and other mid-term solutions may stop the Corps from investing in a long-term solution.
“The sentiment this year is different. People have flood fatigue, but they're also really tired of feeling like we're not moving forward,” she said. “I can't tell you how many people have said to me, ‘I don't want these HESCOs in my yard forever.’ These are supposed to be temporary. Where's the long-term solution?”
She said it was time for group members to start using their voices and speak up.
The Juneau Flood Solutions Advocates group started collecting signatures last weekend at Juneau Gold Rush Days after Erickson’s presentation at its Mendenhall Valley Public Library meeting on June 11.
“This is legitimately an emergency situation, and so the quicker the solution the less likely that there's more damage and more loss,” said David Brown, a resident of Long Run Drive. He said his household is still recovering from damage sustained in the 2024 flood that crested at 15.99 feet.
Brown said part of his support for the expedited lake tap solution is fear that the HESCO barriers could be overwhelmed by future flooding.
“I don’t want that to come true, so that’s why I’m in favor,” he said.
At Thursday’s meeting, Ann Wilkinson Lind, who lives on the banks of the Mendenhall River, said the news of Monday’s meeting gave her hope. Her crawlspace flooded last year due to a failed drain pipe installed underneath a HESCO levee, and neighbors helped pump the water.
“Before tonight's meeting, I was really frustrated about the momentum, because there was no momentum, because the Corps wasn't interested in talking to the mine,” she said. “It’s a learning experience for the Corps — a teaching experience for the mine — to show them what’s been happening around here for years and years and years. I’m pretty excited about it now.”
Wilkinson Lind said she is nervous about this year’s expected flood because of how the barriers were compromised last year. Although they were reinforced and raised, she said she has her doubts.
Erickson and members of Juneau Flood Solution Advocates encourage “cutting through the red tape” and putting the pressure on Alaska’s congressional delegation to expedite the lake tap.
“Government is absolutely also not built for this kind of work, right? This is really, again, unique. It's not built to move quickly on complicated problems,” Erickson said.
Murkowski on delegation support
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, asked about a possible public-private partnership between the Corps and local miners at a U.S. Senate subcommittee appropriations hearing in May.
“If local miners in the area can demonstrate to you that they’re able to help with a long-term solution in a way that saves time and money, is the Corps willing to look into working with them in pursuing some kind of a public-private partnership?” Murkowski said, holding Erickson’s report.
Adam Telle, assistant secretary of the Army’s Civil Works program, responded with “absolutely.” He added the Corps was reviewing Erickson’s technical paper. It wasn’t until this week the mines were contacted by the Corps, according to Erickson.
“I think the situation in Juneau is unlike any we face within our portfolio,” Telle said. “It’s an uncommon problem that requires an uncommon solution.”
Murkowski visited homes along the Mendenhall River during a trip to Juneau earlier this month. She observed the raising of HESCO barriers from last year, and chatted with residents who said their lives were disrupted by construction and the loss of a river view.
“I do worry that the solution that the residents are seeing right now, which is these HESCO barriers in front of them, is going to be viewed by some as, ‘Well, we spent the money to help them get this temporary solution,’ and then that temporary solution becomes longer term,” she said in an interview on June 7.
The HESCO barriers were estimated to protect 90% of the homes in the flood zone last year, and in roughly several decades, the Mendenhall Glacier will recede enough for the outbursts to stop being a problem. The glacier currently acts as a natural ice dam.
“Maybe this August comes and goes, and we don't have a flood event, and so then does that take the momentum out of the project? I hope not, because one of the things that we have learned is that Suicide Basin — that’s still back there,” Murkowski said. “It is still filling to levels that we have seen that are unprecedented. We're still seeing that glacier receding, that is allowing that basin to get bigger and bigger, and thus puts more pressure. So it is something that needs to be resolved. It is not a quick solution or an inexpensive solution, but it's one that we have to keep pressing on.”
She acknowledged the apprehension Juneau residents are feeling about Congress approving funding for a long-term solution.
“That’s legit, but the Corps has dedicated a pretty significant team, and they have elevated this Juneau flood project to a level that has gotten my attention,” she said. “I appreciate it, because believe me — myself, Senator Sullivan, and Representative Begich have been pushing the Corps, pushing the Corps, pushing the Corps on this. But they have been very, very much engaged, and again to a level that is — I don't want to say it's surprising — but they have treated it as the emergent emergency that it is.”
• Contact Jasz Garrett at jasz@juneauindependent.com or (907) 723-9356. Contact Ellie Ruel at ellie.ruel@juneauindependent.com.
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