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 groundswell of local opposition continues to build in Alaska against the Pebble Mine, a colossal open-pit operation that foreign companies are planning to build at the headwaters of Bristol Bay, home to the greatest sockeye salmon runs in the world. Voters in the Lake and Peninsula Borough, where the gold and copper mine would be located, stunned the mining giants in October by approving a ballot initiative that bans any large-scale resource extraction -- like the Pebble Mine -- that would destroy or degrade salmon habitat. They did so despite an intense campaign of fear funded by the Pebble Partnership, the consortium behind the mine, which falsely charged that the ban "will drive . . . families away to find work, force schools to close and drive up the cost of food and fuel as the local economy shrinks even more."
Salmon are the linchpin of Bristol Bay's still-wild ecosystem, sustaining the area's abundant wildlife, from grizzlies and eagles to beluga whales and orcas. Moreover, their annual runs yield $450 million in economic activity. The Pebble Mine would produce a staggering 10 billion tons of waste, all of which would have to be stored forever in an active earthquake zone, posing a grave threat to the region's wild salmon population. A recent poll found that an overwhelming 80 percent of the bay's commercial fishers are opposed to the mine. Fortunately, passage of the "Save Our Salmon" initiative carries the force of law and should prevent large-scale mines like Pebble from moving forward against the will of the people who live there. Indeed, the Pebble Partnership has promised that it won't proceed if local residents oppose the mine. "We will not go where communities are against us," the CEO of the London-based mining corporation Anglo American has been quoted as saying.
So, is it a happy ending for Bristol Bay? "Not so fast," says NRDC senior attorney Joel Reynolds, who heads up our Stop the Pebble Mine campaign. "Don't expect the mining giants to walk away just yet." Even before the vote was taken, the Pebble Partnership went to the courts to block the ballot initiative but was turned down. Now that the verdict is in, the mining interests are headed back to court to try to invalidate the initiative, asserting their "right" to fill Alaskan salmon streams with contaminated mining waste and put at risk a way of life that has sustained the Bristol Bay region for thousands of years. "The people of Bristol Bay have sent a message loud and clear," says Reynolds. "You have to wonder what part of 'No large-scale mining' Anglo American doesn't understand."
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“The people of Bristol Bay have sent a message loud and clear. You have to wonder what part of 'No large-scale mining' Anglo American doesn't understand.”
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