The Senate appears to be on the verge of passing a public lands bill that includes language authorizing a controversial road to be built across Alaska's Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.
The road, which critics have taken to calling the "road to nowhere," would be constructed on the Alaska peninsula, about 600 miles south of Anchorage.
Supporters, including Alaska's two U.S. senators and single U.S. representative, say the gravel road is needed to connect the remote village of King Cove with an airport and a hospital. Currently residents of the small settlement on the Bering Sea can travel to the boundary of the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge by motor vehicle but then must take a hovercraft to Cold Bay, the site of the airfield and hospital.
The bill would effect a land exchange to facilitate construction of the controversial road.
Alaska would transfer about 61,000 acres to the U.S. government, most of which would be incorporated into a wilderness area overlaid on the national wildlife refuge, and in exchange the state would receive a 25-mile long easement to accommodate the road.
Environmentalists have argued that the exchange of land from a national wildlife refuge for road construction has never been done before and that the road would have harmful impacts on birds and other species in the reserve.
But advocates, including Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, say the road is necessary to allow King Cove residents to get to the hospital in emergencies.
The bill limits use of the road to emergency situations, but many environmentalists do not believe that provision will last. The Izembek National Wildlife Refuge borders the North Aleutian Basin, a large untapped petroleum reserve.
There are about 800 residents in King Cove. The airport at Cold Way, which has the third-longest runway in Alaska, is available for flights in all weather conditions. The facility has its origins in a military airfield built during World War II.
The omnibus lands bill cleared a cloture vote in the Senate on Sunday. It is expected to be passed by the Senate in the coming days and sent to the House of Representatives for a vote next week.
It is possible the measure could reach the White House before President George W. Bush's term ends at noon on Jan. 20.
