Robert Redford has a message for President Obama: stop the Pebble Mine and protect the $1.5 billion wild salmon fishery and the people that depend on it.
The ad, sponsored by NRDC, is running on MSNBC for the next two weeks. It comes hot on the heels of EPA’s release of its final Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment—a scientific study which concluded that the proposed Pebble Mine would destroy or degrade up to 94 miles of streams and 5,400 acres of wetlands, pollute pristine waters, create massive amounts of toxic waste, and put the salmon fishery and Alaskans who depend on it at "significant risk.”
The Bristol Bay wild salmon fishery produces nearly half of the world's wild sockeye salmon catch, supports 14,000 local jobs, attracts tens of thousands of tourists each summer, and generates $1.5 billion per year. Salmon have also sustained the subsistence economy and cultural identity of Alaska Natives for millennia.
EPA conducted the study after nine federally-recognized tribes in Bristol Bay petitioned the agency to use its authority under the Clean Water Act to protect Bristol Bay from large-scale mining. EPA’s exhaustive peer-reviewed scientific study validates their worst fears – and settles the argument that no large mine should be built at the headwaters of Bristol Bay.
It’s now up to President Obama and EPA to take action.
Show your support and urge President Obama to stop the Pebble Mine.