Undoubtedly we at Deneki Outdoors are very sensitive to the impact of Pebble Mine and what it means to Alaska, the fishing industry as a whole, and the world. The way we see it is, the impact of Pebble Mine will set a precedent that allows the extraction of finite resources and will have no resolve in the future for generations to come. Simply put, our naturally reoccurring, self-sustaining resources continue to provide a steady stream of benefit to the world in a myriad of ways. Whether, economics, sustainability, or subsistence, Pebble Mine is a bad idea. The wrong place, wrong mine. Why do you want to replace a self-generating, self-reproducing resource that will last for generations, for one that will only sustain for 20 years?
The fight against the proposed Pebble mine has reached another critical milestone with the release of the Final Environmental Impact Statement (Final EIS) on Thursday, July 23, 2020.
Produced by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Final EIS is the risk analysis document that should review all the potential impacts the project could bring to the people, fish, and fish-based economies in southwest Alaska. More importantly, the Final EIS serves as the basis for the record of decision, which will grant or deny Pebble its most important federal permit. This decision could come as soon as August 19, 2020.
In 2019, Trout Unlimited, multiple federal and state agencies, and 685,000 individuals submitted comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, all noting the inadequacies in the Corps’ initial document. Alaska Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan even weighed in, saying that if the Corps doesn’t address all the issues raised in agency comments in the Final EIS, they should not issue the permit.
Even from reading the executive summary, it is clear that the Corps has not evaluated Pebble beyond a conceptual level plan, and hasn’t fully accounted for
every way Pebble would impact Bristol Bay, which is a failure of their duties under the Clean Water Act.
See the FEIS here and TU’s analysis here.
With a record of decision issued as early as next month, we are nearly at the end of the permitting process. We’ve called on the Army Corps, our Senators, and even the President to stop Pebble, and now they need to hear from people from across the country again. Head over to www.savebristolbay.org/tellpresidenttrump to send a note to the White House -yes, again- asking them to do all they can to stop Pebble in the permitting process.
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