JUNEAU, Alaska — A Juneau utility has agreed to pay $125,125 in fines for destroying a bald eagle’s nest.
Alaska Electric Light &Power Co. reached the agreement with the U.S. attorney’s office, which accused the private utility of showing a “wanton disregard” in destroying the nest.
The utility is accused of damaging the nest and then destroying it months later while blasting during construction of the Lake Dorothy hydroelectric project in 2006 and 2007.
The lake is about 25 miles southeast of Juneau.
A federal judge must still approve the agreement at a May 9 court hearing.
Under the agreement, the utility also must plead guilty to a misdemeanor violation of the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.
There is no indication in public documents that any eagles were hurt.
AEL&P’s attorney, Jim Torgerson, said the nest belonged to two eagles that had two other nests nearby. One of those nests held their eggs including an egg that produced a fledgling around the same time period that the other nest was destroyed.
According to court documents, the utility told the Department of Interior in November 2005 that it needed to move an eagle’s nest from the top of a tree near its construction zone because of a change in construction plans. The government said no in January of 2006.
Nine months later, a blast detonated by a utility contractor threw rock at the tree holding the nest. A diverter cone, placed over the nest to keep eagles from using it, fell from the tree, taking part of the nest with it, according to documents.
A second contractor working for AEL&P detonated a blast four months later that took out the upper portion of the same tree, destroying the nest.
The plea agreement says the utility promptly reported the blasts and cooperated in the federal investigation that followed.
Torgerson said the utility had taken protective measures, but the soft or “incompetent rock” that was being blasted flew off in an “unpredictable discharge pattern.”
Part of the fines will go to supporting raptor rehabilitation in Southeast Alaska.
Avalanches this month have wiped out part of AEL&P’s transmission line to its main hydroelectric project, forcing the utility to rely mostly on much costlier diesel fuel to power the city until the lines are fixed.
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