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Mining plans include the construction of a deep-water port in Cook Inlet, the home of endangered beluga whales, which are sensitive to sound. The noise pollution from port construction and ship traffic could cause the whales to temporarily abandon their favorite feeding or nursing grounds. Belugas and killer whales in Bristol Bay would also lose an important food source if mining were to interfere with the salmon runs.
A study of hard-rock mining has shown that 85 percent of mines like Pebble pollute their surrounding waters. Pebble's proposed mining operations would create more than 9 billion tons of waste, including cyanide, sulfuric acid, arsenic, selenium and other toxic substances. The waste would be held behind a series of massive earthen dams, all of them taller than China's colossal Three Gorges dam. The mine would also sit in an earthquake-prone area, just 20 miles from the Lake Clark fault.
While an accident here would be disastrous, even normal mining operations would harm salmon and the wildlife they support. Salmon are acutely sensitive to pollution -- an increase of just 2-10 parts per billion of copper dust in water can interfere with a salmon's ability to navigate. At least 60 miles of salmon habitat would be destroyed as mining operations extracted 70 million gallons of fresh water a day from rivers and streams. A proposed 86-mile road connecting the port to the mine could require as many as 120 stream crossings and create barriers to migrating fish. Dust and silt from construction and mining activity would harm fish and wash into Iliamna Lake -- home to one of only two populations of freshwater harbor seals in the world.
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While an accident here would be disastrous, even normal mining operations would harm salmon and the wildlife they support.
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