Unalaska, AK – The Aleutians West Coastal Resource Service Area Board unanimously gave the go-ahead to Pacific Stevedoring's proposed cold storage dock project at a special meeting Monday afternoon, and ended its public comment period on the controversial project.

The board was looking only at the environmental aspects of PacSteve's plan, and evaluating the company's plans for environmental mitigation to offset the impact of the dock project, which would add 300 feet of dock space and a 125,000-square-foot cold storage facility on Ballyhoo Road in Dutch Harbor. The company had proposed a one-time beach cleanup project, a proposal that board Chairman Frank Kelty said was reasonable.

"I think the mitigation fits what they're going to do, and the project should move forward," he said.

The board's decision will take the form of a letter to the state approving of PacSteve's plans. The state doesn't actually permit the project, however. That authority rests with the Army Corps of Engineers, which is still accepting comments and hasn't issued its decision yet.

The PacSteve dock has become a hotly debated subject in recent weeks. That's partially because the state apparently didn't post public notice of the project in Unalaska, and partially because the project has increased tensions between the local chapter of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and PacSteve, which is a non-union employer.

Monday's meeting was a continuation of the board's session last Thursday, where the members agreed to consider extending the public comment period and hold a public hearing on the PacSteve proposal. They decided against both ideas Monday on the grounds that no new concerns about the project had been brought forward.

Local union organizer and marine conservationist Pete Hendrickson disagreed, and told the board that PacSteve's proposal to fund a one-time beach cleanup effort wouldn't compensate for the dock's impact on marine life habitat.

"I'm hoping for a mitigation project that has more lasting significance, because the impacts of this project are permanent," Hendrickson told the board.

Board member David Boisseau said that in this case the mitigation project was up to the discretion of PacSteve, as long as it was deemed adequate, and that the company's proposal was an acceptable one.

"Everybody here has a pet project, but that doesn't obligate the applicant to poll everybody, or anybody, to see what kind of mitigation they prefer," he said.

Monday's meeting at the library conference room was standing room only. The room was packed with about 50 people, including city officials, PacSteve employees and union members.

Because the board is only charged with looking at environmental impacts of the proposal, meeting participants technically couldn't address many of the most controversial elements of the dock plans, and were limited to discussing the impacts on marine habitat in Dutch Harbor. But that didn't stop board members and members of the public from weighing in on the big-picture impact of the project. Kelty openly praised PacSteve's plan, and said the construction would be an important improvement for Unalaska, which currently has no public cold-storage facility. Several ILWU members repeated concerns over the impact of the project on city revenues and jobs.

The debate is expected to continue into the public comment period of this evening's Unalaska City Council meeting, although the PacSteve issue is not on the council's agenda.