Saving Seafood

EPA could kill mining project in the Bristol Bay watershed

June 1, 2022 — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will hold public hearings next month on a proposal to restrict mining in Alaska’s Bristol Bay watershed and possibly kill a large project. 

The move “would help protect the Bristol Bay watershed’s rivers, streams, and wetlands that support the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery and a subsistence-based way of life that has sustained Alaska Native communities for millennia,” officials said on its website. 

Any changes could kill the proposed “Pebble Mine,” called “one of the greatest stores of mineral wealth ever discovered, and the world’s largest undeveloped copper and gold resource,” by Northern Dynasty Minerals, which is in charge of the project. The National Resources Defense Council and other environmental groups have opposed the project, saying it would damage wildlife there.

Read the full story at KPVI

 

EPA’s Pebble ‘veto’ won’t stop all mining in Alaska’s Bristol Bay

May 31, 2022 — EPA’s move to ban mining the Pebble deposit in the Bristol Bay watershed this week set off a swirl of questions about whether the proposed Clean Water Act veto could have broader implications for mining in one of the world’s premier salmon habitats.

But a close look at the agency documents explaining the decision makes it crystal clear: The Pebble veto won’t stop mining in Bristol Bay, much less the rest of the Last Frontier.

EPA’s proposed veto Wednesday only targets efforts to mine the Pebble deposit. It was based on a mine plan Pebble LP and its backer Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. submitted to the Army Corps of Engineers as part of the Clean Water Act permitting process two years ago.

That mine plan specifically affected three watersheds, the South and North Forks of the Koktuli River and the Upper Talarik Creek, where it would permanently damage 99 miles of stream habitat and more than 2,000 acres of wetlands. EPA says it is vetoing the project because it would result in four “unacceptable adverse effects” on aquatic life and habitat, including the loss of salmon habitat and negative effects on the genetic diversity of salmon in the watersheds.

The veto is limited to certain headwaters of those watersheds, and includes approximately 309 square miles surrounding the 2020 mine plan. There are other mine claims within that restricted area, however the veto documents are clear that the restriction only applies to mining the Pebble deposit, specifically.

Read the full story at Greenwire

 

As EPA moves to block mining at the Pebble deposit, mine supporters and opponents look to details

May 31, 2022 — In late May, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it wants to veto development of the Pebble Mine — a vast deposit of copper and gold at the headwaters of Bristol Bay.

The proposal is a step toward permanently blocking development of the proposed open-pit mine in the Bristol Bay watershed. Mine opponents have pursued a veto for more than a decade.

The EPA said mining the Pebble deposit would result in unacceptable loss of salmon habitat, both at the site and further downstream. Using its authority under the Clean Water Act, the agency proposes to prohibit the discharge of mining materials in waters and wetlands at the Pebble site. That could make it impossible to extract minerals from the deposit.

The executive director of the United Tribes of Bristol Bay, Alannah Hurley, opposes the mine and said the EPA’s move is a step in the right direction.

“Today is a really big day for Bristol Bay — for us to get back on track in this process, and for the Biden administration to be committed to finishing the job to stop Pebble Mine once and for all is very exciting,” she said. “But we’re not there yet. We definitely need to get through the rest of this process.”

Read the full story at KTOO

Alaska Republicans come out against EPA Pebble mine veto

May 31, 2022 — Alaska’s two Republican senators came out against EPA’s proposed veto of the Pebble copper and gold mine near Bristol Bay even though they oppose the project’s development.

EPA on Wednesday proposed using the Clean Water Act to veto mining in the Bristol Bay watershed in southwestern Alaska, citing irreparable damage to the area’s valuable salmon fishery.

But even though Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan don’t want Pebble to advance, they see the Biden EPA’s plan as a heavy-handed federal government intervention that could stymie future resource development in Alaska.

Murkowski said EPA’s action “is one way to further prevent the Pebble mine from moving forward” but provides “no guarantee that a future administration will not revoke it.” Murkowski said she has “never supported a blanket, preemptive approach for any project.”

“My concern has always been that this could be used as precedent to target resource development projects across our state,” she said, asserting the “only lasting path” to stop the mine for good would be “a stakeholder-led process that seeks consensus and helps avoid years of further division.”

Read the full story at E&E News

ALASKA: EPA proposes protections for world’s biggest sockeye salmon fishery

May 26, 2022 — The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it will protect waters in Alaska that are home to one of the world’s biggest salmon spawning grounds, the culmination of a long-running dispute that pitted Alaska Natives against mining interests.

The proposal from the Environmental Protection Agency is a potentially fatal blow to a plan to mine in the Bristol Bay watershed for gold, copper and other valuable metals.

Bristol Bay, which sustains an annual run of 37.5 million sockeye salmon, helps support a $2 billion commercial fishing industry as well as a way of life for Alaska Natives, who have vigorously opposed the construction of the Pebble Mine.

The EPA’s action, if finalized, may finally put an end to a more than decade-long legal and political tussle over the fate of this corner of southern Alaska as President Biden strives to protect a greater share of the nation’s wilderness.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

EPA proposes restrictions in fight over Alaska mine

May 26, 2022 — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday proposed restrictions that would block plans for a copper and gold mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region, the latest in a long-running dispute over efforts by developers to advance the mine in a region known for its salmon runs.

Critics of the Pebble Mine project called the move an important step in a years-long fight to stop the mine. But John Shively, the CEO of the Pebble Limited Partnership, which is pursuing the mine, called EPA’s proposal a “political maneuver” and a preemptive effort to veto the project.

The EPA in a statement said the proposal would bar discharges of dredged or fill material into the waters of the U.S. within the mine site footprint proposed by the Pebble partnership.

The federal agency said it took into account information that has become available since it previously proposed restricting development in 2014, including new scientific analyses and a mine plan from the Pebble partnership that was submitted to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as part of a permit application.

 Read the full story from the AP

Biden EPA deals major blow to Pebble mine

May 26, 2022 — EPA today proposed a ban on mining in Alaska’s renowned Bristol Bay watershed, seemingly closing the door on a long-sought-after copper mine project and protecting one of the world’s premier salmon fisheries.

The Clean Water Act veto would likely spell the end to Pebble LP’s mine proposal. EPA says the mine would destroy nearly 100 miles of protected stream habitat and more than 2,000 acres of wetlands and federally protected waters. The harm from digging for copper and gold would also “reverberate downstream,” damaging other fish habitats, the agency says.

It’s a victory for the lawmakers, tribes, commercial anglers and conservation groups that fought for President Joe Biden to undo an EPA move during the Trump administration to tear apart a previous veto of the mine. Support for protecting Bristol Bay has been bipartisan, with Donald Trump Jr. and Fox News host Tucker Carlson pushing the Trump administration to revive the veto (Greenwire, Aug. 24, 2020).

“Today’s announcement is an important step toward protecting Bristol Bay from the Pebble Mine for good and we hope EPA will move quickly to finalize the 404(c) Clean Water Act process to enact durable, long-lasting protections for the region, as we have requested, as soon as possible,” said Katherine Carscallen, director of Commercial Fishermen for Bristol Bay, which issued a joint statement in support of the veto with the United Tribes of Bristol Bay, SalmonState and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

While the proposed Pebble veto would be a victory for environmentalists, it also arrives as Biden and congressional Democrats are trying to thread the needle between environmental stewardship and supporting the mining needed to supply electric vehicle manufacturing and renewable energy projects (Climatewire, April 19).

Pebble is only the latest of multiple large copper mines to be delayed or blocked under Biden, after the Twin Metals mine in Minnesota and the Resolution copper mine in Arizona (Greenwire, Jan. 26).

Read the full story at E&E News

 

‘A big day for the Port of New Bedford’: Development projects could bring hundreds of jobs

March 25, 2022 — Two entities in the Port of New Bedford this week announced they will soon start on major infrastructure projects.

The New Bedford Port Authority announced Tuesday the awarding of a $27,943,800 contract to expand the port’s North Terminal to Acushnet-based D.W. White Construction.

“This project represents a major step in our effort to modernize the Port of New Bedford,” Mayor Jon Mitchell said in a press release. “It will enhance the long-term competitiveness of our maritime industries and help create quality jobs for our residents.”

The new bulkhead will be built near the Environmental Protection Agency’s Deepwatering Facility and create approximately 150,000 square feet of terminal space in the upper harbor.

The project will also build a fourth Contaminated Aquatic Disposal cell in the harbor with a 480,000 cubic yard capacity for dredged contaminated material.

The project is also expected to create more berthing space for vessels, increasing the number of permitted slots now counted at the port as somewhere around 400.

Authorities said that the project is expected to create almost 900 new jobs, approximately $65 million in new wages and consumption, and $11.5 million in state and local tax revenues.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Earth is likely just a decade a way from hitting 1.5°C of global warming — and scientists say it will be “catastrophic” for coral reefs

February 4, 2022 — The United Nations has warned the continued use of fossil fuels is hurtling the planet to 1.5°C of global warming, relative to 1850-1900 levels, a threshold that will result in “unprecedented” extreme weather events. According to new research, climate change will also result in coral bleaching that will be “catastrophic” for reefs, and potentially, the marine life that live around them.

Bleaching can occur from a change in ocean temperature, pollution, overexposure to sunlight and low tides. Any of these influences can stress coral and causes it to release the algae that live in its tissues. The loss of algae, corals’ primary food source, causes the coral to turn white and makes it more susceptible to disease.

Reefs are “among the most biologically diverse and valuable ecosystems on Earth,” serving as a vital resource for an estimated 25% of all marine life, which depend on reefs for their life cycles, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Roughly half a billion people also depend on reefs for food, coastal protection, tourism and fisheries’ income.

But as climate change continues to negatively impact the planet, it will “overwhelm” those reefs, researchers said, and almost none of them will be able to escape a grave scenario.

Read the full story at CBS News

ALASKA: Fishermen discouraged by EPA’s delayed timeline to protect Bristol Bay salmon fishery

January 31, 2022 — The Environmental Protection Agency released a letter On January 27th signaling a change in its original timeline to put Clean Water Act protections in place for Bristol Bay.

Their letter indicates that the EPA will issue a revised Clean Water Act Section 404(c) Proposed Determination for Alaska’s Bristol Bay watershed by May 31, 2022, meaning that a potential comment period could occur while Bristol Bay’s commercial fishermen and residents are out fishing and offline at remote fishing camps.

In response to the EPA’s letter, Commercial Fishermen for Bristol Bay’s Executive Director, Katherine Carscallen issued the following statement:

“Bristol Bay’s fishermen are deeply concerned by news from the EPA that they do not intend to protect Bristol Bay by the time we head out for another fishing season. We’ve been calling on EPA to finalize its proposed Clean Water Act protections for a decade.  Now, in spite of President Biden’s commitment in August 2020 to stop the Pebble Mine and despite a decade of science supporting Clean Water Act protections, we are yet again asked to wait,” the release stated.

Read the full story at KINY