Saving Seafood

Fight renewed over Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay, Alaska

April 5, 2019 — Opposition is growing to a renewed effort to launch a massive mining project near Bristol Bay, Alaska, home to the world’s largest sockeye salmon run.

Mining conglomerate Pebble Limited Partnership applied for a permit in December 2017 for an open pit copper, gold, and molybdenum mine that would sit near critical headwaters that feed the Bristol Bay fishery. Opponents say the Pebble Mine would undermine the area’s pristine habitat – a calling card of the Bristol Bay brand – and that a tailings dam failure could prove catastrophic to the fishery. The most recent public opinion poll by the BBNC shows 58 percent of Alaskans oppose the mine, with 33 percent supporting it.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on 20 February, 2019, but the wide-ranging opposition in Alaska and beyond has lambasted the document.

“People around here understand on a very visceral level the importance of fisheries in general and Bristol Bay in particular. Commercial fishermen, sport fishermen, tribal entities that are interested in subsistence, biologists; we’re not always aligned, but we’re certainly aligned on this particular issue,” said Daniel Cheyenne, the vice president of lands and natural resources for the Bristol Bay Native Corporation (BBNC).

Norm Van Vactor, the CEO of the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation, said the EIS is incomplete.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

ALASKA: Pushing back on Pebble: Scientific community and Bristol Bay leaders offer testimony

April 3, 2019 — Nobody was fooling at the Alaska State House Resources Committee hearing on Monday, April 1, to address concerns about the proposed plan for Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay.

“If Pebble goes in, the Bristol Bay Sockeye brand and the entire Alaska Seafood brand will be tarnished,” said Norm Van Vactor, CEO of the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation. “The state of Alaska has invested millions into building these brands and establishing Alaska as a premium brand in the marketplace. That brand is based on pristine habitat, sustainability, and high quality, not open-pit mining districts and acid mine drainage.”

Bristol Bay residents, fisheries leaders and scientific experts offered testimony about a range of inadequacies in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers draft Environmental Impact Statement, as well as the economic, social and environmental value of Bristol Bay’s salmon watersheds that would be at risk under the proposed plan.

“They did not assess the risk appropriately. The draft Environmental Impact Statement is misleading about the probability of a [catastrophic tailings dam]failure,” said Dr. Cameron Wobus, a senior scientist at Lynker Technologies who authored a report on tailings dam failure scenarios.

The draft’s 20-year time line, scientists say, is too short to evaluate the long-term risks. A 100-year analysis would have been more transparent, because the tailings dam has a 1 in 5 chance of failing over a century.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

ALASKA: Scientists: Pebble Mine study doesn’t account for all risks

April 2, 2019 — Representatives have been grappling with the a proposal to develop a mine near Bristol Bay.

As a part of the wider discussion, the House Resources committee heard Monday from a group of scientists and advocates who disagree with the Pebble Mine project which proposes developing the Pebble copper-­gold­-molybdenum porphyry deposit (Pebble Deposit) in southwest Alaska as an open-pit mine, with associated infrastructure.

A group of scientists and Bristol Bay residents held a press conference, detailing concerns with the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) released by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in February. Some critics have said the 90-day comment period for this DEIS is not long enough, considering the length of the document.

The chief concerns were that the DEIS used too short of a time frame to associate the risks of the mine, it used an inappropriate fish habitat assessment, cumulative risks were essentially ignored, there was very little mention of long-term risks associated with climate change and that it used selective use of scientific literature when backing up claims.

Read the full story at the Juneau Empire

EPA Chief Recused From Bristol Bay Mine That His Former Law Firm Represented

March 26, 2019 — EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler is formally recusing himself from agency reviews and permitting decisions on a proposed gold and copper mine near Alaska’s Bristol Bay amid criticism his former law firm represented the developer.

Wheeler promised to steer clear of matters involving the controversial Pebble Mine in an updated March 20 recusal statement, two years after his former employer, Faegre Baker Daniels LLP, had arranged a meeting between former EPA chief Scott Pruitt and project developer Pebble LP.

Weeks after that 2017 meeting, Pruitt moved to withdraw proposed mining restrictions that would make it difficult, if not impossible, for the project to secure an essential Clean Water Act permit. Although Pruitt later backtracked, business groups have recently lobbied the EPA to toss out the five-year-old restrictions, arguing they preemptively block a project that would sustain jobs and extract at least 6.5 billion tons of known minerals. Environmentalists counter that the proposed mine jeopardizes a thriving salmon fishery.

Wheeler cast his decision as a “voluntary recusal” since he never provided services to a Faegre Baker Daniels client on the Pebble Mine and government advisers have said the move isn’t necessary to fulfill federal ethics rules. Wheeler said his recusal would last as long as he leads the Environmental Protection Agency. In the meantime, Wheeler has delegated Pebble issues to EPA General Counsel Matthew Leopold.

The Environmental Protection Agency could still move to lift the restrictions, without Wheeler’s involvement. And in the meantime, the Army Corps of Engineers is taking public comment on a draft environmental impact statement analyzing the mine.

Read the full story at Bloomberg

ALASKA: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers sees no reason now to extend Pebble comment period

March 21, 2019 — An official with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Wednesday that the agency has not received any compelling reason to extend the 90-day comment period on a draft environmental review of a major mine project in Southwest Alaska.

Shane McCoy is project manager for the corps’ review of the Pebble Limited Partnership’s permit application. The Pebble partnership wants to develop a gold-and-copper mine near a major salmon fishery in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region.

McCoy told reporters that while 45 days is standard for such reviews, the corps decided 90 days was appropriate for the Pebble project given the nature of the project and level of interest in it.

The corps has received requests to extend the 90-day period and is considering those, but so far it has not received a strong reason for an extension, he said. The corps also has received comments saying 90 days is sufficient, he said.

Critics of the project have criticized the substance of the review and say the process has been rushed. When the draft review was released last month, Pebble partnership CEO Tom Collier said the partnership saw “no significant environmental challenges that would preclude the project from getting a permit.”

McCoy said the draft review is not a rubber stamp of the project. If there’s evidence contrary to what the corps’ draft analysis shows, “absolutely provide it to us and allow us to use that to inform a revision if necessary,” he said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Anchorage Daily News

Feds inch closer to approving Alaska mining project seen as a threat to Pacific Northwest

March 11, 2019 — Over the past several decades, fishermen, business owners, Alaska Native organizations and environmental groups have protested a proposed open-pit copper and gold mine at the headwaters of Bristol Bay — a pristine salmon habitat.

Now the federal government is inching toward approving the mining project.

Nestled in southwest Alaska, Bristol Bay is home to the world’s largest wild salmon run. The watershed supports a teeming ecosystem of eagles, grizzlies and beluga whales.

It’s also an economic engine for the Pacific Northwest. Each year, the fishery contributes thousands of seasonal fishing and processing jobs and millions of dollars in economic activity to Washington, Oregon, and California, according to the University of Alaska Institute of Social and Economic Research.

Bristol Bay is where the Pebble Limited Partnership, the company developing the mine, plans to build a 10.7-square-mile open-pit mine to dig up copper, gold, molybdenum, and other minerals. The mine would require new infrastructure, including roads, a port and a 188-mile-long natural gas pipeline.

Read the full story at McClatchy DC

ALASKA: Bristol Bay: Back to the Pebble grind

February 28, 2019 — Alaska’s Bristol Bay salmon fishermen are once again rallying the troops to help check a juggernaut that threatens the world’s single-most productive salmon fishery.

Mining the copper and gold deposit at the headwaters of Bristol Bay’s natal sockeye streams might not be an inherently risky proposition were it not for the toxic byproduct. Based on our current best technology, toxic runoff from the mining process would be diverted to tailings ponds, which are essentially pools with dams built around them. Historically, these containment fields leak eventually.

The geography and topography of Bristol Bay complicates this plan. Any Anchorage area resident will tell you that Southwest Alaska is part of the ring of fire. After the 7.0 earthquake on Nov. 30, Anchorage area residents felt more than 6,000 aftershocks in just 30 days. That’s an average of 200 per day, or about 8 aftershocks per hour. And now, three months later, the aftershocks have not stopped.

What might the outcome be if a similar scenario hit Bristol Bay, about 250 miles from Anchorage, and thousands of aftershocks rippled through the water-laden soil containing manmade ponds of toxic sludge? Would they remain intact? Or would they twist and crumble like so many of the paved roads around Anchorage?

As long as Pebble Mine’s tailings ponds are to be built into Bristol Bay’s permeable soil in an earthquake zone, the plan may as well include a ticking clock on the health of the region’s renewable salmon resource.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Bristol Bay sockeye campaign moves into Hy-Vee, QFC, and Pavilions

February 22, 2019 — The Bristol Bay Regional Development Association (BBRSDA) is expanding a marketing campaign it believes will make Bristol Bay sockeye salmon a nationally recognized brand.

In 2016, the association launched a pilot marketing program in nine grocery stores in Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A.. The association put its new eye-catching, salmon-hued logo on aprons, printed fish wrap, and stickers, and handed out recipe cards and branded mugs while their representatives touted wild-caught sockeye from the pristine water of Bristol Bay, Alaska. Point-of-sale promotions were bolstered by a social media push, which included vivid photographs of Bristol Bay and interviews with the men and women who fish there.

Fast forward two years, and that same program that started in a handful of stores in Boulder has expanded to more than 1,000 across the country, forming partnerships with major chains like Hy-Vee, QFC, and Pavilions.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

ALASKA: U.S. Army Corps releases draft report on Pebble Mine

February 21, 2019 — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released Pebble Mine’s draft environmental impact statement on Wednesday, one of the biggest stepping stones in the permitting process for the proposed copper-and-gold mine near the headwaters of Bristol Bay.

The purpose of the draft EIS is to analyze the project’s proposal and present alternative plans. The environmental review, totaling more than 1,400 pages, the Army Corps proposes multiple actions including an analysis of permitting the mine, alternate transportation corridors and rejecting the mine proposal altogether.

A 90-day public comment period will begin March 1, allowing stakeholders to give their thoughts on the report before a final version is delivered to federal agencies. Opponents of the mine are pushing back against the comment period, claiming in isn’t a long enough timeline for thorough feedback.

“A 90-day comment period is far too short of a time period to review and comment on the recently released Draft Environmental Impact Statement,” said Andy Wink, executive director of the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association. “The speed at which insufficient materials are being pushed through this mine’s permitting process is irresponsible given that the Bristol Bay salmon ecosystem is a biological wonder of the world. This region contains the world’s largest wild salmon runs, which have supported a rich culture for millennia and sustained a thriving commercial fishery for more than 130 years.”

“A 270-day comment period on the Draft EIS is the first – and necessary – step in holding the Pebble Limited Partnership accountable during the permitting process,” said Bristol Bay Native Corporation CEO Jason Metrokin. “Bristol Bay cannot become a laboratory to test unproven and unprecedented mining practices.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Early signs show strong wild Alaska salmon market for 2019

February 19, 2019 — A lot can change in a few months, fisheries economists are quick to say, but early indications point to very favorable conditions for wild Alaska salmon prices in 2019, especially for sockeye, the state’s top-dollar species.

Andy Wink, a fisheries economist who also heads the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association (BBRSDA), is happy with how the market is looking for the upcoming season.

“I think we’re at a pretty good place, and have been for the last few years in salmon markets. We’ve seen growing demand and the farmed salmon supply hasn’t grown as fast as it did in different points in the past,” Wink said. “It’s left producers in a good position.”

Leading farmed fish producers Norway and Chile, regulated by their respective governments, are bumping up against a threshold for the maximum number of salmon they can produce, and both are fighting blight. Norway, the world’s top farmed salmon producer, has had persistent problems with sea lice, while second-place producer Chile has been struggling with disease, primarily piscirickettsiosis, prompting environmental groups and health organizations to raise concerns over Chile’s overuse of antibiotics.

Read the full story at Seafood Source