Pebble Mine permit delay welcome news to Salmon advocates as they continue to call on EPA for permanent protection for Bristol Bay
ANCHORAGE— Today, the Army Corps recognizes that the Pebble Mine project: a massive gold and copper mine and toxic waste dump proposed in Bristol Bay would compromise the integrity of the pristine headwaters of the largest sockeye salmon run in the world.
In a letter to the Pebble Mine’s vice president of permitting, The Army Corps admits, “factual determinations that discharges at the mine site would cause unavoidable adverse impacts to aquatic resources and, preliminarily, that those adverse impacts would result in significant degradation to those aquatic resources,” and directs the Canadian company to submit a mitigation plan that would offset these impacts by November 18, 2020.
“The agency charged with determining if this mine is too dangerous, the Army Corps, has correctly found that a colossal open pit mine at the headwaters of America’s greatest remaining wild salmon fishery and the source of 14,000 jobs is too toxic to build at this time,” said SalmonState Executive Director Tim Bristol. “We are grateful for our Congressional delegation’s call on the Army Corps to take the decision a step further for a denial of the permit, we will not rest easy until Bristol Bay is afforded permanent protection. The next logical step must be from the Environmental Protection Agency utilizing their authority under the Clean Water Act to veto the Pebble Mine.”
“Unproven technology, shoddy science and broad public opposition led to today’s decision and while Pebble is not dead, it’s safe to say the Pebble Limited Partnership is on life support,” said Bristol. “Clearly this is the wrong mine in the wrong place, and it’s now time to end this saga; we call on the Environmental Protection Agency to use its authority under the Clean Water Act to veto the Pebble Mine.”
SalmonState works to keep Alaska a place wild salmon and the people who depend on them thrive.
