August 31, 2020 — The sockeye salmon that come from the Koktuli River aren’t like most other fish in Alaska’s Bristol Bay, where a thriving fishery provides nearly half of the world’s wild sockeye. These salmon represent a rare class of sockeye with unique genes and a singular life strategy that sets them apart from the millions of fish that spawn in the rivers and streams that feed into Bristol Bay. Now, Koktuli River sockeye are in the spotlight because the Pebble Mine, a copper and gold mine proposed for southwest Alaska, is slated for the water in which they live.
On Monday, August 24, the latest development arrived in the long and controversial story of the Pebble Mine. The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the agency in charge of permitting the mine, posted a letter officially informing the project’s developer, Pebble Limited Partnership (PLP), that the open-pit mine, as proposed, would “cause unavoidable adverse impacts” to the surrounding watershed, resulting in “significant degradation.”
That determination would be a death knell for the project per the Clean Water Act—unless the company takes appropriate steps to mitigate or offset the damage it will cause to more than 1,300 hectares of wetlands and nearly 300 kilometers of streams, most of which lie within the Koktuli River watershed. In recent weeks, prominent Republicans, including President Trump’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson, have voiced opposition to the mine, feeding speculation ahead of Monday’s letter that the administration might block or delay the project.