Over the next two weeks, City and Borough of Juneau Engineering Director Rorie Watt will hold a series of informational meetings on the AJ Mine.
Starting tomorrow (Thursday), four sessions will be held to talk about the history of the old mine and the city’s current consideration of reopening it. Then, a week from tomorrow (October 20th), Watt will host the first of two sessions described as an open discussion about the city’s water system study. The AJ ore body is located in Last Chance Basin, Juneau’s main source of drinking water.
On Monday, Watt told the CBJ Assembly Committee of the Whole that the meetings are designed to bring the public up to speed before the drinking water study gets underway.
“The intention is, if they’re new they can come to an introductory session and then come to a water session, or if they’ve been following it all along, come to a water session,” says Watt. “But just trying to open the doors and get as much input as possible.”
The city and borough owns two-thirds of the old AJ Mine and Alaska Electric Light and Power owns the rest.
Earlier this year, a committee appointed by Mayor Bruce Botelho produced a report that attempted to define under what circumstances, if any, the city should promote development of the mine. In August, the assembly created a 250-thousand dollar AJ Mine Capital Project Fund to pay for the water study and other work surrounding the effort.
All of the upcoming meetings will be held in the CBJ Engineering Conference Room on the 3rd floor of the Marine View Building. See the full schedule below:
Introduction to the AJ Mine:
October 13th – 12:00 noon
October 13th – 5:00 p.m.
October 19th – 12:00 noon
October 19th – 5:00 p.m.
AJ Mine Related Water Study:
October 20th – 5:00 p.m.
October 26th – 12:00 noon
