Pebble Mine Critics Take Up Arms

[Blue_In_AK]

To many Alaskans, the proposed Pebble Mine is THE environmental emergency in Alaska these days, although my guess is that not too many people outside of the state are aware of it. My personal opinion is I would give up ANWR tomorrow if it would guarantee that Pebble would never be developed. The battle is heating up.

http://www.adn.com/2010/08/13/1409356/critics-take-up-arms-as-pebble.html

ADVANCE ASSAULT: Anti-mine forces urge feds to use veto power.

By KIM MURPHY
Los Angeles Times

DILLINGHAM -- It is an unfortunate coincidence of geography that this lush region of wild rivers, grassy tundra and windy sea is home to two competing treasures of almost unimaginable value: the world's largest sockeye salmon run, supporting a fishery worth $440 million a year; and, in the hills behind it, a massive deposit of copper, molybdemum and gold worth at least $300 billion.

With that much money at stake, preventing the construction of what could be the largest open-pit mine in North America -- at headwaters above Bristol Bay -- seems an impossible task.

As Pebble Ltd. Partnership prepares to submit its permit application outlining what kind of mine it wants to build by late this year or early next, Bristol Bay fishermen are fighting a fierce advance assault, hoping to persuade government decision-makers and the public that poisonous mine drainage and pristine salmon streams are a combination too risky to contemplate.

"The location could not possibly be worse on the face of the Earth," said former state Senate President Rick Halford. "This is a place of incredible value. It's going to be probably the biggest environmental resource fight of our lifetime."

In late July, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson met with dozens of mine opponents at Dillingham High School, where tribal leaders and commercial fishermen began a push to have the EPA wield its veto authority. The EPA has a seldom-used power to ban the discharge of dredged or fill material in certain circumstances. Pebble would create mountains of such material. A few days after the Dillingham meeting, Alaska U.S. Rep. Don Young introduced legislation to strip the EPA of that power.

For many fishermen here, it is inconceivable that an industrial-scale mine that could produce 8 billion tons of waste is being contemplated in an area home to healthy runs of five species of salmon. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar earlier this year called an offshore area southwest of Bristol Bay, through which the salmon migrate, "simply too special to drill" and placed it off-limits to offshore oil and gas development.

"It is a national treasure that we must protect," Salazar said.

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Read more: http://www.adn.com/2010/08/13/1409356/critics-take-up-arms-as-pebble.html#ixzz0wbUwgfnO

Please read the whole article. This is important. Perhaps some letters to the EPA would help. It should be pointed out that if this mine were developed as originally planned, ALL other open-pit mines in Alaska would fit inside it.

Incidentally, Rick Halford is a Republican and Ted Stevens also adamantly opposed this mine.