Federal stimulus funding is going to additional impact analysis for a proposed overhaul to the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center and a draft environmental impact statement is expected later this summer.<\/p>\n
Funding from the Great American Outdoors Act recently passed by Congress was approved for further impact analysis of proposed changes to the parking areas at the glacier found in the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Facility Improvements plan, according to the center’s director Barb Miranda. Further analysis is meant to address some of the concerns raised in public comments on the project, she said.<\/p>\n
“It’s just for planning and analysis,” Miranda said of the funds. “It doesn’t cover implementation.”<\/p>\n
A draft EIS is expected in late August or early fall, Miranda said, its release will trigger a 45-day public comment period. Last year the Trump administration rolled back certain provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act requiring environmental review, but Miranda said additional analysis was being done due to the concerns raised in the public comments.<\/p>\n
“We got nearly 200 comments during the scoping period that ended in January,” Miranda said. “We’re just doing more in-depth analysis of the impacts.”<\/p>\n
Residents raised a number of concerns with the extensive improvement plan. The plan would expand various aspects of the visitor center area including building additional raised walkways and viewing platforms and a dock with boats to cross the lake. The plan also calls for an expansion of parking facilities to accommodate large numbers of tour buses.<\/p>\n
Stakeholders voiced displeasure with elements of the proposal, including possibly paving over a pond currently between two parking lots to create one, large lot. That pond contains fish habitats, according to Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologists. In public comment submitted to the project website, ADFG regional supervisor Kate Kanouse said one of the ponds to be filled in under the proposal contains rearing habitat for juvenile coho salmon.<\/p>\n