 Though supported by many politicians and businesses in Alaska , the project was canceled after objections were raised . Native Alaskans in the area protested the threatened loss of nine villages that would be flooded by the dam . Conservation groups abhorred the threatened flooding of the Yukon Flats , a large area of wetlands that provides a critical breeding ground for millions of waterfowl . Fiscal conservatives opposed the dam on the grounds of its large cost and limited benefit to Americans outside Alaska . 
