Last year, a delegation from the Bristol Bay region traveled to London to attend the Anglo American shareholder meeting and meet with you and your staff. They explained that the proposed project would threaten the way of life for local communities, commercial fishermen, Yupik Eskimos and other native people, and they communicated the intense opposition within the region that would be affected by the proposed mine, with the latest polls showing opposition around Bristol Bay in excess of 80 percent. Your response, we understand, was to assure them that the project would not proceed without the support of the people of the region.
On behalf of its 1.3 million members and activists, NRDC strongly endorses the position expressed by the delegation from Bristol Bay. Pebble Mine is a project that poses an unacceptable risk to people, to communities, to species, and to the extraordinary region that they share – a region that is home to one of the most productive, sustainable wild salmon fisheries anywhere in the world.
The pristine watershed that feeds Bristol Bay is the wrong location for large-scale mining, and it is insupportable to contend, as the Pebble Partnership apparently believes, that any amount of study or engineering can eliminate the unacceptable risk posed by the Pebble Mine project, given its immense scale, the inherently toxic nature of the mineral extraction process, and the complex and inter-connected hydrology of the area.
Within the last month, almost 100,000 people have registered their support for the overwhelming local opposition to the Pebble Mine, and those petitions will be delivered to you on Earth Day when you meet with your shareholders.
Consistent with the opposition expressed by the people who live there, we urge you to abandon the Pebble Mine project now.
The whole world is watching.
Please take a moment to sign our petition opposing Pebble Mine.