Saving Seafood

Alaska Gov. Dunleavy urges EPA to stop veto of Pebble mine

October 26, 2022 — Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy is asking the Environmental Protection Agency to put the brakes on its effort to stop the giant Pebble copper and gold project.

In May, the federal agency proposed halting the proposed mine under a provision of the Clean Water Act it has used sparingly. It says the mine would be among the world’s largest open-pit copper mines and threatens the Bristol Bay region’s valuable wild salmon fishery and people who rely on it.

The agency is expected to decide by Dec. 2 whether it will move ahead with its proposal.

In his Sept. 6, three-page letter to Casey Sixkiller, administrator of the EPA region that includes Alaska, Dunleavy said the proposed veto of the project is “deeply concerning” and would undermine Alaska’s legal decision-making authority in resource development.

The letter, accompanied by the state’s 53-page comment to the agency, was obtained through a routine records request by the Daily News for the governor’s monthly correspondence.

Dunleavy said the EPA proposal, if finalized, would make preemptive decisions about which resources Alaska can develop and how it can develop them. It chooses fisheries over mining, while disregarding Alaska’s ability to protect its fishery resources, the governor said in the letter.

“Whether, and how, Alaska develops Bristol Bay’s mineral resources or its fishery resources — or both, responsibly — is Alaska’s decision to make, considering the input of all stakeholders and working through the standard permitting process,” Dunleavy said in the letter. “EPA would instead choke off further discussion, usurping for itself this important decision affecting so many Alaskans.”

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA: Both sides dig in as EPA’s final decision on Pebble Mine nears

October 4, 2022 — Environmental advocates, Alaska Natives and commercial fishermen say they are at once confident and anxious as they wait for the EPA to announce a final ban on mining wastes in Bristol Bay, Alaska — home to one of the world’s largest salmon fisheries — that would effectively kill a gold and copper mine estimated to be worth $350 billion.

The Pebble Mine has endured a decadeslong fight spanning three administrations, all of which have moved to block the mine to protect the fishery. The developers, Canada-based Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. and other investors doing business as the Pebble Limited Partnership, are still determined to keep the project alive.

It would be unusual for the EPA to reverse its preliminary decision to ban mining wastes from Bristol Bay under a provision of the Clean Water Act, but the Pebble Limited Partnership won’t be reluctant to take the EPA to court to secure the permits it needs, according to a spokesman.

Meanwhile, Delores Larson, who lives in the Native Village of Koliganek, Alaska, on the Nushagak River, says the possibility of the Pebble Mine getting a green light is terrifying. There are no grocery stores where she lives, she said, no lettuce, bananas or any other imported foods. But there are native berries, moose and other wildlife, including the salmon that begin their northern journey to spawn about 125 miles downstream in the Bristol Bay fishery.

Her people are “salmon people,” she said in an interview in Washington last month as she scrolled through pictures of bright pink catch drying in a shed back home in Koliganek and the dark, glossy fillets of her famous salmon jerky. “Salmon is gold to us.”

Larson had traveled over 3,000 miles to pressure the EPA to finalize its “proposed determination” announced in May to “prohibit and restrict the use of certain waters in the Bristol Bay watershed (South Fork Koktuli River, North Fork Koktuli River, and Upper Talarik Creek watersheds) as disposal sites for the discharge of dredged or fill material associated with mining the Pebble Deposit.” The agency says the project would threaten the bay’s salmon fishery, which this year produced more than 76 million sockeyes, an all-time record harvest.

“Honestly, we would cease to exist as a people,” she said with a sigh, considering what would happen if the Pebble Mine was built. “It’s our whole life. We depend entirely on our salmon.”

But developers aren’t keen on letting the EPA strike down a multibillion-dollar project that would tap into what geologists say is one of the world’s largest reserves of gold, copper and other minerals. They hold that their plan to contain the wastes is sound, despite what the EPA has said in various reports.

“The record EPA has tried to create for this action is baseless,” said Mike Heatwole, vice president of public affairs for the partnership. “No matter the outcome, we will continue to press our case for this important mineral project.”

A final decision had been expected this month after the EPA received a flood of public comments mostly supporting the plan for banning waste. But the agency announced on Sept. 6 that it would postpone the final determination until December so it could fully review all the comments — though it hasn’t escaped notice that it means there will be no announcement before the midterm elections.

And the inevitable legal battle ahead would prolong an already lengthy fight for the project.

Read the full article at Roll Call

ALASKA: EPA extends comment period on watershed protections that would block Pebble Mine

July 4, 2022 — The Environmental Protection Agency announced last week that it is extending its comment period for proposed restrictions on mining of the Pebble deposit. The comment period was originally set to end in July. Now it will continue for two more months, to Sept. 6.

Representatives with the EPA visited Dillingham and Newhalen earlier this month to hear public testimony on the agency’s proposal to protect waters around the Pebble deposit. It was the first in-person public hearings since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2014, when the Obama administration released a proposed determination for protections, more than a million people — including tens of thousands of Alaskans — commented in support of the federal protections for Bristol Bay. In 2019, the Trump administration revoked the proposal.

In May, the EPA used its authority under the Clean Water Act to issue a revised proposal that included analysis from multi-year environmental reviews and Pebble’s mining proposal.

Read the full story at KTOO

ALASKA: Fishermen say Bristol Bay protections must be stronger

June 20, 2022 — One of the oldest Bristol Bay fishing associations came out strongly against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed new limits on the potential Pebble Mine, reflecting unease that the much-heralded move does not go far enough.

“The Bristol Bay Fishermen’s Association regrets that it cannot support the EPA’s weak and watered-down 2022 PD (proposed determination),” said David Harsila, a spokesman for the association in a statement this week.

“The watershed will not be protected, and a large-scale mining operation could still be permitted. We demand that EPA do more to protect the Bristol Bay drainages.”

Under the Obama administration, the EPA in 2014 proposed a declaration under section 404 (c) of the Clean Water Act to protect headwaters of Bristol Bay salmon streams from pollution generated by mining for gold, copper and other metal ores in the Pebble Deposit.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

EPA tours Bristol Bay to hear comments on plans that could prevent Pebble Mine

June 17, 2022 — Representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency are touring the Bristol Bay region to hear public comments on a plan announced last month that could prevent the proposed Pebble Mine from moving forward.

The EPA heard from dozens of residents in Dillingham Middle/High School on Thursday morning who were concerned about the impacts that the planned copper and gold mine could have on Bristol Bay’s sockeye salmon fishery. Subsistence salmon users spoke about their concerns for a resource they described as an essential source of food and culture for Alaska Natives.

Robin Samuelson, one of Bristol Bay Native Corp.’s board of directors, spoke about the plans for the mine near Iliamna Lake, and was adamant that “nobody is going to build up there. Nobody.”

“We live and die by our fish,” he added.

Read the full story at Alaska’s News Source

 

ALASKA: Bristol Bay advocates pushing EPA to do more

June 2, 2022 — Groups united in opposition to the proposed Pebble Mine say they will marshal a big turnout to press the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to go even farther with its proposed protections for the Bristol Bay headwaters.

Advocates outlined their plan at a June 1 press conference in Dillingham, Alaska, with public hearings on the EPA proposal coming up June 16-17 – along with a projected record-setting sockeye season for the $2.2 billion summer fishery.

The EPA’s newly proposed determination under Clean Water Act Section 404(c) “is a milestone, it is a starting point, but we have a long way to go,” said Daniel Cheyette, vice president lands and resources for the Bristol Bay Native Corporation.

Biologists anticipate 75 million sockeye could return this season, underscoring Bristol Bay’s status as the most productive salmon habitat, said Katherine Carscallen, director of Commercial Fishermen for Bristol Bay.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

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