I am a high school student from rural New England who is concerned with the Pebble Mine in the Bristol Bay region. The Pebble Partnership’s vague proposal is alarming because its location threatens an ancient way of life. Salmon fishing is vital to not only the identity of the people of Alaska, but to the economic welfare of the region. Sadly, the Pebble Mine is yet another iteration of a story of social injustice that we have heard too many times across rural America. Alaskans must speak out to prevent the Pebble Partnership from destroying the livelihoods sustained by the fisheries in exchange for massive profit.
The Pebble Mine would be situated in the middle of a stream system that is a crucial spawning ground for salmon. The mine would be among the largest on earth by any measure. It would cover 28 square miles and be 3.2 miles deep. Mining experts say that the particular type of ore that would be extracted is likely to produce acid mine drainage, which negatively impacts nearby aquatic ecosystems (i.e. the salmon population). In addition to this, the mine would produce as much as 10.8 billion tons of waste rock, in addition to 2.5 billion tons of toxic waste called tailings. The tailing storage facilities would be extremely vulnerable to accidents due to the region’s seismic activity. Such an accident could permanently cripple salmon life in two of the most important rivers in the salmon’s spawning cycle, the Nushagak and the Kvichak and have catastrophic ramifications for the local fisheries.
These fisheries are absolutely critical to the region’s economy. 14,000 people are employed in the fishing industry in the Bristol Bay area. This accounts for close to 75% of local employment. The Pebble Partnership has stated that only 2,000 jobs will be created with the implementation of the mine, and that their hiring focus will be “regional and Alaskan-driven.” This ambiguity continues upon a trend. The Pebble Partnership will not disclose specifics about its hiring focus because it is afraid that the local reaction will stall the project.
The Pebble Mine will kill the fishing industry and an ancient livelihood, leaving Alaskan Natives to suffer as the Pebble Partnership’s CEOs stuff their pockets. Take action, Alaska, before it is too late. You have an opportunity to set the precedent that rural economies are not a mere afterthought in corporate development.
Sam Coffin
Hinesburg, Vt.
Comments (7)
Add commentForiegn owned
The mine is owned by foriegn companies. So they should just stay in Canada and England to do their mining.
Pro- Mining Senator Stevens Opposed Pebble
Then there are the admonitions of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), one of the angriest and shrillest anti-environmentalists in Congress whose typical response to people questioning slap-dash development is to scream "Liar," and who, until now, never saw a mine he didn't like.
Stevens, as quoted by Alaskan media: "If this was some essential commodity that we absolutely had to have to run our economy, it would be a different matter; and even then I would want to have a lot better attention being paid to the environmental process.
But this one, I just don't like it. . . . We really don't know what's happening with the reproductive capability of those streams out there. . .
"I'm not going to change, and I hope people will listen to us. That resource is an enormous resource not just for the Native people but for the Bristol Bay run, and it ought not be tampered with by a gold mine. . . . If that makes me a turncoat from being an extreme developer, so be it. . . .
They [Northern Dynasty] are hiring people from all over the place to criticize me, to fly back to Washington to talk to everybody about my opposition to this mine. . . . My old friends in the mining industry. . . are ready to put a red-hot poker to my throat."
Pro- Mining Senator Stevens Opposed Pebble
Then there are the admonitions of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), one of the angriest and shrillest anti-environmentalists in Congress whose typical response to people questioning slap-dash development is to scream "Liar," and who, until now, never saw a mine he didn't like.
Stevens, as quoted by Alaskan media: "If this was some essential commodity that we absolutely had to have to run our economy, it would be a different matter; and even then I would want to have a lot better attention being paid to the environmental process.
But this one, I just don't like it. . . . We really don't know what's happening with the reproductive capability of those streams out there. . .
"I'm not going to change, and I hope people will listen to us. That resource is an enormous resource not just for the Native people but for the Bristol Bay run, and it ought not be tampered with by a gold mine. . . . If that makes me a turncoat from being an extreme developer, so be it. . . .
They [Northern Dynasty] are hiring people from all over the place to criticize me, to fly back to Washington to talk to everybody about my opposition to this mine. . . . My old friends in the mining industry. . . are ready to put a red-hot poker to my throat."
Conservative Republican Gov Hammond Opposed Pebble
Shortly before he died in 2005 Jay Hammond--former Alaska governor and scarcely a better friend to the environment than the current one--published this "clarification" in the Kodiak Daily Mirror:
"I had said I could think of no place in Alaska where I'd less rather see the largest open pit mine in the world than at the headwaters of the Koktuli and Talarik Creek, two world-class fishing streams and wild salmon spawning areas. . . .
There is a location where I'd even less wish to see such a mine: right in the middle of our living room floor at Lake Clark."
Sam,
Sorry to say, but just like voting down our Coastal Management program, many Alaskans don't identify themselves with the vast resources around them as much as they like the idea of "free money". Many who followed the gold/oil trail North have yet to find Alaska, just a perceived opportunity. Pebble represents just another opportunity for these people. Not an end to a way of life for some. It's simple selfishness and a lack of concern that some of us Alaskans don't share. Thanks for your concern, Sam.
Amazing...
Sam, you have an amazing sensitivity for the complex culture of rural Alaska...especially given that you've grown up in a well-to-do Vermont town that is 98% white and whose historical stand against social injustice is primarily marked by abolitionist farmers that encouraged the emancipation of slaves not to join their community, but to emmigrate to Africa.
Your scientific concerns with Pebble may indeed be valid -- science and local Native knowledge will combine to make that call. But spare us the "social injustice" rant -- Alaskan Natives are intelligent and politically involved citizens of the region, endowed with the municipal, tribal and corporate structures that make them fully capable of self expression.
A Response to Flynx
It would seem that the writer of this letter is arguing for the solution that you propose: that the decision should be made by the local people with the concerns of the Alaskan Natives in mind. You seem to be misreading his thoughts, as his concerns and your concerns seem to be the same, and that he fears that the interest of the local people will not be met with the implementation of the mine.
Vermont, I may add, has seen changes due to the corporatization of agriculture, particularly in the dairy industry, that may have some influence on this kid's thoughts. It is true that corporatization has clearly had at least some negative effect on rural America, and much of it has been "unjust", as the writer puts it.