Last summer, the excavation of some of the world’s richest mineral
deposits – and the degradation of some of the world's richest salmon
habitat – seemed well within the grasp of global mining interests. But
with the release of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's long-awaited environmental assessment
on Jan. 15, the development of Pebble Mine in southwest Alaska's
Bristol Bay slipped just a little bit further from reach – the latest
and perhaps most significant in a series of defeats for the embattled
project.
The EPA assessment confirms Pebble’s potential to severely damage
salmon runs, using stronger language than previous drafts (“could” has
turned to “would”) and describing in detail the acidic waste that could
leach into watersheds even under routine operation. The report is also
turning the tide of political opinion. "Wrong mine, wrong place, too
big," U.S. Sen. Mark Begich told the Anchorage Daily News
after reviewing it. Begich, a Democrat, is the first member of
Alaska's congressional delegation to publicly take a stand against
Pebble Mine, though previous politicians have also opposed it. Former
Gov. Tony Knowles called it “terrifying.”
Despite its gargantuan size – the mine itself would consume up to 94
miles of stream and 5,350 acres of wetlands, with an additional 64
streams affected by road building, the EPA found – Pebble has come to
represent more than just a fight for one place or one ecosystem. Even
people who have never stood on the banks of a river teeming with salmon
are deeply invested in this corner of Alaska as a symbol of wildness, a
vestige of the ecological and cultural riches that were once bountiful
across North America. As HCN senior editor Ray Ring wrote after visiting Bristol Bay last summer, "the
restoration efforts I'd reported on (in the American West) were kind of
desperate, almost pathetic" in comparison: "The Lower 48 will never
regain the kind of wildness that survives in Alaska."
Read the rest of my story by clicking here: http://www.hcn.org/blogs/goat/final-epa-report-the-latest-in-a-series-of-blows-to-alaskas-pebble-mine
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