New Media Campaign Urges EPA to Be a Hero, Veto Pebble Mine

A broad, bipartisan coalition of local, state, national and international groups—representing Bristol Bay Tribes, commercial fishermen, businesses, and conservation organizations—launched a new media campaign today urging EPA to be a hero by using its Clean Water Act authority to permanently protect Bristol Bay from the ongoing threat of the Pebble Mine. 

The multi-month media blitz, which targets the DC beltway, includes print and digital ads in the Washington Post, New York Times, Politico and The Hill. 

This ad ran today as a wrap in the Washington Post. 

Digital ads are also running for the next two months.

The ads emphasize the story of Bristol Bay: A decades-long fight led by Alaska Native Tribes, communities, and commercial fishermen to save their lives, livelihoods, and lands from destruction from a foreign mining company. 

The story’s resolution has yet to be written. We’re at the climax, where EPA could save the day.  

Bristol Bay desperately needs lasting protections that stop the Pebble Mine and prevent future threats of large-scale mining for good. Although Pebble’s permit was denied in 2020, mine proponents continue to decry and appeal that decision. Like a bad villain that refuses to die, the specter of the Pebble Mine continues to haunt the region. 

EPA could be the hero of Bristol Bay’s story. Under Section 404(c) of the Clean Water Act, EPA has the authority to stop the Pebble Mine and issue permanent protections for Bristol Bay.   

Bristol Bay is the most valuable salmon fishery on the planet, supplying 57% of the world’s wild sockeye salmon, generating $2.2 billion in annual economic activity, supporting 15,000 American jobs, and sustaining Indigenous communities in Alaska for millennia. A record-busting 73.4 million sockeye salmon are projected to return to Bristol Bay in 2022, shattering 2021’s record-breaking return of 66 million sockeye salmon. But the Pebble Mine—and its more than 10 billion tons of toxic mining waste—would destroy it all.

This “national treasure” is more than worthy of protection. 

Time for EPA to suit up and be a hero.

EPA is currently considering whether to permanently protect Bristol Bay. The agency gave itself a deadline of May 31, 2022, to decide whether to recommend protections for Bristol Bay using its authority under Section 404(c) of the Clean Water Act. If a Clean Water Act 404(c) determination is finalized, it would provide long-term protection for waters that, according to EPA, are “essential to commercial, subsistence, and recreational fisheries, and other activities that support Alaska Natives and communities in the state.” 

Groups continue to urge EPA to act quickly and decisively in issuing permanent protections by Summer 2022.

Tell EPA to give the story of Bristol Bay a happy ending by protecting its waters and stopping the Pebble Mine.