Saving Seafood

Some hope the EPA will veto Pebble Mine, a project that has long divided SW Alaska

January 27, 2022 — ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

What would be one of the largest copper and gold mines in the world might never break ground. The EPA is expected to issue its final decision at the end of the month on the Pebble Mine in southwest Alaska. From member station KDLG, Izzy Ross reports.

ROSS: The EPA is exercising a rarely-used authority under the Clean Water Act, commonly called its veto authority. Agency officials declined to be interviewed for this story, but in a statement said the mine could harm fish spawning and breeding areas and that this action would protect the commercial and sport fisheries and a traditional way of life based on wild salmon. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied Pebble’s mining permit two years ago, but the company appealed that decision. Pebble spokesperson Mike Heatwole says the EPA is not following normal protocol by using this Clean Water Act authority before the appeal has even been processed.

MIKE HEATWOLE: We continue to say that it is largely unlawful and unprecedented, what the EPA is attempting to do regarding this project.

ROSS: And Heatwole says the company may sue. But the EPA’s use of this authority reflects its serious concerns about the mine’s impact on the region, says Joel Reynolds with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

JOEL REYNOLDS: It’s about as much opposition as one will ever see to a development project anywhere really but in particular, in a development-friendly state like Alaska.

Listen to the full story at KUNC

 

In barrier to Pebble mine, Alaska Native corporation and groups set aside land for conservation

December 28, 2022 — An effort involving an Alaska Native corporation and land conservation groups will permanently protect 44,000 acres in Southwest Alaska and block a key transportation route to the embattled Pebble copper and gold project, the groups announced.

The land, owned by the Pedro Bay Corp., is located off the northeastern shores of Lake Iliamna, the largest lake in Alaska, in an area where project developer Pebble Limited Partnership had favored an access road to the mineral deposit from Cook Inlet.

The Conservation Fund and Bristol Bay Heritage Land Trust worked with the Native corporation on the agreement. The Conservation Fund will purchase the easements for $20 million while the Bristol Bay land trust will hold the easements and work with the corporation to enforce their terms.

“They are perpetual easements and this is important primarily because this is prime salmon habitat,” said Tim Troll, executive director of the Bristol Bay Heritage Land Trust.

The mineral deposit is located about 200 miles southwest of Anchorage near Bristol Bay and the headwaters of the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery.

Pebble Limited has pursued development of a mine in the region for more than a decade, but the project has faced strong opposition from tribes, conservation groups and fishermen. Pebble Limited insists the mine can operate safely without damaging the fishery.

The mine faces stiff headwinds from the federal government. The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed blocking the mine under a special agency action, something mine opponents say could permanently doom the project. The agency is expected to make a final decision by February. A different agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, has rejected the project as well. Pebble is appealing that decision, but the EPA decision would trump whatever the Corps decides.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

With hope and frustration, Bristol Bay awaits the EPA’s final verdict on Pebble

December 14, 2022 — The Environmental Protection Agency has recommended a ban on mining activities in the area around the Pebble deposit. People across Bristol Bay are now waiting for a final decision on the future of the controversial copper and gold prospect.

“I think it sends a real strong message that the science is there; that it’s going to have unacceptable adverse effects on our watershed,” said Gayla Hoseth, the second chief of the Curyung Tribal Council and the natural resources director for the Bristol Bay Native Association.

Hoseth welcomes the move. She said those opposed to the mine have wanted this decision for a long time.

The EPA wants to prohibit the discharge of mining materials in the North and South Fork Koktuli River watersheds, as proposed in Pebble’s permit application. The agency cites its authority under the Clean Water Act to do so. It would extend that prohibition to any future proposals to develop a mine at the Pebble deposit that could result in a similar loss of aquatic resources. The action would effectively kill the mine.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Alaska governor threatens to sue Biden EPA over state land development halt

December 6, 2022 — Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy says he’s prepared to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency if it blocks the development of over 300 miles of Alaska-owned land.

EPA Region 10, which covers Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and hundreds of Tribal Nations, recommended the agency finalize its decision to prohibit development of the Pebble deposit in the Bristol Bay area, the governor said. The EPA has 60 days to make a final determination.

The governor said he was concerned it could set a “dangerous” precedent by laying the foundation that unelected officials could stop the state from doing development projects in areas with wetlands and fish-bearing streams.

Read the full article at The Center Square

The EPA is now one step away from a veto that would ban Pebble mine

December 6, 2022 — Federal regulators are one step away from action that would protect the Bristol Bay watershed and crush the dreams of those who want to see a mine developed to extract ore from the massive Pebble deposit in Southwest Alaska.

Casey Sixkiller, the Region 10 administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency, on Thursday announced he sent a recommendation to EPA headquarters to protect the area by vetoing the proposed mine.

“If affirmed by EPA’s Office of Water during the fourth and final step, this action would help protect salmon fishery areas that support world-class commercial and recreational fisheries, and that have sustained Alaska Native communities for thousands of years, supporting a subsistence-based way of life for one of the last intact wild salmon-based cultures in the world,” he said in a written statement announcing the action.

The announcement is the latest in a long string of setbacks for the Canadian-owned company that wants to mine gold and copper from the Pebble deposit.

Read the full article at KTOO

ALASKA: Backers of Pebble Mine ‘tried to trick regulators,’ says new report

October 31, 2022 — Backers of a proposed copper and gold mine in Southwest Alaska “tried to trick regulators by pretending to pursue a smaller project with the intention of expanding” after the project was approved, a report released Friday by a U.S. House panel says.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the report ahead of its release. The report makes several recommendations, including environmental review process changes to “ensure holistic review of cumulative impacts of projects.”

A message seeking comment was sent to Friday a spokesperson with the Pebble Limited Partnership, which is seeking to develop the Pebble Mine.

The proposed mine is in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has said the region supports the largest sockeye salmon fishery in the world and that it also contains significant mineral resources.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

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

NFI Submits Comments in Support of EPA Clean Water Act Proposed Determination Regarding Pebble Mine

September 7, 2022 –The National Fisheries Institute (NFI) submitted comments on Tuesday supporting the EPA’s updated Proposed Determination to veto development of the Pebble Limited Partnership’s 2020 Mine Plan.

According to NFI, if finalized the EPA’s Determination would protect the Bristol Bay watersheds and rivers that support the world’s largest and most economically valuable sockeye salmon fishery. Most recently the harvest accounted for 57% of the world’s sustainable wild salmon harvest. Estimates also suggest that the Bristol Bay sockeye fishery provides over 15,000 jobs and generates roughly $2 billion in annual economic activity.

NFI’s comments were sent to EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan and Regional Administrator Casey Sixkiller. The comments can be read in their entirety below:

The National Fisheries Institute (“NFI”) submits these comments to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”), with respect to the EPA Clean Water Act (“CWA”) Section 404(c) Proposed Determination to prohibit and restrict the use of certain waters in the Bristol Bay watershed as disposal sites for the discharge of dredged or filled material associated with the Pebble Deposit.

NFI supports EPA’s updated, Proposed Determination to veto development of the Pebble Limited Partnership’s 2020 Mine Plan. If finalized, EPA’s Determination would protect the Bristol Bay watersheds and rivers that support the world’s largest and most economically and ecologically valuable sockeye salmon fishery, a fishery that in the most recent harvest accounted for 57 percent of the world’s sustainable wild salmon harvest. The Pebble Mine project poses a significant threat to the Bristol Bay fishery. The project as proposed by the Pebble Limited Partnership (“PLP”) should not proceed.

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com

ALASKA: Unnamed investor offers up to $60 million for Alaska’s Pebble mine project

August 12, 2022 — An unnamed investor has agreed to inject up to $60 million into the embattled Pebble copper and gold project in Southwest Alaska, an infusion the owner hopes will allow it to reverse major federal permitting actions against the project.

Pebble owner Northern Dynasty Minerals of Vancouver, B.C., is not naming the investor, a private asset management company, in part because it is not required to, said Mike Westerlund, vice president of investor relations for Northern Dynasty. It announced the new investment July 27.

Northern Dynasty is also declining to name the investor out of concern that project opponents will publicly attack the company in an attempt to discourage its investment, he said. The investor can reveal its name if it chooses, Westerlund said.

“We are trying to create economic opportunities and jobs, and these funds will help us do that,” he said.

The Pebble mineral deposit is located about 200 miles southwest of Anchorage, near headwaters that support the valuable Bristol Bay salmon fishery. Pebble opponents have said pollution from the mine will harm what is the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery, which is enjoying record runs again this summer. Northern Dynasty argues it can safely develop the project.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News