Bristol Bay Native Corp. opposes Pebble
NO OIL, GAS LEASES: Hot debate ends with protection of fisheries, resources.
By ELIZABETH BLUEMINK
ebluemink@adn.com
Published: December 12th, 2009 10:51 PM
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/1051724.html
The Bristol Bay Native Corp. board voted Friday to oppose the development of the massive copper and gold Pebble prospect in Southwest Alaska and offshore oil and gas leasing in the Bering Sea.
On Pebble, the company said it is against the proposed mine given "the unquantifiable impacts the project could have on the natural resources of the Bristol Bay region."
On proposed offshore leasing, the company said it believes the risks of drilling, including spills, to the Bering Sea's marine resources and communities that rely on the resources "far outweigh any potential local or national benefits."
The two issues -- Pebble and offshore oil and gas -- have been hotly debated in Bristol Bay villages and around Alaska in the past few years. Some have argued that the projects are incompatible with protecting Bristol Bay and Bering Sea fisheries -- the region's long-time source of jobs and subsistence. Others say that the region should develop its oil, gas and minerals to provide a new source of income and revenue for Southwest Alaska villages struggling from high fuel costs.
The mining company pursuing Pebble said Friday that its work will progress. Its goal is to craft a development plan that won't harm the region's fisheries, and it plans to keep sharing information with the Native corporation.
Bristol Bay is one of the 13 Alaska regional Native corporations Congress created in the 1970s. It owns a large amount of mineral rights throughout the Bristol Bay region. It also owns businesses involved in environmental engineering and cleanup, pipeline corrosion on the North Slope, Lower 48 fuel sales and other businesses. It has more than 8,500 Eskimo, Aleut and Athabascan shareholders who live in Bristol Bay region villages or who have roots in the region.
Though the corporation is not directly involved in Bristol Bay's fishing industry, fish remain its highest priority, said company Bay chief executive Jason Metrokin.
"A large portion of our shareholders are Bristol Bay (fishing) permit holders," he said.
NO LONGER NEUTRAL
The Native corporation has maintained a neutral position on the Pebble project -- located on state-owned land, not Native land -- since 2006 but has collected information about the project and gathered input from its shareholders, company officials said.
The Pebble Partnership, composed of Canadian explorer Northern Dynasty Minerals and London mining giant Anglo American, has not yet finalized a development plan for its project or applied for the permits needed to build a mine.
Pebble spokesman Mike Heatwole said the Bristol Bay board vote was disappointing.
"We will continue to press forward with our work to conclude a pre-feasibility study and a responsible mine development plan for Pebble. Once we have a mine development plan that outlines, with facts, the full opportunity Pebble could present to the region, and to the state of Alaska, we will share that with stakeholders, including the leadership at BBNC. It's important to stress that any mine development plan we bring forward will be based upon co-existing with the fishery in the Bristol Bay region," Heatwole said.
Bristol Bay said it plans to weigh in during the mine's permitting process with federal and state agencies. "Maintaining a neutral stance on the Pebble Mine project is no longer in the best interest of the corporation or to the values of cultural and economic sustainability to which we hold ourselves," said Bristol Bay board chairman Joseph Chythlook in a press release.
Company officials declined to disclose the breakdown of the board member votes on the Pebble and oil and gas drilling resolutions.
IMPORTANT VOICE
Bristol Bay's votes on mining and drilling carry weight because the corporation is the combined voice of thousands of Alaska Native shareholders who live in the region. Also, the company is one of the region's major landowners.
Metrokin, the chief executive, said it is not clear right now whether developers of Pebble would need to use the company's subsurface land. Such uses could include gravel to build roads necessary for moving equipment, fuel or other items. If asked, permission would be denied, Metrokin said.
In contrast, to gain access to the mine site, Pebble developers probably would need to obtain permission to cross surface land owned by the region's Native village corporations.
What about the vote's impact on oil and gas drilling? So far, no companies are exploring for oil and gas in the area, but the Bristol Bay vote is likely to gain attention from federal officials involved in those matters.
The federal Minerals Management Service has proposed a lease sale in an area of the Bering called the North Aleutian Basin, outside of Bristol Bay but near the Alaska Peninsula, in waters used by migrating fish, crab and other animals. The MMS has proposed holding lease sales in 2011 and 2014.
Coalition sues to block Pebble mine permits
PERMIT PROCESS: Group says state didn't allow public input on giant mining prospect.
By ELIZABETH BLUEMINK
ebluemink@adn.com
Published: July 29th, 2009 12:01 PM
Last Modified: July 29th, 2009 10:57 PM
State regulators violated the Alaska Constitution when they approved exploration permits for the proposed Pebble copper and gold mine without allowing the public to weigh in first, according to a civil lawsuit filed Wednesday.
The suit was filed in Anchorage Superior Court by a coalition of eight Bristol Bay Native village corporations, former Alaska first lady Bella Hammond, state constitutional convention delegate Victor Fischer and several residents of Southwest Alaska villages.
The plaintiffs say a judge should throw out the exploration and temporary water-use permits for Pebble, a massive and controversial prospect in Southwest Alaska. They also want the judge to invalidate the state's permitting system for hard-rock mining exploration and block state regulators from issuing new permits for Pebble until the Legislature adopts a new permit system for mineral exploration.
The plaintiffs asked the court to halt exploration at Pebble until a judge makes a final ruling in the suit.
A state regulator on Wednesday said that contrary to the lawsuit's claims, the state is not required to gather public comments before granting permits for mineral exploration and water usage.
The Pebble Partnership, a coalition of mining companies trying to develop the project, said it is reviewing its legal options and might ask a judge to allow it to intervene in the lawsuit. The partnership is comprised of London-based mining giant Anglo American and British Columbia-based mining firm Northern Dynasty Minerals
If a judge decides to halt exploration at Pebble this year, it would harm the partnership's employees who live in Southwest Alaska villages, where jobs are already scarce, said Mike Heatwole, a spokesman for the partnership.
WILDLIFE IMPACTS?
No final decisions have been made on whether to develop Pebble, but its backers say that the proposed mine would create hundreds of jobs for up to 50 years.
The project's critics say developing Pebble is a bad idea because of its location near the headwaters of two of the five rivers that support Bristol Bay's rich salmon fisheries. Nunamta Aulukestai, the coalition of village corporations in the lawsuit, is concerned about Pebble's long-term consequences for the fisheries, said Bobby Andrew, a Nunamta spokesman.
"It is beyond belief to me that a mining effort is happening in this area," said Hammond, in her filing in the lawsuit. She is the widow of former Alaska Gov. Jay Hammond, who died in 2005, and has lived at their Lake Clark homestead, northeast of the Pebble prospect, for more than 20 years.
The permits challenged in the lawsuit were approved by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. They allow the Pebble Partnership to drill hundreds of holes in the ground and consume up to 32 million gallons of water per year from nearby streams and ponds.
Since 2002, the companies involved in the Pebble project say they have drilled more than 829 holes in the ground to discover the extent of the deposit.
Some of the village residents who joined the case contend that the exploration has already harmed wildlife -- causing caribou to flee the area, for example. The mining companies and state regulators say they see no evidence of that.
The DNR inspects the Pebble site about once a month while drilling is under way and it hasn't discovered any significant problems, said Tom Crafford, a large-mine coordinator for DNR.
One of the plaintiffs who lives in Nondalton, a village located roughly 15 miles east of the Pebble prospect, said in the court papers that he began seeing fewer and fewer animals in the area in 2002 or 2003, when Northern Dynasty began to ramp up its drilling, blasting and helicopter flights to the prospect.
"Now, I don't see game tracks or animals except for a few squirrels and ptarmigan. I do not see moose, caribou or bear in that area anymore," said the plaintiff, Ricky Delkittie.
Not everyone in the region agrees. Lisa Reimers, general manager of an Iliamna-based firm that contracts with the Pebble Partnership, says that moose and caribou began disappearing from the area before exploration began. Iliamna is about 20 miles southeast of the Pebble prospect.
NO CHANCE TO COMMENT?
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit claim that the DNR violated Article 8 of the state's constitution -- dealing with development of natural resources -- in six different ways.
The two main allegations are that the DNR didn't determine whether exploration at Pebble was in the public interest and granted the permits without giving the public a chance to weigh in.
Article 8 says that the state's natural resources development policy is to encourage such development "by making (natural resources) available for maximum use consistent with the public interest."
The case is being handled by Trustees for Alaska, an Anchorage environmental law firm.
DNR's position, however, is that consulting with the public before approving mineral exploration permits and temporary water-use permits is not required.
Crafford said his agency currently oversees about 400 or 500 mining-related permits that do not require public notices. A similar amount of temporary water-use permits have been granted to miners and other land developers, he said.
Public comments aren't required for such permits because the permits don't legally dispose of the state's land: the permits can be revoked by DNR at any time, he said.
The Pebble Partnership announced this year that will finalize its development plans for Pebble next year and will attempt to secure permits by 2013. It says it could begin mining as early as 2015.
The proposed Pebble Mine in Southwest Alaska, already a tough sell to many Alaskans with the strongest opposition centered around the Bristol Bay area, may have become a tougher sell after the December 22nd, 2008 disaster just upstream of the confluence of the Tennessee and the Clinch Rivers near Kingston, Tennessee when a 65-foot TVA-owned earthen dam containing coal ash sludge ruptured and inundated 300 acres of the adjacent countryside with an estimated 1.1 billion gallons (or 5.4 million cubic yards) of the pudding-like goo. The sludge wall swamped residential lakefront property, swallowed farmland and killed fish. It's estimated to be 40 times bigger in volume than the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. Visit the UnitedMountainDefense website and the DirtyCoalTVA blog for more information and pictures.
As a matter of fact, if the TVA doesn't move out smartly to clean up the mess, compensate the 42 affected families who owned property in the area, and restore the area, the disaster could be used as justification to kill the Pebble Mine project altogether.
While a specific cause of the dam's collapse has yet to be pinpointed, it's been noted that 8.83 inches of rain fell in the area during the preceding three weeks, which may have weakened the earthen berm retaining walls of the landfill sufficiently to cause them to give way, allowing five decades of fly and bottom ash to ooze over the river and land below. A TVA official stated that the dam had been inspected yearly, most recently in October.
At least three homes were completely destroyed and dozens more damaged. Officials have now declared that local tap water is considered safe because the treatment process removes the chemicals, but locals have been advised against consuming well water because of the possibility of groundwater contamination. Some heavy metal concentrations near the epicenter of the spill were found to be 300 times higher than regulatory levels.
So what about the Pebble Mine? According to the Pebble Partnership, the proposed development plan for the Pebble Project, to be submitted in 2009, will be subject to a regulatory review involving 11 state and federal agencies and the citizens of Alaska. The Pebble Partnership must also provide information for an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and achieve more than 60 state and federal permits. The combined review and permitting process could take three years or more to complete. The Partnership's Pre-Permitting Reports on meteorology, hydrology, and geology of the area can be found HERE.
The Renewable Resources Coalition, which opposes the Pebble Mine and which was one of the groups behind the failed Ballot Measure 4 during the summer of 2006, points out that the proposed Pebble Mine, which would be the first of many, would include the largest dam in the world, larger than Three Gorges Dam in China, and made of earth, not concrete, to hold back the toxic waste created in the mining process. Pages 8 and 9 of these DNR documents show the proposed tailings pond and the associated earthen dam. It will be considerably higher than a mere 65 feet. It looks like around 700 feet, to be precise.
But will a 700-foot high earthen retaining wall be strong enough to contain such a large tailings pond? We have an additional problem not shared by Tennessee; Alaska is geologically active. That means earthquakes. The TVA spill has already produced a fish kill; a similar breach of the Pebble tailings pond would produce another fish kill. But a Pebble fish kill would jeopardize salmon in their spawning area, adversely affecting one of the three largest industries in Alaska - commercial fishing. In 2008, the total value paid to all harvesters of all types of fish in Alaska was around $1.4 billion.
The Pebble Partnership needs to factor in the TVA spill and inform the Alaskan public how they plan to minimize the possibility of a similar breach in Alaska. They should not interpret the vote against Ballot Measure 4 last summer as a vote for the Pebble Mine. Most people voted against Ballot Measure 4 because they believed it would shut down existing mining in Alaska, although the language tended to grandfather existing operations. But had the TVA spill occurred before the August election, it's quite possible that Ballot Measure 4 would have passed.
Other areas of the U.S. are vulnerable to these problems. A Kennecott tailings pond near Magna, Utah, is considered a threat to rupture in the event of a 7.5 or greater earthquake, inundating several adjacent neighborhoods. The Wasatch Front is considered long overdue for a serious quake. And Leadville, Colorado remains in danger of a possible toxic gusher from a mine drainage tunnel. Alaska is open for business for the mining industry, but not at the price of our fishing industry, and not at the risk of permanent destruction of our environment.
Labels: environment, environmentalism, Pebble Mine
posted by Anchorage Activist @ 12:35 AM
##
Anglo American's record doesn't bode well for Alaska
COMPASS: Other points of view
http://www.adn.com/opinion/story/600727.html
By GLENN MILLER, PhD.
Published: November 24th, 2008 09:10 PM
Last Modified: November 24th, 2008 09:55 PM
Anglo American, one of the world's biggest mining corporations, wants Alaska's permission to build a massive gold and copper mine in the headwaters
of the top salmon-producing rivers in the Bristol Bay region. As a scientist who has studied mining for more than 25 years, I believe the threats posed
by Pebble loom larger than any mine developed in the last 30 years in the United States.
While Anglo American has promised the Pebble mine won't harm Bristol Bay's rich salmon fishery, it is best to judge this promise in light of the impacts that other Anglo American mines have had on clean water and clean air.
From a Nevada perspective, Anglo American's record is not good.
For years, the largest single source of mercury air pollution in the United States was the Jerritt Canyon gold mine in northern Nevada, which Anglo American owned through a subsidiary.
Between 1998 -- the first year EPA required reporting mines like Jerritt Canyon -- and 2001, the mine emitted between 4,700 to more than 9,000 pounds of mercury into the air each year, or about 25 to more than 50 times as much as a single medium-sized coal-fired power plant produces annually.
Worse yet, Jerritt Canyon's tailings pond, which holds millions of tons of cyanide-processed ore, has leaked ever since it was built in the mid-1980s. According to Nevada Division of Environmental Protection records, this contaminated slurry of waste that contains mercury and arsenic has been leaking into groundwater for years, some of which has gotten past the extensive pump-back system.
The very large waste rock dumps at Jerritt Canyon, as well as Anglo's closed Big Springs Mine, are both releasing large quantities of sulfate and other contaminants into surface water, with no end in sight to this contamination. The releases exceed discharge standards for surface water, but Anglo has never been compelled to clean up these sources. They sold this problem to the next owner, Queenstake, but the problems created under Anglo's stewardship remain. Queenstake has now been purchased by another company, Yukon-Nevada Gold Corp., which apparently has run into financial problems. It has recently shut down the Jerritt Canyon mine and most of the employees are gone. While the site does have a closure bond, the problems at the site, particularly the tailings facility and mercury issues, have not been addressed in a systematic manner. Without a clear plan on closure, nobody can ensure that the bond is sufficient to truly remediate the site.
Where is the expertise in mine closure and the management and technical skills of Anglo? The state and federal agencies now are dealing with a small
company that is in apparently financially difficult times attempting to re-start the mill, and at the same time deal with severe environmental challenges,
most of which began during Anglo American's ownership.
State and federal agencies repeatedly expressed concerns about pollution from Jerritt Canyon during Anglo American's tenure. Yet the corporation failed to fix what has become an extensive and serious water pollution problem that will persist for many generations to come.
Anglo American's resistance to fixing water pollution problems, and the fact that it
allowed them to continue for so long, does not bode well for Alaska.
Pebble is different of course, but in ways that could actually magnify problems.
Pebble would be a much bigger mine than Jerritt Canyon. Pebble would unearth billions
of tons of the type of sulfur-bearing rock that creates acid drainage. But unlike Jerritt Canyon, there's not much limestone buffer, which means acid drainage is likely. Copper, zinc and other heavy metals are also likely to get into surface water during operations. Over time, this pollution would threaten wild salmon and the Alaskans who depend on them to sustain their jobs and traditions.
If Anglo American's past performance is any indication, Alaskans should be wary. At Jerritt Canyon, a modern mine operating under well-established environmental laws, Anglo American's assurances that it would maintain high environmental standards clearly were not met.
Alaskans will make up their own minds about Pebble, but they deserve to know the previous record of Anglo American, not just what its consultants want them to know.
Glenn Miller is a professor of natural resources and environmental sciences at the University of Nevada, Reno and is on the board of directors of Earthworks and the Center for Science in Public Participation.
National hunting organizations, Dallas Safari Club and
Wildlife Forever, send Governor Palin letters in opposition
to the Pebble Mine. See the
RRC press release >>>
State responds to Pebble mine concerns
By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce
State mining coordinator Tom Crafford says he remains confident that ongoing exploration drilling at the proposed Pebble mine in Southwest Alaska will have no significant impact on fisheries resources.
Crafford also said the current state process for keeping the public informed on its permitting procedures is transparent, in the face of increased public interest in the proposed Pebble prospect, located at the headwaters of the Bristol Bay watershed.
Crafford's letter of July 3 to fisheries researcher and consultant Carol Ann Woody commented on water quantity, water quality, and monitoring and reporting issues. It was in response to concerns raised by Woody in her letter of April 2.
Crafford said Woody's concerns about reactivity of Pebble ore, acid mine drainage, metals leaching and potential contamination from various metals in relation to the number, depth and location of drill holes were valid issues that would be addressed if and when Pebble proceeds to development permitting.
"They are really not issues of concern for the on-going drilling exploration program at Pebble," he said.
The potential for the ore to generate acid is tied not only to the amount and type of sulfide minerals present, but to the exposure of those sulfide minerals to both water and oxygen and certain bacteria, Crafford said.
It is the oxidation of the sulfide minerals, predominately pyrite, that leads to formation of sulfuric acid, and removal of any one of those essential components - water, oxygen or sulfides - prohibits acid generation, he said.
"This is the premise behind submarine disposal of sulfidic tailings," he said. "The layer of water atop the tailings prevents the access of oxygen to the sulfide minerals, thereby preventing oxidation and the generation of acid."
Crafford also said there is ample evidence that oxidation and acidification are not issues in relation to the deep drilling at Pebble East, and that nearly all of the drill holes are being plugged with either cement or bentonite slurry after completion. Bentonite, a naturally occurring clay mineral that swells in the presence of water, is the major component in benseal, a product used to seal the drill holes after completion, he said.
Crafford acknowledged that acidic rock drainage and metal leaching is a serious negative potential consequence of mining in general.
"It is a major issue of concern at Pebble and any development proposals must address in extreme detail how acidic rock drainage/metal leaching will be mitigated/prevented," he said.
However, because of the depth of the Pebble East orebody and the methodology and scale of the on-going exploration drilling program, this is not an issue of current concern, he said.
In her April 2 letter, Woody detailed numerous concerns about the exploration process and their potential effects on the salmon spawning stream network - the Talariks, Koktulis, Kaskanak and Chulitna - which ultimately flow into Bristol Bay's two largest salmon producing systems, the Nushagak and the Kvichak.
A fisheries biologist, Woody served on the Pebble technical advisory team for the U.S. Geological Survey before resigning to work independently.
Woody asked a number of specific questions regarding the amount of water used in the exploration drilling process, monitoring of groundwater and changes in local water chemistry.
She said elevated concentrations of copper, zinc and arsenic, which occur in the Pebble prospect, could all be toxic to fish at levels just above that which is naturally occurring.
She also repeated earlier concerns that baseline data collections on natural water flows and geochemistry were conducted by mine backers at the same time as the exploratory drilling program. That limits the ability to assess changes to water flow and chemistry, she said.
Crafford reiterated that the burden of defending all baseline environmental studies collected in support of future permit applications and National Environmental Policy Act analyses for potential development of projects rests with the applicant.
Meanwhile, drill crews are working around the clock to gather samples to identify rich vanes of copper, gold and molybdenum beneath the surface.
Meanwhile, the 2008 drilling exploration program, with a budget of $140 million, continues at Pebble East, said Sean MaGee, a spokesman for the partnership. MaGee said an average of 180 to 200 people are working on site daily.
"We are approaching the point where this time next year we will be presenting a preliminary proposed mine plan," he said.
RRC issues news release regarding the defeat at the polls of Proposition 4 - The Clean Water Initiative. The ballot measure would have restricted pollution from the proposed Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay, Alaska.Read the press release >>>
Legislative and Ballot
Initiative Update:
The Alaska Clean Water Initiative, also known as Ballot Proposition #4, goes down to defeat after record spending by foreign mining companies. For voting details see http://www.elections.alaska.gov/08prim/data/results.html .
The proposed Alaska
Wild Salmon Protection Act is introduced
in Juneau - HB 134 - . See the Press
Release. Unfortunately the bill is stalled in committee
as is SB 67 - the Jay Hammond Refuge proposal for Bristol
Bay.
Filmmakers focus on Bristol
Bay, Pebble project
Despite their own reservations, they say they'll include
both sides
By ELIZABETH BLUEMINK
ebluemink@adn.com
Published: August 20, 2007
Last Modified: August 20, 2007 at 08:47 AM
This summer, a couple of young filmmakers from Colorado
traveled inland from the southwest coast of Alaska to
the headwaters of Bristol Bay to create a documentary
about its enormous fishery and the people who rely on
it. The filmmakers wanted to talk to residents about
a new industry rising in the region: mining.
The hills north of Iliamna Lake straddle the headwaters
of two rivers that feed the richest sockeye fishery
in the world. They also hold billions of dollars worth
of copper, gold and molybdenum.
With this documentary, and myriad other publicity projects
brewing, the foes of the Pebble project -- a massive
mineral deposit near Iliamna -- want to make Bristol
Bay known to virtually every American, to generate as
much national opposition to mining in the Bristol Bay
region as there is to drilling in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge.
"We're very aggressively working on building national
attention," said Art Hackney, a founder of the
Renewable Resources Coalition, an Anchorage-based group
headed by businessmen funding Pebble opposition in Alaska.
"We're going to make this a world priority."
Hackney epitomizes the odd assortment of special interests
that have joined forces to fight Pebble. A political
consultant, Hackney is a frequent development booster,
much more at home defending the "bridges to nowhere,"
opening ANWR to oil drilling and promoting the Red Dog
Mine than trying to save pristine salmon streams from
mining.
Pebble "is a different animal" than those
projects, he says, because it will interfere with an
existing industry, fishing.
"If good science shows it can't be done, we want
it put to bed," he said.
The filmmakers and Hackney's coalition are just a fragment
of the diverse forces getting involved in the battle
over Pebble, which include hunters, sportfishermen,
commercial fishermen, lodge owners, Bristol Bay Native
groups, outdoor retailers, environmentalists and some
villages and tribal groups.
THE NEXT ANWR
The campaign to stop Pebble has mushroomed over several
years in Alaska.
Outside, the fight is being led by sportfishing groups.
In the past year, some of the country's biggest fly-fishing
outfitters -- including Redington, Orvis and Patagonia
-- lined up publicly against large-scale mining in the
Bristol Bay region.
Northern Dynasty Mines Ltd., the company exploring
Pebble on state-owned land, says it won't even apply
for permits for five or six years. The publicity machine
against Pebble is "unprecedented" for a project
this early in its development, company officials said.
But Pebble's critics aren't willing to wait.
"People see Pebble as the next ANWR," said
Jason Brune, executive director of the Resource Development
Council, a pro-development business group based in Anchorage,
which hasn't officially taken a position on the project.
The developers should get a fair chance to prove they
can build a mine without hurting the fisheries, Brune
said.
The filmmakers who explored Bristol Bay this summer,
Travis Rummel and Ben Knight, said most people in the
Lower 48 have never heard of Bristol Bay or Pebble.
They want to change that.
Pebble can capture national attention because Bristol
Bay is legendary among U.S. hunters and fishermen, said
Scott Hed, outreach director for the Sportsman's Alliance
for Alaska, which has been working to woo other hook-and-bullet
groups to the anti-Pebble campaign.
Patagonia put up $5,000 plus $2,700 in equipment for
the film. Last year, the company and 36 sportfishing-oriented
companies and trade groups signed a protest letter to
political leaders, including Gov. Sarah Palin, which
was published in 12 nationally distributed outdoor magazines.
The letter said mining in Bristol Bay is too much of
a risk to its fisheries.
CREATIVE OPPOSITION
Rummel's tiny Denver-based film company, Felt Soul
Media, joined up with the Alaska chapter of Trout Unlimited
to promote and raise money for an in-depth, low-budget
film about the region. The filmmakers' routine is to
put most of their money into high-quality equipment,
then couch surf or camp out.
They promise the film will feature people for and against
Pebble, although Rummel and Knight admit to their own
strong reservations about building a world-class mine
in the Bristol Bay region.
Mining officials interviewed during Felt Soul's project
are pessimistic the film will be fair to them.
"They received funding from sworn opponents of
the Pebble project. We fear that it isn't objective
journalism," said Sean Magee, Northern Dynasty's
vice president of public affairs.
Rummel and Knight, both 29 and both avid fly-fishermen,
rave about their summer in the Bush.
Of Bristol Bay: "People seem to have their priorities
straight out there. We're so lucky we got to experience
this," said Knight, who took a sabbatical from
his year-round job as photo editor at a small Colorado
newspaper.
"We're catch-and-release fishermen," Knight
added. "And the next thing we know, we're literally
knee-deep in a skiff full of dead, beautiful fish and
our waders are slathered in salmon blood, and we're
just like, 'Wow.' "
Starting in June, the two and their project coordinator,
Trout Unlimited's Lauren Oakes, camped at the Peter
Pan salmon cannery in Dillingham and in villagers' houses.
They spent days with fishermen -- in their boats and
homes. They floated next to belugas feeding on salmon
near Nushagak Point, and two months later, hundreds
of miles upstream, they stared down in amazement at
tens of thousands of spawning sockeye.
While they ended up with an enormous quantity of footage,
some of their most tantalizing targets declined to go
on camera, Rummel said. For example, Bob Gillam, the
Anchorage financier who has been funding much of the
anti-Pebble fight and is described on their blog as
a "big, bold, cigar lovin' fella."
Gillam refused to be interviewed on film, but he did
provide two bush planes and three of his lodge employees
to help the filmmakers get to the Koktuli River, near
the Pebble site, for a 53-mile raft trip. And he donated
money to the project, Rummel said.
They did spend an afternoon with Bella Hammond, the
widow of former Gov. Jay Hammond, at her Lake Clark
homestead, though she turned the tables and interviewed
them.
"She's like the coolest grandma ever," Knight
said.
After roughly 60 days in the Bush, gathering more than
40 hours of digital video, the two now face months of
editing.
Next year, they hope to release their film for national
distribution on the film festival circuit -- and maybe
television.
###
Find Elizabeth Bluemink online at adn.com/contact/ebluemink
or call 257-4317.
FOR MORE on Knight and Rummel's film, visit
feltsoulmedia.wordpress.com
|
Boston Globe Editorial
Protect Alaska's wild salmon
April 2, 2007
IN ALASKA, the world's most valuable wild salmon run is threatened
by a plan to dig North America's largest open-pit gold and copper
mine. Like any major development promising jobs, Northern Dynasty
Minerals' Pebble project has supporters in Alaska, while opponents
have introduced bills in the state Legislature to block the
plan and protect the headwaters of Bristol Bay. More than any
local action, however, conscientious enforcement of the US Clean
Water Act by federal officials should deal the Pebble project
the crippling blow it deserves.
The problem is that, under President Bush, enforcement of the
nation's environmental laws cannot be taken for granted. It
took the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to conclude recently
in a preliminary ruling that the Army Corps of Engineers had
been wrong to grant permission for a much smaller Alaska gold
mine to dump its tailings waste into a lake.
The corps was acting in line with a 2002 policy change by the
US Environmental Protection Agency that eased rules for mountain-top
removal mining. The Appeals Court reversed a lower court judge
and said that mining tailings, the waste product of a chemical
milling process, could not be treated like mere "fill material"
that the 2002 regulation allowed mining companies to dump into
bodies of water. A spokesman for Northern Dynasty said the company
was not certain how the court action would affect its plan for
a dam-enclosed holding area that fishermen say would destroy
fish spawning waters.
One of the earthen dams that could be used to hold back the
tailings would be 4.3 miles long and more than 700 feet high,
just slightly shorter than Boston's Hancock Tower. The dam would
be larger than the Three Gorges Dam in China.
Both commercial and sport fishermen fear the effect the project
would have on the region's carefully managed salmon and trout
fisheries. Copper released into the environment, the fishermen
know, interferes with the ability of the salmon to return to
the stream in which it was born.
Bristol Bay produces 30 percent of all Alaskan wild salmon,
with a value of $216 million in 2006. Pebble's reserves of gold,
copper, and molybdenum, a metal used in strengthening steel,
have an estimated value of $300 billion. "This is it,"
said Lindsey Bloom, a Bristol Bay fishing boat captain, in an
interview. "Do we value a life-sustaining resource or do
we value gold? You can't eat gold."
When Congress passed the Clean Water Act more than 30 years
ago, it was intended precisely to protect the pristine streams
and lakes that sustain communities of fish, bears, and human
beings. Federal officials should take their cue from the Court
of Appeals and make the Clean Water Act a bulwark against the
Pebble project.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
The problem is that, under President Bush, enforcement of the
nation's environmental laws cannot be taken for granted. It
took the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to conclude recently
in a preliminary ruling that the Army Corps of Engineers had
been wrong to grant permission for a much smaller Alaska gold
mine to dump its tailings waste into a lake.
The corps was acting in line with a 2002 policy change by the
US Environmental Protection Agency that eased rules for mountain-top
removal mining. The Appeals Court reversed a lower court judge
and said that mining tailings, the waste product of a chemical
milling process, could not be treated like mere "fill material"
that the 2002 regulation allowed mining companies to dump into
bodies of water. A spokesman for Northern Dynasty said the company
was not certain how the court action would affect its plan for
a dam-enclosed holding area that fishermen say would destroy
fish spawning waters.
One of the earthen dams that could be used to hold back the
tailings would be 4.3 miles long and more than 700 feet high,
just slightly shorter than Boston's Hancock Tower. The dam would
be larger than the Three Gorges Dam in China.
Both commercial and sport fishermen fear the effect the project
would have on the region's carefully managed salmon and trout
fisheries. Copper released into the environment, the fishermen
know, interferes with the ability of the salmon to return to
the stream in which it was born.
Bristol Bay produces 30 percent of all Alaskan wild salmon,
with a value of $216 million in 2006. Pebble's reserves of gold,
copper, and molybdenum, a metal used in strengthening steel,
have an estimated value of $300 billion. "This is it,"
said Lindsey Bloom, a Bristol Bay fishing boat captain, in an
interview. "Do we value a life-sustaining resource or do
we value gold? You can't eat gold."
When Congress passed the Clean Water Act more than 30 years
ago, it was intended precisely to protect the pristine streams
and lakes that sustain communities of fish, bears, and human
beings. Federal officials should take their cue from the Court
of Appeals and make the Clean Water Act a bulwark against the
Pebble project.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
Pebble's foes float tax idea for mines. 01/04/07
Read the Anchorage Daily News article >>
Hydrologists
Report released 10/06/06 proves new permit requests by Pebble
developer for water rights will drain salmon spawning areas.
Read
the News Release and the Report >>>
Is this a Crime? First photos of pollution at Pebble mine site taken by Erin
McKittrick. See
the photos and read the story>
"Wait and See"
versus "I've Seen Enough"
Anchorage Daily News - Compass articles 10/23/05
U.S.
Senator Ted Stevens announces his opposition to the Pebble Mine . Read more in the Peninsula Clarion.
What
is the mining
industry now saying
about Pebble?
- Read
the answer >>
Ground Zero for toxic waste tailings dam larger than Three Gorges Dam in China
Other Polls Had Found Overwhelming Statewide Opposition
to Pebble Mine.
See
the 10/25/06 News Release with Results>>>
.......... Hellenthal Executive
Summary (Bristol Bay Poll) >>>
.......... Cromer Group Executive
Summary (Statewide Poll) >>>
.......... Excerpts
from both Polls >>>
Northern Dynasty shares plans
By HAL SPENCE
Peninsula Clarion
April 18, 2007
Still years away from filing for its first mining permit,
Northern Dynasty Mines Inc. continues work on its broad-ranging
baseline environmental studies program in anticipation
of answering the concerns of a skeptical public with
what the company hopes will be provable scientific fact.
To view article in its entirety, please click on
http://www.peninsulaclarion.com/stories/041807/news_0418new004.shtml
DAMS DESIGNED
FOR DISASTER
Northern Dynasty has begun the permitting process
by just filing an application for permits to build at least
5 incredibly large earthen dams on the North and South
Fork of the Koktuli River at the headwaters of the Bristol Bay
watershed. The proposed dams would be tailings settling ponds
or in another words, toxic waste storage sites. The one earthen
dam would be 740 feet high and 4.3 miles long. The other dam
would be 700 feet high and 2.9 miles long. The larger dam would
be higher than the Hoover Dam or the Grand Coulee Dam which
are of course made of concrete. These proposed earthen dams
are in one of the most active earthquake zones in Alaska. Please
see the attached letter with specifics from Lake and Peninsula
Borough to DNR requesting that all such applications be suspended. Clearly, if these applications for permits are approved it will
only be a matter of time before a disaster will occur. Read
more in the Alaska newspaper articles below.
Alaska Board of Fisheries: Proposal 121 by George Matz:
State Fish Refuge for Lower Talarik Creek, Upper Talarik Creek
and Koktuli River.
Read the details of an excellent way
to save critical fish habitat >>>
Read the Board of Fisheries Abstract
of the Proposal >>>
Pebble proposes vast dams for waste: Largest of the earthen structures would
stand taller than Hoover and Grand Coulee dams.
By ELIZABETH BLUEMINK
Anchorage Daily News
Published: October 8, 2006
Last Modified: October 8, 2006 at 03:40 AM
The company pursuing the Pebble mine prospect recently furnished
the state with a proposal for earthen dams so large that some
Alaskans are comparing them to the world's biggest dams.
The dams described by Northern Dynasty Mines Inc. would hold
back rock waste and water from the potential mine in the headwaters
of Bristol Bay.
Though they are only an idea, the dams have unleashed a flood
of new debate over the potential copper, gold and molybdenum
deposit near Lake Iliamna.
Northern Dynasty's concept calls for a series of five dams
that would fill in some valleys and a lake with tailings, or
mining rock waste. The dams would also divert some water from
three streams in the Bristol Bay watershed, the world's largest
salmon fishery.
Many mines, including Red Dog and Fort Knox in Alaska, use
tailings dams.
If built, Pebble would essentially be one of the largest mines
of the world, and these dams would be similarly big.
"They aren't small. We've never said they are small,"
said Bruce Jenkins, the Vancouver, British Columbia-based company's
chief operating officer.
In its final stages, the largest of the Pebble dams would grow
taller than the Lower 48's Hoover or Grand Coulee dams.
That's just incomprehensible, says Lake and Peninsula Borough
Mayor Glen Alsworth.
But wait a minute, says Northern Dynasty. These dams wouldn't
look or be anything like the Hoover or Grand Coulee, which were
built to generate electricity, not to deal with mine waste.
Rather than a vertical concrete massif holding back billions
of tons of water, these dams would be steep, rocky embankments
stretching for miles in length and holding back billions of
tons of tailings and water.
"You have to envision this as a mountain you've created,"
Jenkins said. "You are creating a new land form. Over time,
they (the tailings dams) get more and more stable," Jenkins
said.
Jenkins stresses that the dams, and the Pebble project in general,
are not final designs. Northern Dynasty doesn't plan to submit
a proposed mine development plan for Pebble until 2008.
Yet the project's foes say the dams are too dangerous.
Not only would the dams divert large quantities of water needed
by fish, but they'd forever sit on one of the world's most earthquake-prone
areas, according to the Renewable Resources Coalition.
According to Northern Dynasty consultants, the dams would be
built to withstand a "maximum credible earthquake"
of magnitude 7.8.
"It's hard to comprehend the scale of these dams,"
Alsworth, the Lake and Peninsula borough mayor, wrote in a recent
letter to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources expressing
his concern about the massive structures.
"Let's analyze alternate methods, if it can be done,"
Alsworth added in a recent interview.
Alsworth asked DNR to suspend its review of the dams pending
further study. DNR says it won't approve any Pebble project
applications until the permitting stage.
As proposed, the dams and other water rights applications by
Northern Dynasty would divert water from the north and south
forks of the Koktuli River and Upper Talarik Creek.
The Bristol Bay Native Association provides economic and social
services to Natives in the area. Last week the board voted to
oppose all large-scale mining in the Bristol Bay region until
studies prove "unequivocally" that it will not cause
any net loss of fish to subsistence, commercial and sport fishermen.
"You are going to see more communities and organizations
outside of conservation asking tough questions," said Tim
Bristol, director of Trout Unlimited of Alaska.
Northern Dynasty has vowed that its project will not cause
net loss to Bristol Bay fisheries. The company pitched the series
of dams to DNR as its current preferred method to hem in the
billions of tons of potential mining waste and water from the
Pebble deposit.
Jenkins said Friday that the entire project should not be judged
on its dam applications to DNR.
Northern Dynasty is now finding a rich mineralized area deep
below the surface on the east side of its exploration zone.
"We have a whole bunch of other alternatives to evaluate,"
Jenkins said.
Northern Dynasty chose tentative locations for the dams --
the drainage basins of the southern and northern forks of the
Koktuli River -- because it believes they are the least environmentally
sensitive places in the area to store mining waste, according
to its dam applications.
Northern Dynasty projects it would store 2.5 billion tons of
tailings behind the dams. An estimated 3 percent of the tailings
would be potentially acid-generating rock, according to Northern
Dynasty's filing with DNR. The company plans to store the rock
permanently under water to prevent water pollution downstream.
Three dams would hem in up to 2 billion tons of mining waste,
and two others would hold 500 million tons. One of the dams
would grow to 740 feet tall and 4.3 miles long. The second largest
would grow to 700 feet high and nearly 3 miles long.
The tailings would eventually form into a high plateau covered
in roughly 50 feet of water, Jenkins said.
If any of the dams break, they will hurt the environment, said
Bobby Andrew, a spokesman for Nunamta Aulukestai, a consortium
of Bristol Bay Native villages that opposes the Pebble project.
If either the land or water becomes contaminated by tailings,
"they are going to become worthless. No one will want to
use them," Andrew explained.
DNR officials also said they are likely to follow through with
a suggestion from Alsworth to convene a panel of national experts
to review the dam designs.
Contact reporter Elizabeth Bluemink at ebluemink@adn.com or (907) 257-4317.
Northern Dynasty
to Drain Salmon and Trout Spawning Streams !
In a major departure from their stated plans, Northern Dynasty
Minerals has started the permit process for their Pebble Mine
by applying for a permit to drain water from the Upper Talarik
Creek and the Koktuli River. Why do they want the water from
these worldclass salmon and trout streams?
READ MORE ON THIS CRITICAL THREAT>>>
Northern Dynasty's Water Rights Application
documents hint at Plans
In the documents filed, Northern Dynasty has
clearly stated its intentions to extend the open pit mine into
the Upper Talarik Creek Watershed. This will absolutely destroy
the upper reaches of the creek or, in Dynasty’s crisp,
technical lingo, “This application is for all of the water
up gradient of the proposed downstream limit of water extraction
(DL-3 on Figure UT-1).”
See the Pebble Water
Rights Map, by clicking here.
In addition to the map and the language above, the following
language is very interesting as well:
“The Pebble Project will be a large open pit mine located
17 miles northwest of the community of Iliamna, on the north
side of Lake Iliamna (Figure 1.1). Primary mine area facilities
will consist of the open pit, ore conveyor, ore stockpile, a
mill site (with associated offices, workshops, equipment repair
and storage areas), tailing storage facilities, and a worker
camp. Transportation facilities will include a mine area road
network, and an approximately 100-mile road to a port facility
on Cook Inlet. The primary port site facilities will include
metal concentrates storage, fuel storage, a ship loading structure,
barge landing, offices and worker housing.”
 City of Dillingham, AK (largest city in Bristol Bay)
passes resolution which opposes "... all large scale mining
including the proposed Pebble Copper/Gold mine within its watershed." Read entire resolution >
Alaska
Natives Petition Government - New Stuyahok, August 18, 2006
Thirteen native organizations met to organize themselves at
large conference on the Nushagak River in Bristol Bay to stop
the water rights grab and any large mining projects in the area..
(Note: the Petition was rejected by the Dept. of Natural Resources
on September 18, 2006).
Alaska
Magazine - Editorial - Pebble's Problems
"If we are ever going to make ourselves more than a source
of raw materials, we’ve got to say no when places we value
are threatened. Saying no to the Pebble mine is a perfect place
to start."
Pebble promises
Keep a sharp eye on the fine print
Anchorage Daily News
Published: August 11, 2006
http://www.adn.com/opinion/story/8065897p-7958685c.html
Choggiung Village
Corporation Unanimously Opposes Open Pit Mining in Bristol
Bay ( largest native village corp in Bristol
Bay watershed -Ed)
Native Leaders Also Dispute Claims that Mining and
Fish can Coexist
See Full Release
for More Information--
More from the "Newsroom" :
In Alaska, Surprise Resistance
to Mine
Critics
Say It Threatens Another Industry With Rich Tradition in State:
Salmon Fishing. The Washington Post, Tuesday, August 15, 2006 Read
entire Article>
Anchorage
Daily News - Editorial -Pebble Mine Too Risky
"Wrong place to experiment with massive hole in the ground"
Chairman
David Keene of the American Conservative Union
voices his opposition to the proposed Pebble project.
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