Fishing organizations unite to oppose Pebble Mine

December 3, 2006
Alaska Journal of Commerce (AK)
By Margaret Bauman

New opposition to a proposed massive copper-gold-molybdenum mine in Southwest Alaska is coming from the sport fishing industry, as proponents of the mine continue exploration on what they say is not yet a fully defined project.

In a Nov. 24 announcement, 37 sport fishing industry leaders, including Scott Fly Rods, Orvis and the American Fly Fishing Trade Association, asked Alaska Governor-elect Sarah Palin, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources and the federal Bureau of Land Management to stop development of the Pebble project, located at the headwaters of rivers critical to the multi-million-dollar Bristol Bay sockeye salmon fishery. The sport fishing industry leaders, like many in the commercial fisheries industry, want federal and state officials to permanently protect the Bristol Bay watershed from industrial mineral development.

The watershed is critical to the sockeye fishery, as well as other sport and commercial fisheries.

The Alaska Marine Conservation Council, a community-based organization working to conserve Alaska's wild fisheries, meanwhile urged the federal Minerals Management Service to remove Bristol Bay from its proposed five-year Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas leasing program.

"It's truly astonishing that the federal government is proposing to drill for oil and gas in Bristol Bay and the southeastern Bering Sea, an area so productive that it has been termed the nationÕs fish basket," said AMCC's Kelly Harrell. "Further, the national importance of the Bristol Bay region compelled President George H.W. Bush, and later President Bill Clinton to include it among the areas withdrawn for leasing."

The Resource Development Council for Alaska has asked its members to support expanded leasing on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf during the five-year period between 2007 and 2012 in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas, Cook Inlet, the Aleutian Basin and future leasing in Bristol Bay.

Many commercial fishermen, meanwhile, were organizing support of a proposal coming before the December meeting of the Alaska Board of Fish in Dillingham, suggesting a fish refuge in the state-owned waters of the Lower Talarik Creek, Upper Talarik Creek and Koktuli River Ð all near the Pebble project area.

The Renewable Resources Coalition, which opposes development of the Pebble project, said messages from the fishing equipment manufacturers and suppliers will also be featured in full-page, four-color ads in two sport fishing publications, which have a combined paid circulation of more than 155,000 subscribers. Trout Unlimited is footing the bill for the ads, which will feature the logos of all 37 retailers and the industryÕs trade association.

Bruce Jenkins, chief operating officer for Northern Dynasty Mines, the Canadian firm that wants to develop the mine, continued to defend his companyÕs right to due process. Jenkins said in a telephone interview Nov. 25 he is convinced that as governor, Palin will follow the law and afford the mining company due process. Palin said during her campaign that she was for jobs and resource development, and was reserving judgment on the mine.

Northern Dynasty's position is that every stakeholder has the right to take whatever position they wish to take, but that Northern Dynasty deserves due process, he said.

"How can they come out against a project we haven't even defined yet?Ó Jenkins asked. ÒWe're still exploring and we don't know if we are going to have an open pit (mine). Those are decisions we can't make until we have drilled Pebble East and that wonÕt be done until the end of 2007."

There is no justification for what mine opponents are doing to deny his company due process, Jenkins said. "We have an opportunity, under the law of the land, to state our argument," he said.

"There is no guarantee that Northern Dynasty will even get permitted for the mine, but the company wants the opportunity to put its science on the table, to prove the opponents concerns are wrong," he said. "We are doing everything legal and we have a right, particularly when we are on state land designated for mineral development."

Mine opponents said they have done their own research and have come to their own conclusions: It makes no sense to risk the almost limitless natural resources of the Bristol Bay watershed for nonrenewable, short-term gain of resources.

Patrick Flatley, outreach coordinator for the Bristol Bay Alliance, noted a 1998 decision by the state of Wisconsin to restrict metallic hardrock sulfide mining, when then-Gov. Tommy Thompson signed the 1997 Wisconsin Act 171 into law. The law amended the metallic mining statute to establish an additional provision that an applicant for a metallic mining permit must meet to receive a mining permit.

The legislation, commonly referred to as the Mining Moratorium Law, requires an applicant to provide examples of a mining operation in the United States or Canada that have not resulted in significant environmental pollution. The law includes specific qualifying criteria that must be satisfied in order for the example site, or sites, to be considered.

The mining company must submit documentation from groundwater/surfacewater monitoring that includes data showing that the example mine has operated for 10 years without polluting groundwater or surface water from acid drainage at the tailings site, at the mine site or from the release of heavy metals. The mining company must also submit documents showing an example mine that has been closed for 10 years without polluting of groundwater or surface water from acid drainage at the tailings site, mine site or from the release of heavy metals.

"We are not against all types of mining," Flatley said. "We are about clean water and fresh wild fish. Acid mine drainage is what hurts the water."

The metallic hard rock sulfide industry could not show the state of Wisconsin that a mine that had been operating 10 years didnÕt do significant damage to the water, and they could not show an example of a metallic hard rock sulfide mine that had been closed 10 years that did not cause significant pollution to the watershed, he said. ÒI donÕt see how coming out against something proven to be so dangerous to water gets in the way of due process.Ó

Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com.

Date: 12/3/2006