Expert Blog

NRDC Ad in the Vancouver Sun targets Northern Dynasty Minerals: "It's Time to Walk Away From Bristol Bay"

Thumbnail image for Vancouver Sun NDM Mock-Up 6_24_14.jpg
A headshot of Taryn Kiekow Heimer
Taryn Kiekow Heimer
Director, Ocean Energy, Nature

Vancouver-based Northern Dynasty Minerals is the last mining company standing behind Pebble Mine -- a colossal gold and copper mine that would sit at the headwaters of Bristol Bay, Alaska. Today NRDC ran this full-page ad in the Vancouver Sun -- the hometown paper of the mining company:

Bristol Bay is home to tens of millions of wild salmon, which return every year to spawn and create another generation of wild salmon. Bears, wolves, seals, and whales thrive on the salmon -- and so do people. Bristol Bay's wild salmon support a $1.5 billion annual commercial fishery that employs 14,000 full and part-time workers. Salmon are also the lifeblood of native communities that have relied on subsistence fishing and hunting for thousands of years.

All of this is threatened by the proposed Pebble Mine. Rightly so, there is overwhelming opposition to the mine. Polls show that 85 percent of commercial fishermen in Bristol Bay, 81 percent of the Bristol Bay Native Corp.'s native shareholders, 80 percent of Bristol Bay residents, 77 percent of Americans in the lower 48, and 62 percent of Alaskans oppose Pebble Mine.

The Environmental Protection Agency has the authority under Section 404(c) of the Clean Water Act to protect Bristol Bay from Pebble Mine. EPA recently initiated the 404(c) process after conducting a scientific assessment of the Bristol Bay watershed that found that Pebble Mine would have "significant" -- and even "catastrophic" -- impacts on fish populations and the region.

Unfortunately, EPA is getting intense push-back for its efforts to protect the world's greatest wild salmon fishery. The Pebble Limited Partnership recently filed a lawsuit in Alaska federal court challenging the EPA's authority under Section 404(c) of the Clean Water Act to protect Bristol Bay. The agency is also under attack on Capitol Hill.

It's important for EPA to act. It's also important for companies to make environmentally and fiscally responsible decisions. This is why we are urging Northern Dynasty Minerals to follow in the footsteps of Rio Tinto, Anglo American, and Mitsubishi -- all of which walked away from this disastrous project.

Now is the time to act. Check out the ad and visit www.StopPebble.org to send your message to Northern Dynasty Minerals.

Photo in the ad courtesy of Robert Glenn Ketchum.