Richard Arlin Walker
Special to ICT
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency refused to grant permits for the proposed Pebble Mine project, a ruling heralded by opponents as a death knell for the proposed gold, silver and copper mine near Alaska’s salmon-rich Bristol Bay.
“After extensive review of scientific and technical research spanning two decades, and robust stakeholder engagement, EPA has determined that certain discharges [of dredged or fill material] associated with developing the Pebble deposit will have unacceptable adverse effects on certain salmon fishery areas in the Bristol Bay watershed,” the EPA concluded in its final decision on the project released Jan. 30.
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—Pebble Mine takes ‘one-two punch’ as EPA weighs permit
John Shively, chief executive of The Pebble Partnership, a subsidiary of Northern Dynasty Minerals, said his company will challenge the decision in court.
“The Pebble Deposit is an asset belonging to the people of Alaska,” he said in a statement emailed to ICT. “The land around Pebble was selected by the state for its mineral potential as part of the process in which Alaskans were granted statehood. EPA continues to blatantly ignore the state’s interest in this case.
“The EPA is violating the U.S. Constitution by taking away the State and the project’s legally protected property interests in the mineral rights underlying the land, without any just compensation,” he said.
Alaska Native governments and organizations celebrated the EPA’s decision as being the end of a proposed project they say would have harmed habitat, from headwaters to ocean, that support abundant, genetically diverse wild Pacific salmon populations.
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They issued a joint statement Tuesday, Jan. 31, after the EPA issued its ruling.
“Today we celebrate that the EPA listened and took action to protect our home,” Robin Samuelsen, board chair of the Bristol Bay Development Corporation, said in the statement. “Our fishery is critical to our region’s survival both economically and culturally, and this decision will enable us to continue feeding our families and the world.”
Bristol Bay Native Corporation chief executive Jason Metrokin said the ruling marked “a great day for Bristol Bay” and one that many thought would never come.
“EPA, and in particular Administrator Michael Regan, Assistant Administrator Radhika Fox, and Region 10 Administrator Casey Sixkiller, deserve credit for their thorough work and for listening to the voices of Bristol Bay throughout the process,” he said. “While the immediate threat of Pebble is behind us, BBNC will continue working to protect Bristol Bay’s salmon-based culture and economy and to create new economic opportunities across the region.”
Alannah Hurley, executive director of the United Tribes of Bristol Bay, said the EPA’s decision showed a commitment to science and law and “to the original stewards and First Peoples of this land.” She said the United Tribes petitioned EPA 13 years ago after being ignored by the Alaska state government.
“Today, these Clean Water Act protections provide certainty that Pebble cannot be built in Bristol Bay,” Hurley said. “On behalf of UTBB, I’d like to say quyana, chin’an — thank you to the EPA and the Biden Administration not just for this decision, but for working throughout this 404(c) process to consult with our tribes. EPA’s action today helps us build the future where our people can remain Yup’ik, Dena’ina, and Alutiiq for generations to come.”
Bristol Bay Native Association President and CEO Garvin Federenko said the ruling is cause for celebration.
“Today is a historical moment in time … that will safeguard our lands, water and culture,” Federenko said. ”The people of Bristol Bay have always been stewards of our lands and natural resources with traditional ecological knowledge passed on from generation to generation since time immemorial.”
The EPA’s decision comes one month after The Conservation Fund and Bristol Bay Heritage Land Trust purchased a 44,000-acre conservation easement on lands eyed by Northern Dynasty Minerals for an industrial road over which it would transport ore from the mine to Cook Inlet. The lands are owned by Pedro Bay Corporation, an Alaska Native Village Corporation whose shareholders are Aleuts, Yup’iks and Athabascans from the region.
The easement was purchased for $20 million that the organizations raised from numerous sources. Among the donors: The Wyss Foundation, Patagonia’s Holdfast Collective, Alaska Venture Fund, and the fishing industry.
Environmental costs
The Pebble site is owned by the State of Alaska, which acquired it in 1974 via a land swap with the federal government and Cook Inlet Region Inc. The site is located 17 miles from the villages of Iliamna and Newhalen, and approximately 200 miles southwest of Anchorage.
Cominco Alaska discovered deposits of precious metals there in 1988 and explored mining potential until 1997. Northern Dynasty Minerals acquired Cominco Alaska’s claims in 2001 and over several years of exploratory drilling found expansive deposits of copper, gold, molybdenum, silver and rhenium.
The Pebble Mine project attracted millions of dollars from investors and corporate partners such as Anglo American, Mitsubishi and Rio Tinto Group. But by 2014, as political and public opposition to the mine grew, all three corporate partners had backed out. Northern Dynasty Minerals reported that, as of the third quarter of 2022, it had $151 million in assets — $24.5 million of it in cash – with $151 million in equity and $7.6 million in liabilities.
Northern Dynasty Minerals touted the economic benefits that would result from the Pebble Mine: creation of 2,000 jobs for construction of mine-related structures, installation of utilities and infrastructure; and 850 more for operation of the mine.
Currently, most jobs in the region are in health care and social services, local government, retail trade, accommodations and food services, and commercial fishing. Household income varies widely, from about $51,519 in the village of Iliamna, where visitors fly in to stay at fishing and hunting lodges and enjoy outdoor activities, to $22,917 in Levelock, a village on the west bank of the Kvichak River 47 miles downstream from Iliamna Lake, according to an environmental impact statement produced by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
But opponents, and ultimately the EPA, decided that the cultural and environmental costs from the open pit mine far outweighed the economic benefits.
“The Bristol Bay watershed produces approximately half of the world’s sockeye salmon, and salmon fisheries are a huge economic driver in the region, supporting approximately 15,000 jobs annually and generating an estimated $2.2 billion in 2019 alone,” EPA reported. “These salmon populations also help to maintain the productivity of the entire ecosystem, including numerous other fish and wildlife species.”
In its 2020 environmental impact statement, the Army Corps determined that more than 2,200 acres of wetlands, including 105 miles of streams, would be permanently impacted by the discharge of dredged or fill materials, and another 858 acres of wetlands and other waters, including 4.6 miles of streams, would be temporarily impacted. Dust and dewatering would have “indirect impacts” on 1,662 acres of wetlands, including 75.3 miles of streams.
The Army Corps predicted changes in surface water and groundwater flows “that could impact fish spawning, rearing, and off-channel habitat; increased sedimentation and turbidity in streams; impacts to fish migration; changes in surface water temperatures; and changes to surface water chemistry.” Development of the mine would permanently remove approximately 99 miles of stream bed habitat.
The Army Corps also determined that the tradition of subsistence hunting and fishing, which often involves sharing to ensure the needs of the community as a whole are met, would take a hit from the Pebble Mine.
“If high-harvesting members of [the community] find project-related employment and have less time for subsistence activities, the rest of the community and households in other communities could end up receiving less wild food through sharing and trading relationships,” the Army Corps determined.
“Therefore, the impacts would be long-term, lasting through mine closure. … Potential negative impacts could be from actual or perceived decreases in access to, availability, and/or quality of subsistence resources, which could also adversely impact community health, well-being and cultural identity.”
Looking ahead
Shively said EPA’s decision keeps Pebble Mine from proceeding through a federal permitting process that would ensure the project would cause no environmental harm.
The proposed Pebble Mine received negative reviews from various relevant agencies within the Biden, Trump and Obama administrations. But Biden’s administration took the hit from Shively, who said the EPA’s decision will help keep the U.S. dependent on other nations for the minerals it needs to further the current administration’s energy policies.
The administration’s strategy “when it comes to securing the minerals required for its green energy goals seems to be to give some passing support for the development of boutique minerals such as lithium and rare earths in the U.S., but to seek the enormous supply of base metals – such as copper needed for EV’s, solar panels, wind turbines, hydroelectric plants, and the associated infrastructure – from other nations,” Shively said.
“We have seen what happens when our nation is dependent on others for our resources – for instance, the Saudis for more oil production,” he said. “When we go to China seeking the copper and other minerals we need for our green energy transition, the reaction will likely be more problematic and the cost more expensive.”
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