WE CAN LIVE WITHOUT FOOL'S GOLD

Nature’s Salmon Factory Threatened

By Bill Schneider, 7-05-07

There's still gold in those hills, and not just the fool's gold people wear around their necks or fingers, but real gold. Now, we have to work together to make sure the fool's good doesn't destroy the real gold.

If we need another reason, which we don't, to repeal the Mining Law of 1872, consider what might happen to one of the most remote, most productive, fisheries in the world, the Bristol Bay area of southwest Alaska.

Bristol Bay is a long way from the New West, you may be asking, so why should we be concerned? That's the first question I asked, too, and here's my answer.

First, most of us eat salmon, right? And most anglers and hunters I know dream about Alaskan salmon fishing or remote hunts for caribou or moose. And those among us who don't hunt or fish still yearn for a chance to marvel at the scenery of the last frontier, right?

Well, if we want to keep doing this, we should join in the growing chorus to defeat what might be the largest and most destructive mining venture ever conceived, the Pebble Mine.

That mine was the subject of a breakfast session at the recent Outdoor Writers Convention of America meeting in Roanoke, Virginia. Leah Elwell, conservation director for the Federation of Fly Fishers from Livingston, Montana, made eating breakfast difficult with her description of destruction sure to be caused by the proposed Pebble Mine.

Which obviously should be re-named something like the Gargantuan Boulder Mine because it's two miles across, twice as big as the Berkeley Pit in Butte, Montana, and about the same size as the Bingham Canyon Pit near Salt Lake City, which is currently considered the largest excavation on earth.

	Seventy percent of Alaskans oppose the Pebble Mine. Photo courtesy of the Renewable Resources Coalition.

"This is the world's most productive salmon fishery and one of the greatest spots on earth," she started out, "and this mine is going right in the middle of it."

Elwell then went through mine's stats, which are staggering--a 120-mile haul road through pristine wilderness along Lake Iliamna, which is the size of Lake Erie, 2,000 temporary construction workers and residences and other ancillary development, 1,000 permanent workers to operate the mine and dig a hole you'll be able to see from the space shuttle, and the capper for me, a tailings "pond" created by the largest earthen dam on earth, four miles across and bigger than Fort Peck Dam on the Missouri in Montana and the current largest dam on earth, the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze in China. This dam does not create recreational reservoir. It's intended to hold back the toxic byproducts of the massive mine and keep them from poisoning even more water downstream. And we're talking real poison here because the mine plans to use the cyanide-leaching process that has sterilized many streams and that has been banned by the voters of Montana.

Then Elwell really made us choke on our French toast when she said, "This is only the beginning. There are lots of other mines coming, so this is just the tip of the iceberg and it sets the stage for more development."

About 1,000 square miles of federal and state land has been leased in the area around the proposed Pebble Mine site. The remoteness of the area has saved it from the draglines to date, but with the new major road built to the Pebble Mine, more mines would follow.

The Pebble Mine is not just a gold mine. The miner, a Canadian company called Northern Dynasty Mines, also dredge copper and molybdenum out of this fragile landscape. But it's the gold that gets to me. Roughly 85 percent of the gold mined in the world goes to make jewelry. If we were destroying the world's best salmon fishery for a needed commodity, it might be a little different, but for gold chains?

This fact has even brought Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) out in opposition to the mine. Stevens, commonly considered one of the most pro-development, anti-environment senators, joins 70 percent of Alaska residents opposing the mine.

Normally, such a line up would mean denial, but most conservationist still worry the mine will get the great light from the politicians. Right now, the fate of Bristol Bay rests in the Alaska legislature, which has to approve the mine, so let's hope they see the real gold on and under the surface of southwest Alaska--the salmon, the caribou, the bears, the scenic beauty, and don't vote for the fool's gold.

Footnote: If you'd like to get involved, which I hope you do, here are three websites where you can get more information and find out how to make a difference: The Sportsman Alliance for Alaska, Renewable Resources Coalition, and Trout Unlimited.

[End of article]

The enormity of the Bristol Bay fishery, as well managed as any fishery world wide, a sustaining huge sockeye, chinook, and chum salmon annual harvest, of all wild ocean reared fish, is the jewel of Alaskan natural resources. The proposed Pebble Mine is a flash in the pan of instant gratification of glitter for the glitterati, and then it is just a huge hole of putrid liability, for which the people seem to end up with the bill to mitigate.

The US population can buy gold, anytime, from anywhere in the world. There is lots for sale. But you can only get red salmon in numbers from Bristol Bay. Not from China, Australia, Africa, Russia, Canada, or Nevada.

Whatever you can do to stop this travesty, please do it. Drilling for oil on the North Slope is 1% of the danger that this mining and roading project will foster. Wells are capped. Open pit mining and the spoils areas, along with the exposed runoff and drainage, are too dangerous to be considered in this watershed. This is a bad, bad deal. Bristol Bay is a gem, a jewel, a goose laying annual golden eggs, and very, very important to a whole subsistence economy. The mine is someone else making a lot of money, with no guarentees for future environmental health. Stop the Pebble Mine!!!

Bearbait is absolutely dead on.

Do humans ever learn?

The Alaska Coalition is also actively fighting this fiasco.

http://www.alaskacoalition.org

Take a drive some time north from Lewistown, MT to Zortman and look at the catastrophe of that mining project. I remember when the mountain was still standing and the wildlife was rich.

Craig, ironically, I drove by that mine last week, so I totally agree with you. And the Pebble Mine would be about twenty times larger....Bill

Born and raised in Bristol Bay, raised a commercial fisherman and subsistence hunting and fishing, I have never been so afraid in my life. Not of this dreaded project, but of our elected legislators. There are some that have a good mind and a good heart, but overall I have no trust and no faith in our state government. Then Gov. Frank Murkowski during his time in office transferred the permitting process from the Alaska Dept. of Fish & Game to Dept. of Natural Resources, and lightened the law on mixing zones for clean water rivers and streams. Added to the bribery corruption scandals with a few of our legislators.
I just spent a week in my home village of Koliganek, just west of the Pebble project, and in the heart of BLM's proposed Bristol Bay mining district. The whole time I was there the river bank was lined with people splitting and hanging fish. Salmon, whether it is smoked, dried, salted, or filleted is the main source of food for the long winter months. If you go to any household in that area, I guarantee you will find a freezer full of salmon, moose, and caribou. These three staples provide for food during the winter where food prices sometimes quadruple the prices of urban areas.
I personally do not feel that this project is for the good, only to line the pockets of NDM and its shareholders, leaving us with a big hole in the ground, and a large toxic waste tailings dam that forever threatens our way of life that has been handed down from generation to generation for thousands of years.

I live in Dillingham. A Johnson is right. I just spent 4 days up the Nushagak R. around Ekwok and New Stuyahok with my 2 young boys. Quite a few folks lost some of their king and red salmon when the weather went bad eariler this summer. Right now they are catching up by taking silver salmon. I watched at least 4 families cutting fish and running smokers. Oh it smelled so good and was so wonderful. My oldest boy (9) wants to move to Ekwok so he can walk to the river and fish every day. Most Dillingham residents also depend on the fish and game the Nushagak provides. We can't risk mining the Pebble and other deposits. There is a lot of exploration in the Shotgun Hills north of Koliganek too.

Like many life time residents say, the fish have been coming for 1000's of years. A mine might only last 20 to 70 yrs. When the land gets ripped up an poisoned where will we turn when the mine plays out? Imagine a 4 mile wide, ??? mile long, and 700 foot high pile of powdered rock capable of producing sulfuric acid for centuries just waiting for an earthquake or major storm to spill down the Koktuli River - a key salmon spawning river - into the Mulchatna and on down the Nushagak. Imagine trucks hauling ore or sodium cyanide, explosive fertilizer and other chemicals breaking down and plunging into Lake Iliamna, Alaska's largest lake and spawning grounds for the world's largest Sockeye Salmon run. This lake where one can watch a small rock sink to the bottom in 30+ feet of water it is so clear - now. Where will this proposed mine put the millions of gallons of waste water that are likely to flow into the pit - especially in the fall when it can rain so hard boaters have to pull over as they can't see to drive. Where in 1992 or 93 I was told we had 83 days of rain in a 90 period starting in June. Where will the mining dust go? All over the lands that now support caribou, moose, and yes into the waters supporting salmon, trout, pike and other important food fish. Even tiny amounts of copper have been shown to be toxic to fish and aquatic life supporting fish.

Alaska needs to ban cyanide processing, strengthen water quality standards, enact mandatory full price reclamation BONDING - no "letters of credit", and create the Jay Hammond reserve in the headwaters of the Mulchatna and Kvichak watersheds. The state should NOT subsidise mine development in any way and mines should share profits with the state citizens on the same schedule as the oil companies do now.

I don't believe for one minute that miners have the technology or willingness to keep the environmental promises their promoters are making to us. A friend of mine who works in the British Columbia mine mitigation and reclamation industry says - there WILL be accidents and spills; most could be "mitigated" but there's always the potential for the catastrophic accident. He said he appreciates my fear of mine development.

Please support our efforts to halt mining in Bristol Bay Alaska.

My name is James I’m 18 and I commercial fish in Kodiak, but I can’t decide on this subject because I don’t know enough pros and cons to make a fair judgment on the mine. I’ve heard persuading lectures from both sides. They say it will employ many Alaskans also that they will pay taxes and revenue to the state just like oil. And they insure that their method for removing the minerals (Froth Floatation) is "relatively benign" and cyanide is only used for about 5% of the ore. But the fishing industry is fragile and if there is a small chance that a small amount of fish are affected it will be like Exxon all over again and nobody will want Alaska wild salmon even if they weren’t near the affected area. I don’t know if the risk is worth the money, but there are a lot of people who can’t make a living on fishing alone and need the jobs that Northern Dynasty offer. Maybe after I hear more on the subject ill take a side but till then its nice to know that there are people outside the state who care enough to voice their opinion about this subject. Thank you.

Monroe: they mine gold all over the world. The only place in the world with sustaining wild salmon runs is Alaska, and the Pebble Mine is in the Bristol Bay fishery drainages. They want to build huge dams to hold back their poisons. Dams do break. Ask anyone in eastern Idaho. You are right in that it could pose an Exxon Valdez like threat. And, by the way, has anyone gotten their due from Exxon yet? Nope. Money is talking, and the locals are walking. Same old deal. Just let the frigging lawyers diddle away long enough, and they all do well, and nobody is ever made whole. Exxon will skate. They will not pay their damages. Nor will the Pebble Mine investors if something went hen house on that deal. They run. Hit and run resource extraction. Boogie Nights under the Midnight Sun....

So the answer is simple: no mine. If you want gold, it is being mined in the Great Basin in Nevada by Canadian companies every day. The market for most minerals is now China. They are buying the worlds mineral supply, and to lose a sustainable fishery of the magnitude of Bristol Bay in exchange for some baubles to hang on some limp wrist in NYC, on some Arab oil sheik, some Chinese concubine's throat, is insane. No Pebble Mine, now or ever. Too much food, good food, produced by that drainage to lose it to some ill conceived mining proposal.