While debating the importance of the Bristol Bay fishery it is critical to consider possible alternatives for salmon production in case something was to go wrong with this mining project and the Bristol Bay fishery is seriously affected. Currently, Bristol Bay supplies nearly half the world’s Sockeye Salmon. However, in the overall salmon market over […]
Several weeks ago, the EPA made the rare decision to use their authority and the Clean Water Act to pause permitting for the Pebble Mine and begin the process of permanently halting the construction of the mine. However, Alaskan senator Lisa Murkowski recently cosponsored a senate bill called the “Regulatory Fairness Act”, which would prohibit […]
It was recently announced that a mining company, Rio Tinto, plans to pull out of the Pebble Mine project. Rio Tinto was one of the last large mining companies with remaining investment in the mine, owning a 19% share. Rio Tinto is not the first major company to retract support- last September the Anglo-American Corporation, […]
The estimated value of the Pebble Mine’s mineral resources are definitely astounding. However, I thought it would also be interesting to see how profitable the salmon fishing industry has been in the Bristol Bay Area. According to a 2010 study by the Institute of Social and Economic Research at the University of Alaska Anchorage, the […]
On March 5, 2014, the EPA used its “veto authority” from Section 404 (c) of the Clean Water Act to temporarily block mining permits. For the past three years, the EPA has been studying the potential impacts of the proposed Pebble Mine on the Bristol Bay ecology, especially the salmon. The EPA released the final […]
Recently a group of 360 scientists endorsed a letter asking the United States Environmental Protective Agency’s Administrator Gina McCarthy to shut down plans for the creation of the Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay Alaska. This letter is one of many collaborated efforts to stop the possibility of placing a large scale open-pit mine in […]
Yesterday, a group of stakeholders met in D.C. to oppose to the development of the Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay, Alaska, calling on the recently released EPA assessment. This group consisted of members of the Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC), commercial fishermen, business owners, and concerned citizens. They drew upon scientific and legal data in […]