March 17, 2020 — Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) called the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska “a major threat to Pacific salmon” at a hearing in Washington D.C. on Wednesday, 11 March.
Cantwell’s comments came while questioning Neil Jacobs, who has been nominated to serve as the next administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
March 4, 2020 — Bristol Bay fishermen, tribal leaders and fisheries advocates once again offered their testimony on the value of protections for the world’s most productive sockeye salmon habitat.
On Monday, March 2, members of the Bristol Bay Defense Alliance testified in federal district court in support of a lawsuit the group filed against the Environmental Protection Agency in October.
The suit asserts the EPA’s withdrawal of proposed Clean Water Act protections was arbitrary and unlawful, and runs counter to the scientific and public record. The plaintiffs now await a ruling from Judge Sharon Gleason on whether the suit will move forward.
“Although we are now waiting for the judge’s ruling in this case, our primary goal is unchanged: protecting and promoting the Bristol Bay fishery,” said Andy Wink, executive director of the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association. “The science still supports 404 protections in Bristol Bay, and we will continue working to secure them.”
In 2010, six Bristol Bay Tribes requested the protections and soon were supported in the effort by commercial and sport fishing groups.
February 14, 2020 — One week ago, the Pebble Partnership unveiled a draft plan for mitigating the potential impacts of a proposed copper and gold mine in Southwest Alaska. The company says that just under 5 square miles of wetlands would be affected, with nearly 70% of that land facing irreversible changes. To combat the side effects of opening the mine, Pebble is focusing on three strategic projects related to it’s impact on the region – which is home to the largest sockeye salmon fishery in the world.
“In our review of some other projects up here, we looked at creative ways that we could, within the watershed, improve upon upon fish habitat and water resources within the areas that we will affect,” said Mike Heatwole, a spokesperson for the Pebble Partnership.
The three specific areas that Pebble plans to address will be: Improving the water treatment facilities in Newhalen, Nondalton, & Kokhanok- Clearing roughly 7 miles of coastline on the western side of the Cook Inlet- and improving accessibility for over 8.5 miles of salmon habitat to compensate for the streams expected to be affected by the mine.
Days after the publishing of Pebble’s mitigation plans, the preliminary version of a final environmental impact statement drew criticism from multiple groups who stand in opposition to the mine. Many of these organizations feel that the ACOE has rushed the process, ignoring important data and research regarding the impacts that the mine could have on Bristol Bay’s salmon.
February 13, 2020 — A new version of a federal environmental review for the proposed Pebble mine has angered the mine’s opponents and encouraged its developer.
The Army Corps of Engineers will use the final review to decide whether to give the controversial mine a key permit it needs before it can be built.
The Corps had provided the report to several cooperating agencies involved in the review process, such as state and federal agencies and tribal governments. The Anchorage Daily News obtained an executive summary of the Corps’ preliminary final environmental review that was leaked to reporters.
The report could foreshadow what’s to come.
Tom Collier, chief executive of developer Pebble Limited Partnership, is pleased. He said the report’s release, and its major conclusions, indicate the company will see a decision in its favor by mid-2020.
February 13, 2020 — On Wednesday, Feb. 12, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reportedly conceded that there may be a new hurdle on the horizon for Pebble Mine permitting.
On Feb. 6, the environmental group Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit seeking Endangered Species Act protection for Lake Iliamna harbor seals, one of only two harbor seal populations living exclusively in fresh water, whose population now numbers about 400, according to the center.
“Alaska’s unique and imperiled freshwater seals need federal protection,” said Kristin Carden, a scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The Pebble Mine threatens the very survival of the Iliamna Lake seals and the fish species they depend on to survive. Even if the mine is stopped, climate change will drive these rare and beautiful animals toward extinction.”
Subsistence hunters in the region harvest lake seals. The center advises that its lawsuit would not interfere with subsistence hunting or fishing by Alaska natives. Whether it may affect commercial fisheries in Bristol Bay remains to be seen.
January 28, 2020 — This morning, residents in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region reported waking to a magnitude 3.6 earthquake near the proposed Pebble Mine site just before 6 a.m.
Earthquakes in Alaska are nothing new. But the rate of activity has increased. According to the Alaska Earthquake Center, 2018 and 2019 took first and second place for the most earthquakes recorded in the state: “With a total of 50,289 reported earthquakes, 2019 finished as a runner up to the record-breaking 2018. The earthquake depths ranged between zero and 165 miles.”
What does this have to do with mining and fisheries? Stay with me.
As we cannot yet predict seismic activity, we do the next best thing: Build to withstand earthquakes.
The 7.1 quake that hit Anchorage in November 2018, followed by a 5.7 aftershock and hundreds of aftershocks for days and weeks after, caused no fatalities. Why? Because we have engineered our lives and structures to survive earthquakes, especially in the Ring of Fire.
December 30, 2019 — It seems that at election time, our candidates will do everything they can to show themselves as big proponents of our fisheries, posing as lovers of salmon, with pictures of themselves splashed across the media holding a king or coho, while touting our commercial and sport fishing industries. Yet once election season is over, our amazing natural resources — our salmon especially — seem to be all but forgotten, slipping back into the far reaches of memory, taking a second seat to all other issues, a neglected priority.
This is too bad, because as anyone who is aware of the history of once great fisheries around the world knows, ours are but a few of the last great remaining intact salmon runs. Cook Inlet- sized populations were once the norm throughout Europe, as were runs far into the 1800’s along the northeastern seaboard of the United States. Much more recently, over the past 50 years, 300 documented runs of wild salmon in the Pacific Northwest have met their demise, many of these during our lifetime.
With current changes, such as the very real prospect of Pebble Mine, and with the lifting of restrictions on the discharge of pollutants on both a state and federal level, there is no reason to believe this will not eventually be the case here in Alaska, as well, that our salmon will not face the same fate as those around the world. We need to hold our politicians’ feet to the fire and demand that they adhere to what they say when running for office. Finally, stop just paying lip service to our salmon and adopt a “fish-first” policy.
December 23, 2019 — A mining company secretly collaborated with the governor of Alaska to lobby the Trump administration to move forward with a mining project that Environmental Protection Agency scientists warned could devastate the world’s most valuable wild salmon habitat, according to newly released emails obtained by CNN.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s office was given detailed talking points, ghostwritten letters and advice on lobbying strategies by Pebble Limited Partnership executives, emails show. Dunleavy and his office then used that material, sometimes adopting the company’s language word for word, in an effort that culminated in President Donald Trump promising favorable action on the mine, according to emails.
One striking example of the governor using Pebble’s language is an official letter Dunleavy sent to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in April about the length of a public comment period on the mine’s draft environment impact statement.
December 6, 2019 — The company trying to develop the Pebble Mine is going to need a lot more money to keep up the pace.
Northern Dynasty, based in Vancouver, B.C., is the parent company of the Pebble Partnership. It reports losing about $40 million (CA$53 million) in the first nine months of the year.
Its deficit now exceeds $400 million. If the company can’t raise the money to pay its debts when they come due, it may have to “reduce or curtail” its operations “at some point,” the report says.
“As such, there is material uncertainty that raises substantial doubt about the Group’s (Pebble and its parent company’s) ability to continue as a going concern,” the report says.
Northern Dynasty has included nearly identical statements in previous quarterly reports.
Pebble spokesman Mike Heatwole said in an email that Pebble continues to look for a partner and is confident in its ability to continue advancing the project.
This and previous financial statements tell a story that’s much darker than the rosy image Pebble projects in its ad campaign, said Daniel Cheyette, a vice president of Bristol Bay Native Corporation.
December 5, 2019 — Over 500 vendors exhibited at the 2019 Pacific Marine Expo in Seattle in late November. For commercial fishermen, processors and small businesses, it’s the place to be.
The expo was winding down on Saturday morning. But Naknek fisherman Reba Temple was causing a stir with her unusual get-up, made of the mesh netting that salmon tenders use to collect a catch.
“It’s made out of scraps of brailer material. So there’s grommets and mesh brailer material and black straps, and it’s a ballgown,” she said.
Temple said the expo is a great place to catch up with the people and the products in the industry.
“Everyone’s here, you can talk to your processors, you can talk to your friends, see hydraulic pumps cut open so you actually know how they work,” she said.
Stickers and signs saying NO PEBBLE MINE adorned booths, as they have for the past decade. The mine would tap large copper and gold deposits near the headwaters of two major river systems in Bristol Bay. And as the Trump administration breathes new life into the project, many people here are worried.
“Nothing in the world has zero risk — especially when you have a mine of this size with the existing data that show very definitively that there will be impacts,” said Daniel Schindler, director of the University of Washington’s Alaska Salmon Program.