The headwaters of southwest Alaska’s world famous Bristol Bay region nurture some of most abundant and valuable runs of Pacific salmon in the world, particularly sockeye salmon, the bright red-fleshed fish that’s so hard to catch (on a fly) but so doggone good to eat, fresh, smoked or canned. The yearly influx of these millions of salmon vitalizes what would otherwise be rather sterile waters in this part of the world with a rich food chain that nourishes countless critters, from marauding brown bears, to seagulls to man. Among the many creatures that capitalize on this remarkable migration are, of course, the region’s famous rainbow trout, those husky native Alaska versions of our world’s most esteemed coldwater game fish. Few places on Earth, save the rivers of Kamchatka, Russia, can match the abundance and quality of trophy rainbow trout fishing available in the headwaters of southwest Alasa’s Bristol Bay.

fishing

Unfortunately, the world being what it is today, there are diligent forces at work that threaten the very web of life in this remarkable region and would gamble the region’s astounding fecundity for a few hundred temporary jobs and a mountain of gold, copper and other valuable metals for rich investors, all on an empty promise ─ given the history of large scale open pit mines in western North America ─of not harming the fishery. I’m talking, of course, about the proposed Pebble Mine Project, a notoriously perfect example of how far we have fallen in our representative democracy and the responsibility of our elected officials to protect the public interest. The proposed mega-mine site to extract the vast hard rock deposits discovered almost 30 years ago would potentially impact an immense area ─ the headwaters of the Lake Iliamna-Kvichak River drainage and eastern Nushagak River system ──our continent’s prime salmon and trophy rainbow trout habitat. Any breach in the containment of toxic runoff from the mountain of tailings from this colossal operation would have devastating effect on the fishery and residents of Bristol Bay.

 

Public sentiment about large scale mining in the region has been fairly unanimous among residents of Bristol Bay for quite some time. Back In the early 1980s, residents of the region helped create the Bristol Bay Area Plan, which outlined broad land use and management directives that clearly favored no development for most of the area. The Murkowski administration altered the plan in the early 2000s to allow uses not consistent with the original intent of residents, clearly in violation of public trust. There have been several state ballot initiatives since to severely restrict or prohibit large scale mining operations that threaten salmon resources, but all, save one, the Bristol Bay Forever initiative of 2014, were defeated by small margins, no doubt due to enormous financial input from Outside pro-mining interests to sway public opinion. In all the public hearings I have attended and all the countless individuals I have spoken to, sentiments have overwhelmingly been anti-Pebble. (In a public opinion poll conducted among Alaskans in 2014, 62% of the respondents were against the Pebble mine.)

 

In 2014, the EPA issued a damning assessment of the potential adverse effects to water quality from a mine operation of this size and threatened to use provisions of the Clean Water Act to thwart the project. The Pebble Partnership retaliated with lawsuits against the EPA and state, which have, for the most part been withdrawn, due to the Trump administration’s aggressive measures to facilitate resource extraction on public lands. In 2017, the Pebble Partnership filed for a key federal permit for the project, which the Army Corp of Engineers rushed review on, publishing its final scope report for the phase one permit last August (which prompted hundreds of thousands of responses from concerned folks in Alaska and the Lower 48.) In February of this year, the Corp of Engineers released its Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS), and began a vitally important period for public comment. Public input will be accepted until May 30, 2019. Please help by making your feelings known about preserving Bristol Bay’s unique and priceless salmon and trophy rainbow trout fishery, even if you have never fished there.

 

Link for submitting your comments: https://www.pebbleprojecteis.com/publiccomments/neweiscomment

Or just email them in to: drafteis@comments.pebbleprojecteis.com

You can also submit by mail:

Program Manager
US Army Corps of Engineers
645 G St.
Suite 100-921
Anchorage, AK 99501

 

If you are an Alaskan resident, please also make your opinions known to your state representatives, as the proposed mine site is located on state land and we are supposedly an “owner state” and have made our wishes perfectly clear about the Pebble Mine Project.